Ep.03: Briggs Shealy - Faith Based Outdoor Experiences

Dr. Joy James is joined by Recreation Management major, Briggs Shealy who shares how his participation in faith-based organizations opened the door to a variety of program opportunities, from day and week camps to extended outdoor expeditions. 

 

Melissa Weddell:

Welcome to the Outdoorosity Podcast. Get outside. Keep going outside. Where we share Appalachian State stories that entertain, inspire, and inform listeners about living an active outdoor lifestyle. Each episode features a story, with the goal to get you outside and keep you going outside, to improve your overall wellness. This podcast is presented by the Hope Lab, where our purpose is to investigate the role of outdoor physical activity, exercise and play on health, environment, and human development. The vision of the Hope Lab is to continue developing the perfect foundation for promoting and supporting outdoor physical activity, exercise and play, through interdisciplinary research. Feel free to check us out at hopelab.appstate.edu.

Hi, my name is Melissa Weddell, I'm a professor in recreation management at Appalachian State University, and a self-proclaimed outdoor addict. I'll be your host for the Outdoorosity Podcast. On today's episode team member, Dr. Joy James, also a professor in recreation management, interviews student Briggs Shealy. We will be discussing the title of the episode, Faith-Based Outdoor Experiences, where Briggs tells us his story of being introduced to the outdoors through faith-based organizations, and how that shaped his college journey.

Dr. Joy James:

We have Briggs Sheely here to share his story about getting into the outdoors. And Briggs, just want to say thank you for willing to take some time out to share your experiences with us.

Briggs Shealy:

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Dr. Joy James:

The first thing we'd like you to do is kind of introduce yourself, where you're from, why you came to App State, and tell us your favorite outdoor activity.

Briggs Shealy:

Okay. So my name is Briggs Shealy, I'm from Hickory, North Carolina, I lived there nine or 10 years, and I moved there from Greenville, South Carolina, where I spent the beginning half of my life. Right out of high school I went to a one year gap year program called One Life. That was a really, really awesome experience. I was able to earn college credit while traveling, and having these different experiences both outdoor interculturally. And those were all focused on just serving, and like really hands-on learning.

And then through that experience was really how impactful different experiences can be, and how they can be used for personal growth, and in other ways as well. Really just through that was where I started looking for different opportunities to pursue that as a career, and I'd already kind of looked at App before I went to that gap year program. And looking at App with that new perspective, just kind of what I wanted to do, I found the Outdoor Experiential Education major program, and I looked at that, I referred it to a couple of people that I had met through One Life, who were in that type of career. And they all said, "Briggs, this is a phenomenal program. You're going to end up exactly where you want to be, you should absolutely do that if this is what you want to go into." So that's really what attracted me to App at first.

Dr. Joy James:

All right, and what is your favorite outdoor activity right now?

Briggs Shealy:

Right now, I would say backpacking and camping. And then over the summer I worked at a ropes course, so I've also been getting into a little bit of that.

Dr. Joy James:

Cool. I'm going to have you tell us a little bit more about yourself, in terms maybe how you got into some of these activities. And so the first question I have, is how did you first get interested in the outdoors?

Briggs Shealy:

I remember my first backpacking trip was back in maybe my freshman year of high school, and I kind of did it through an extracurricular class that my friend's dad, my roommate now actually, his dad led this extracurricular backpacking trip, and I absolutely loved it. I loved getting outside, just living with the things just on my back, and just using my hands to forge this type of adventure. And that's really what I loved about it, it was just the adventure, and hiking, and sleeping in different spots.

Dr. Joy James:

Where did you guys go?

Briggs Shealy:

We went to Shining Rock.

Dr. Joy James:

Oh, nice.

Briggs Shealy:

Yeah, so it was a good spot, super pretty. I don't remember a lot of that trip, besides when I was in my tent. We spent one or two nights out there, and one of the nights I remember distinctly in my tent I heard some rustling around outside. And since this is my first backpacking trip of course I overreacted, and in