My first core memory of student leadership came in the summer of 1987, when I accompanied several hundred Boston University resident assistants to Hancock, New Hampshire, to a place called Sargent Camp for the obligatory team-bonding exercises that precede many student leader experiences. As an RA in the 1980s, a time of big hair and shoulder pads, the woods were a bit foreign to my psyche and my wardrobe. Packing requirements aside, I was concerned that, unlike the other RA staffs, Sleeper Hall at Boston University had no titular leader, no Resident Director.
The team at Sargent Camp knew the Sleeper Staff had no leader, and they leaned into a seemingly more intensive set of experiences, culminating in a three-hour adventure trek ending at a zip line that required each individual to free-fall off a bridge, blast into the river, and land on a shoreline. The experience has burned itself into my memory banks for several reasons: I found a spot on a team, everyone on the team took the zip line, and I got to see what freedom felt like in the eyes of someone else, a team member named Omar.
