A conversation with 2026 SOU/UCAM graduate Juniper Wright

Why did you choose to come to SOU?

Ultimately, I think it was the accepting, queer-friendly atmosphere that was what really sealed the deal. I grew up in a small, close-minded town, knowing that I would be excluded if I ever tried to express myself, and I remember walking around campus, seeing outwardly queer students, and thinking that I had finally found my people. It was also the nicest looking campus in state, as well as being a reasonable size. I got a tour of the facilities, and liked that they had a really nice science building, because at that point I was going for a chemistry degree, so it just looked like the overall best option.

What influenced you to settle on a major and ultimately switch from chemistry?

To be blunt, I gave it a shot and I just could not meet the academic requirements of the chemistry major. I love chemistry, I always have, since I started learning it in high school. I went to two years of community college with that being my main focus, taking classes in that vein, but I just couldn’t cut it. I could not stand to sit in the library for four hours every day to copy reagents from a textbook into my notebook for the upcoming lab, and then fill out a lab report for the previous lab. I would just perform the lab and have fun, and then get back to my dorm and be so overwhelmed by the amount of work that I just could not do any of it. This was all well before I got my ADHD diagnosis too, so it was a prime example of me struggling with executive dysfunction without having any coping mechanisms or structured support, like the UCAM program.

How did you make friends at SOU?

My first experience at SOU was the Raider Wilderness Experience put on by the Outdoor Program. In fall, just before starting at SOU, we got to move into the dorms early and then pick an outdoor trip to go on. I chose the rock climbing trip, and I met just about every close friend I had over the course of my time at SOU on that trip alone. We all formed an enormous friend group that lasted for a good few years. They were all super queer, or at least stellar allies, and they were almost all OAL (Outdoor Adventure Leadership) majors or minors.

What was the highlight of the OAL major for you?

Of course the international trip to the Philippines was a great one. It was so cool to get to leave the country, to get on this on a really long flight, and then wake up to realize I was on the other side of the world. All of the scuba diving was incredible, especially Apo Island. Getting to go there and see the incredible underwater environment was such a treat. That place was just gorgeous, and the water was so nice. It was a ton of fun spending time as a group, just doing flips off the boat, swimming around, and having really nice meals in between dives.

What was the most meaningful experience that you had at SOU?

The most meaningful was the Raider Wilderness Experience trip, but second place probably goes to my OAL495 Outdoor Pursuits expedition, a week-long rafting trip down the Klamath River, back before they took the dams down, with a relatively small group of students and a few OAL faculty. That was one of the trips that really opened my eyes to the possibility of pursuing an OAL degree, and eventually I did switch my major to OAL.

That trip introduced me to things like the leadership roles, the things the OAL program uses to delegate labor on trips: the navigator, the camp host, the chef, the leader of the day, the activity leader, etc., as well as how to organize a trip, and what it was like to get packed up in the morning, go rafting through rapids, land somewhere, set up camp again, and then relax with this gorgeous view of the river while eating a delicious meal cooked with the same stove that got soaked after the gear boat went through a class 3 earlier that day. It was amazing.

Much later on in the program, during the Spring Immersion class, I had a ten-day rafting trip down the same stretch of the Klamath, this time after the dams had been taken down, and it was so nice to be able to compare the state of the river before and after the removals. I don’t think I could have experienced that at any other college than SOU, thanks to the OAL program.

What are you most proud of?

Over the course of the last few years, I was able to recognize and accept that I am transgender, and start making all these big changes that you have to go through to reconcile with that worldview-shattering realization, and even though it’s really hard sometimes, it’s been going incredibly well overall. I want to say, I really don’t know if I could have done it without you (Jade) supporting me and having you there to work through it. You were so much more than an advisor, you were just a good close friend, genuinely. I’ll be keeping every single one of those end-of-term coaching letters you wrote me.

What role did UCAM play in your life in college?

If I had not had access to the UCAM program, and you as a coach, I don’t think I could have made it through even two terms at SOU, let alone three years and a degree change. You helped me struggle through those classes, consoled me when I realized the chemistry major wasn’t working, and then helped me manage the OAL workload when I switched majors. I am a smart person, I know that, I just can’t do busy work most of the time. I can, of course, but it’s not a thing that I enjoy doing, and it’s not a thing that I’m good at forcing myself to do as often as the chemistry classes had me forcing it. The thing about OAL that clicked was that, amidst the busy work, there were a lot of deep life lessons, which is what is actually applicable and transferable to work and life. I learned a lot about emotional intelligence competencies and the sort of psychology focusing around being somebody willing to take charge and act as a leader, and that can all absolutely be applied in the outdoor industry, yes, but really those skills are useful just about anywhere, in any career or other area of life.

What advice or encouragement would you give to someone coming to SOU for the first time?

Don’t skimp on going to the Raider events, or other places where you can meet people. Have the goal of meeting at least a few people with similar interests as you, because those are the people who will get you through college and be there to support you when you need help, while you’re at school and away from the rest of your life that you’ve known. Going to events gives you the opportunity to go places and experience the college atmosphere. Really groundbreaking stuff I know, ‘go out and make some friends,’ but truly, I think the importance of having those like minded people around, who are in a similar if not exactly equivalent position as you, cannot be overstated. Even if they aren’t in a position to exactly help you all that much, just knowing that you aren’t alone and being able to commiserate will help you get through it all.