When academics get stressful, fourth-year environmental science student Madeline Bond knows there’s somewhere she can go to find peace of mind.
“It's good for your stress, it's good for your sleep and it's good for your relationships,” Bond said. “I find that the place where that happens for me the most, where my brain is a little bit more peaceful and not going crazy is when I'm doing things outside.”
Many clubs and organizations use the outdoors to foster connection to nature. Bond gets her weekly dosage through the Carolina Mountaineering and White Water Club, where students organize weekly day trips and overnights, which often include backpacking.
Other students may look for something different in their time outside. South Carolina Gamecocks Clay Target Team and the Carolina Eventing Club seek out the outdoors for sport, Carolina Girls Who Walk encourages connection and the Sustainable Carolina Garden focuses on environmental activism.
However, all agree the outdoors are essential for bettering mental health. According to the American Psychology Association, connection to nature has a positive correlation to cognitive benefits and emotional well-being.
"You don't need to go far away, three hours into the mountains, to get that kind of release," she said. "You can just walk outside."
Into the mountains
Disappearing into the mountains can be a great way to find peace. For Bond, being in the mountaineering club helped her find other people who want to feel that connection to nature. Carolina Mountaineering and White Water Club members are a lively group of students who enjoy being outside, Bond said.
Thirteen officers lead the club, which meets weekly to plan trips throughout the semester. Bond is the club’s branding and fundraising officer, and she sets up events to raise money for the club. Joining the club changed Bond's university trajectory after struggling to find her place freshman year, she said.
“Since my sophomore year, many weekends out of the semester, I get to go to the mountains and go hiking and backpacking and be around people that are lusting for life," Bond said. "And that's what I needed to find in college.”
When Bond leads a trip, she knows that she may be leading students in an experience they’ve never had before. Bond said, to her, that is valuable. Her favorite trip is one she took to her summer place of work, Wildwater, which is a whitewater rafting outfitter.
“I met one of my best friends on that trip," Bond said. "I remember sitting around the campfire and just talking about whitewater rafting and whitewater kayaking and it just being super exciting and fun."
Bond said she enjoys the excitement of being on the water, but her enjoyment of the sport always comes back to finding peace of mind.
“When you're just on the water, you're focused on that and only that, and you're not thinking about all these other things in your life,” Bond said. “I wouldn't even say it is a distraction. It's just a healthy, peaceful state of mind that kayaking brings me into.”
On the hunt for community
Bond isn’t the only one who found her niche in the outdoors. Second-year mechanical engineering student Mason Sheleby grew up hunting with his father — a hobby that led him to explore clay target shooting.
Clay target shooting is a game that revolves around shooting clay pigeons thrown from various heights and consistencies at multiple stations. The club meets once a week at a shooting range to practice.
“It's supposed to imitate (that) you're actually walking through the woods and a pheasant will jump out in front of you, or dove or something, because it's completely random,” Sheleby said.
Shelby said having access to the sport was a key factor in deciding where he wanted to attend college.
Sheleby is trying to grow the club so that they may compete against other schools. His main goal with the club is to bring people together through camaraderie and an appreciation for the outdoors.
“I’ve always enjoyed being outside,” Sheleby said. “I feel like if you're taking an interest in the club, you also like being outside, and then they're getting the aspect of being on a team and sportsmanship.”
Disconnecting
If hunting guarantees anything, it's a lower screen time, Sheleby said. He said he is fully immersed in nature because he usually doesn't have service.
When Bond is on trips with Carolina Mountaineering and White Water Club, she will often lose service for the entire weekend. Bond said people aren't able to truly enjoy the outdoors if they're on their phones. She makes it a point to stay off hers as much as possible, and the benefits are notable.
“I find that my relationships are healthier because I'm actually thinking about other people and paying attention to conversations," Bond said.
Third-year environmental science student Matthew Amico said being in nature helps him to keep his cool and remember the importance of interacting with people.
“Being outside kind of reminds you to stop thinking about yourself," Amico said. "You see everything around you, and you're like, 'All this stuff's living too, like we're all living here together.'”
Students don't have to go off campus to disconnect. Third-year advertising student Callie Silvestri enjoys time off her phone and in the outdoors every week by going on walks.
Stepping away from the stress
Silvestri is the president of Carolina Girls Who Walk, an on-campus club that meets at least once a week to walk around Columbia. The club is a low-commitment way for students to explore the outdoors, Silvestri said.
“Our community is very light-hearted,” she said. “I would say the girls are always talking to one another, and as president, I always try to walk around to make sure nobody's standing alone, so everybody's always meeting new people.”
Carolina Girls Who Walk often meet in the evenings, after most students are done with their classes. They create routes on and off campus that usually take about 45 minutes to walk.
"It does wonders for your mental health because it's just a dedicated time to yourself," Silvestri said. "I feel like what we're doing right now, as college students, we're always stuck in our computers or on our phones."
Walking is also accessible to some students whose ability to exercise is limited. If students can walk, the club offers them an enjoyable way of getting outside and exercising, Silvestri said.
Silvestri said this was the case for one of the club's founders.
"They couldn't do exercise much further than walking," she said. "So what this girl did was get her friends together, and they were going on a lot of walks together, and then they decided to make the club out of it."
Everybody’s backyard
For those who are less mobile, even sitting outside can have benefits, Amico said.
Amico is a coordinator for the Sustainable Carolina Garden alongside fourth-year environmental science student Emma Batson.
They ensure students feel welcome in the garden, Amico said. Some of the gardening beds are raised off the ground to be wheelchair-accessible.
“Wheel up a chair, if you're in a wheelchair, and just be out here, be one with nature, and enjoy the kind of zen calm that you get from gardening,” Amico said. “It's so good for your mental health to be out here, even just five minutes.”
He said the garden is everyone on campus’ backyard. The garden is part of Sustainable Carolina, the student-led branch of the Office of Sustainability. The goal of the garden is to produce fresh, organic produce, which they sell on Greene Street, and provide service opportunities that students and faculty can sign up for.
Amico and Batson also manage the shifts of gardening volunteers, host gardening workshops and organize events at the garden.
“We've done moonlight yoga out here before, and things like that,” Amico said. “We like to keep this green space open so people can enjoy the outdoors. Even a professor could sign up students to come out for class.”
These opportunities are a good way for them to invite people into the garden, Amico said.
“You get to be outside in nature. You get to experience just a little bit of a slowdown compared to being in a classroom setting,” Amico said. “And you also are really taking care to make sure that you're getting that time outside because people need to touch grass these days.”
Amico’s favorite part of being outside is feeling grounded and connected to the planet, he said.
“A lot of times, people like to think of humans and nature as two separate entities,” Amico said. “Humans are a part of nature. We came from nature. Everything we've made is from nature.”