This academic school year, Syracuse students have the chance to cash in on everyday situations. Like winning a backpack for walking to class. Or receiving a yoga mat for stargazing on a clear night. Or picking up some mountaineering gear for each run.

Students can score all these prizes and more just by enjoying the thus far exquisite weather in Syracuse this year through the Outdoor Nation Challenge.

Gearing up for its second year, the Challenge, which lasts from Sept. 4 to Oct. 15, has one simple aim: to get people outside and moving. With its great lineup of prizes, the challenge not only provides incentives to get students across the country to be active, but also acts as a way for students to ease into the semester.

Paving the way for students to participate in a wide variety of outdoor activities, the Outdoor Nation Challenge has put a price tag on just being outdoorsy. No fee is required to join: the price tag is being outdoorsy.

Lauren Stover, who oversees the Outdoor Nation Challenge in Syracuse and is a member of the Department of Recreation Services, said the goal is not only to get as many people involved as possible, but also to engage them for a prolonged period of time.

First, take a picture of any outdoor activity, whether it’s a walk to class or a certain number of hours biking around campus. You then log your pictures on the Challenge’s app. The more pictures you log, the more points you rack up. Points eventually lead to outdoor-themed prizes.

This year, Syracuse is seeing more participation, and Tover said she is excited about the large presence of students already biking and running.

One student participant said she is already experiencing the positive effects of the Outdoor National Challenge.

Anika Szuzman a sophomore architecture major, began her freshman year with the Leadership Outdoor Orientation Program. That was her best experience at SU so far, Szuzman said. She’s been actively involved with Recreation Services since then, and is now an RA for the Outdoor Pursuits Learning Community in Haven Hall.

Szuzman said she was looking for something to keep herself active during freshman year and finally discovered the outdoors was the best connection she had to home.

Now, Szuzman is throwing herself into a whole slew of activities this year: hammocking, slacklining, biking and whitewater rafting — the last one she’s planning as a floor activity for the learning community.

Szuzman hopes to take these passions and apply them to the Outdoor Nation Challenge.

A movie screening on Sept. 28, coordinated by one of the company sponsors, Keen, will inform students about a group traveling across the country to preserve national landmarks that host outdoor activities, according to Stover. She said she hopes the film will in turn attract students to the Outdoor Nation Challenge.

More than 87 schools across the U.S. have implemented the Challenge so far and students are revving up to get some points on the scoreboard, Stover said.

Erinrose Carr, a junior marketing management and entrepreneurship major, has also started the Outdoor National Challenge. She also works for the Outdoor Education program as a student program coordinator for their trips and acts as a supervisor for the Challenge.

While the aim is to see which school can get the most students outside, Carr said, there is another important goal: beating rival school Colgate, which has its own program.

Published on August 31, 2016 at 10:57 pm

Contact: dmurthy@syr.edu