Cecilia Nguyen and her three housemates were stranded in Death Valley, Calif., earlier this year. They had decided it would be an ideal camping location for the winter storm passing through the southern part of the state. Despite this, their lighter fell ill to 20 mile per hour winds, leaving them unable to start a fire for warmth. Luckily, they had camping kits that contained a small stove that they used to light a fire.
Nguyen, a senior majoring in psychology, received the kits through Peaks and Professors, a student organization founded in 2013 with the goal of making the outdoors more accessible. The organization’s president, Colleen Corrigan, created the kits earlier this year to make camping and other outdoor activities more available to first generation and underrepresented students at USC.
“Transportation and access to gear is a huge issue,” said Corrigan, a senior majoring in human biology and non-governmental organizations and social change and a graduate studying public health. “There’s sort of an elite attitude about the outdoors sometimes, and that just doesn’t bode well with our mission and how we feel about trying to get students outside. We’re really excited to hopefully help break down that barrier.”