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Access Fund

Outdoor Adventures' Access Fund

Outdoor Adventures at UC Davis began in the early 1970s as a student cooperative with a simple but powerful mission: to get students outside and into nature, regardless of their background or experience level. Over the past 40+ years, Outdoor Adventures has grown into a highly successful program and was once known as the largest outdoor adventure program in the country.

As the program evolved, we recognized that access to our trips, jobs, and leadership opportunities was not as broad as our mission intended. In 2020, we began taking a thoughtful look at our operations and programming to identify where barriers existed and how we could better expand access across our community. These changes are ongoing, and while meaningful progress takes time, we are committed to moving forward with intention and care.

Below are some of the steps we are currently working on to improve access within Outdoor Adventures. This is just the beginning—additional initiatives and projects will continue to be added in the months and years ahead.

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STEP 1: Look Within

Thao NguyenThao Nguyen graduated from UC Davis in the Spring of 2020. During her time at UC Davis, she worked for Outdoor Adventures in many positions and was always slightly uncomfortable with the fact that she was the only Vietnamese face that she saw when she came to work everyday. During the summer of 2020, after the killing of George Floyd and the resulting protests, Thao decided that she wanted to better understand why there were so few people of color in outdoor recreation and what could be done to drive change. She reached out to Outdoor Adventures' alumni, friends, and other adventure professionals to try to get answers. In total, she interviewed 11 people from all ages, races, and backgrounds. The result of these conversations is a four part series of articles written by Thao and Outdoor Adventures guide, Lindsay Maurer. Each article discusses different barriers limiting access to outdoor recreation and the thoughts of our community on how to create positive change. Outdoor Adventures' leadership will use these articles as a guide as we move forward towards our goal of being a completely inclusive space. The articles will be posted on our website and social media feeds throughout Fall quarter. 

Article One: "Outdoor Diversity; Conversations for a Revolution."

Article Two: "Outdoor Diversity: Dollars for Stars"

Article Three: "Look Within: Recognize and Utilize YOUR Privilege"

STEP 2: Get Organized

Outdoor Adventures recognizes that the change that we want to see won't happen overnight and that our focus needs to stay on diversity, equity and inclusion well into the future. To ensure that this happens, we have created a Outdoor Access Task Force. Outdoor Adventures' DEI Task Force is a small group of students and alumni volunteers who are committed to effecting change in the outdoor community at UC Davis by engaging under-represented student groups, creating innovative outreach strategies, offering educational opportunities and initiating fundraising campaigns in an effort to have the "face" of the outdoor adventure community on campus be more representative of the student body as a whole. 

At this time we are not currently recruiting new members to our Task Force, however, make sure to follow us on Instagram @ucdavisoa to be alerted of the next time volunteer positions become available. 

STEP 3: Increase Access

We know that cost is a large barrier for students who are interested in trying a new activity. We do our best to keep our program costs as low as possible, but the price tag for a rock climbing trip, or camping in Yosemite can still be a little steep. Lowering the cost for trips and classes is a major step to creating a more inclusive and diverse program, however, this is more easily said than done and we will need help. We are currently working on our first fundraising campaign focused on raising funds to reduce the cost of our annual guide trainings. Why guide trainings? We want future participants to see themselves in our guide staff, and know that everyone is welcome here. We know that change starts with leadership so that is where we will start. 

If you are interested in donating to help increase access to our programs you can click on the button below to be directed to our Access Fund fundraising page.

DONATE HERE

To improve diversity and access, OA is creating an endowment that will provide funding in perpetuity to offer students from underrepresented communities scholarships and fee waivers for our programs.

To launch the endowment and ensure Outdoor Adventures can continue providing equitable access to our programs, we must raise a minimum of $50,000. Thanks to the generosity of our community, we have already raised more than $45,000. With just a bit more support, we can reach our goal by June 2026. Once established, this endowment will generate annual funding for Outdoor Adventures, providing a sustainable source of support that helps reduce financial barriers and expand access to meaningful outdoor experiences for our students and community.

Please help us reach our goal by making a gift today to Outdoor Adventures Outdoor Access Fund.