Emerging Trail Leader Scholarship Recipient

Levi Ballard

Vail, Colorado, United States

I grew up as an outdoors kid, and after a four year hiatus in college, I’ve returned to an outdoor life in earnest. In my year and a half since leaving Boston College, I have served on two trail crews and am now working as a carpenter in Vail, Colorado, where I spend all of my working time outside. I was fortunate that my particular philosophy major was a practical one, focusing not only on texts and theories, but how to apply those ideas to lived life. As a result, the way I have come to live my life is simple and could be summarized thusly: Do what brings you joy, brings those around you joy, and enables those who will outlive you to do the same.

This symposium is an incredible opportunity to meet, people who share my understanding that a life well lived means not only enjoying the great outdoors, but making it possible for others to do the same. In my life now, I know the general principles that drive me, I know the field I would like to spend my life in, but I don’t know exactly how to combine the two. It is my fondest wish to, somehow, have something click. I am an external processor and a person who thrives on learning the ideas of others. I hope that this symposium would expose me to more people and more ideas, so that I might move a step or two closer to combining my passions.