Travel Opportunities

Senior Trip

The senior trip originated in the early 1970s as a way to pull senior classes together, put them in an unfamiliar environment, and promote an understanding of what it means to be part of a team and all that comes from that – leadership, compassion for others, and an appreciation and respect for the outdoors. It was unique at that time for a high school to have an outdoor program, and it was radical to have a weeklong senior trip that took place instead of exams. That part still is radical.

Since then, the Senior Trip to Camp Chattooga in Mountain Rest, S.C., has been the cornerstone of the Walkabout program. Seniors spend the last six days of their Baylor careers on a wilderness adventure that includes an overnight camping trip, canoing and kayaking Class IV rapids, trail service work with the National Forest Service, and evening entertainment.

"For some, it's an amazing experience to realize they went to school with some classmates for six years and never knew them," says retired faculty member Bill Cushman '59. "Others are intrigued by the intellectual and spiritual power of the outdoors. There is a lot of talking and, as teachers, we try to interpret the trip for them. It's an opportunity for total human experiences to come together."