Submit our interest form: 
WIOI Interest Form
Follow us on  Instagram: 
worcester_outdoors
Contact us:
Greg Doerschler - WIOI Coordinator
[email protected] 
​508-795-3838

Help college students in Worcester connect with nature and discover its restorative impact on mind, body, and well-being.

The Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoors Initiative (WIOI) seeks a diverse team of service-minded students for 2024-2025 to build a program of small group hikes and related activities geared toward the college crowd, creating opportunities year-round for students from all colleges to explore and enjoy the great outdoors of our city and beyond.

Drawing upon the region's wealth of conservation lands, public parks and forests, and other green spaces, we aspire to make the outdoors a welcoming "third place" where students come together and hit the trails; disconnecting from the stress of academics and daily life, meeting new friends, developing new skills, and getting to know our environment and community.

WIOI's student team members can help chart our course in a variety of ways, including the following:

• Take part in WIOI hikes and events and engage with other participants, giving these events the critical mass and inclusive climate needed for success.
• Promote and publicize WIOI events on campus, recruit new participants.
• Collaborate with campus-based organizations whose missions align with ours, creating pathways for our efforts to support one another.
• Consider establishing an on-campus WIOI chapter.
• Gain the skills and proficiency needed to organize and facilitate WIOI hikes and events.
  
• Help train new WIOI event leaders; organize outdoor-, nature-, or wellness-themed skill shares, workshops, etc., based on student demand.
• Collaborate with local nonprofit partners on outdoor or environmental-focused student service projects, service learning initiatives, and volunteer opportunities.
• Participate in WIOI planning meetings and help craft operational practices and policies as WIOI continues to evolve.
• Develop branding, marketing, social media presence, and messaging strategies which resonate with WIOI's intended student audience(s).
• Explore funding opportunities to sustain and expand WIOI's capacity.
• Other interest or talent-based opportunities to help WIOI succeed!
  ​

Qualifications include a sincere desire to help WIOI advance and further refine its mission. There is no minimum level of commitment. Some involvement may qualify for college community service work-study programs, academic project credit, or community-based learning programs.​

---

About our origin:

Initially launched in early 2019, Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoors Initiative activities were suspended a year later at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. A fall 2022 WPI Interactive Qualifying Project student report guided our revival, which continues to evolve.

WIOI is hosted by the Greater Worcester Land Trust (GWLT), one of the many land trusts in Massachusetts dedicated to keeping valued pieces of our state green. Their missions involve not only protecting and conserving such prized places, but providing public access through construction of trail networks and other infrastructure, and hosting initiatives to engage the people with the land. The Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoors Initiative is one such program.

Greg Doerschler, Worcester Intercollegiate Outdoors Initiative coordinator, has been volunteering with GWLT and introducing Worcester college students to the amazing natural spaces of our city and region in various capacities for more than two decades. Through hundreds of small group hikes, he's experienced the positive impact of nature on student physical, mental, and social emotional well-being, and knows great spots to explore!

GWLT and WIOI collaborate on volunteer and community engagement opportunities as well, hosting a range of outdoor service projects tailored to students and student groups, GWLT depends on projects like these to maintain its properties and trails, and students gain a new perspective on land stewardship while enhancing Worcester's green spaces.​