If you have a love of the outdoors or rockclimbing, you have to give Maine Bound Adventure Center a try.
Maine Bound Adventure Center is the University of Maine’s comprehensive outdoor program. They provide rental equipment for camping, whitewater rafting and other outdoor activities. Their program also offers trips where they take students to activities outdoors. Inside their facility, they provide a rock climbing wall with the option of lessons and instruct team bonding courses for students and faculty.
UMaine is known for its beautiful campus and surrounding woodland areas. Maine Bound’s mission is to promote and provide opportunities to exercise and explore the outdoors.
Kaisie Malcom, a third-year chemical engineering student, was forced to attend one of their team bonding challenge courses as a freshman. He quickly fell in love with the program and wanted to try more. “I showed up to Maine Bound to rock climb, and I sucked at it, but the staff helped me out all day… later in the year it was at a point where I was going six days a week,” said Malcom.
The love of rock climbing wasn’t the only thing that kept him going so frequently — Malcom was also developing meaningful relationships with other climbers. “I made a lot of friends through rock climbing and Maine Bound, that I otherwise wouldn’t have met. I would get to know people by being stuck on the same bouldering problem and asking for tips, and then the conversation would go from there,” said Malcom.
Midway through his second-year, Maine Bound was hiring and Malcom was not going to let this opportunity go to waste. He prepared a presentation for fishing, demonstrating how to prepare and use lures. Shortly after the interview process, Malcom was notified that he got the job.
He now works as a climbing wall instructor and at the front desk. At the beginning of this academic year, Malcom got the chance to have a full circle moment. “So, this year I got the chance to be an instructor for the freshman engineering team bonding challenge. It was really cool getting to be on the other side of that,” said Malcom.
The first Maine Bound new student orientation trip was in 1984. They have been providing these amazing services for over 40 years and are a staple of UMaine.
Maine Bound Adventure Center is located on campus by the union and is open everyday of the week. Make sure to check out their hours and give it a shot. Your first time renting rock climbing shoes is free, so you have nothing to lose.
