Susan Porucznik Cole, a former challenge course coordinator at the Carolina Adventures Outdoor Education Center, was passionate about nature and the outdoors. Since 2009, a fund in her name has supported undergraduates in the department of exercise and sport science through Campus Recreation’s Wilderness Adventures for First-Year Students (WAFFYS) program. The Susan Porucznik Cole Fund for Student Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences grants first-year students an empowering experience that prepares them for their college transition. This endowment supports four to five students in each WAFFYS program.
The Illinois native was raised in a family of four children. She began her nature journey about 40 years ago with family camping. “Susan always loved being outside,” said her mother, Mary Beth Porucznik. “The entire family would be out there. We loved it.”
Susan received her undergraduate degree in social work from Western Illinois University. While there, she attended the Education Conservation Outdoor Education Expedition (ECOEE) where she visited 14 states and focused on outdoor experiences planned exclusively by students.
“When she experienced ECOEE, it was then that she became one with the earth we share,” Porucznik said. After graduating, Susan accepted a position at the Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center, near Baltimore, Md., to work with at-risk children. “Though she completed an internship counseling victims of domestic violence, Genesee Valley was not a good fit for a 22-year-old recent graduate,” Porucznik said. She then moved to Ashe County, North Carolina, to work at its 4-H Outdoor Education program.
Susan soon left and followed a friend to Carrboro, where she worked at Townsend Bertram and Company. She began volunteering at Carolina Adventures and would eventually become the first full-time employee at the facility.
“She was a really nurturing person,” said David Yeargan, expedition program manager and former co-worker and friend of Susan. “She created a family atmosphere. She really cared about the people and they cared about her.” After falling in love with UNC, Susan enrolled in the university’s master’s program in recreation and leisure studies. She began a study of the WAFFYS program for her final research project to test the theories of a wilderness adventure program.
“She was fascinated by what they learned from the program and wanted to find ways to measure their experience,” Yeargan said. Though WAFFYS was successful, it was not accredited by academic research until Susan’s project. “Her research was specific to our program,” Yeargan said. “It endorsed what we had already done and, personally, was a confidence booster to know that I made a difference.”
After Susan’s tragic death in 2003, friends and family created the Susan Porucznik Cole Fund to honor her legacy and allow students the opportunity to experience WAFFYS. Her research became the foundation of the WAFFYS program. The three themes of her research—peer development, self-confidence and decision-making skills—are now the leading goals of every backpacking expedition.
“We try to measure more of the things that she identified as themes and use them as assessment goals,” Yeargan said. Susan’s research is also used to train student leaders who facilitate the expeditions. This teaches them the experience participants should receive from the trips. “It helps our leaders facilitate the trips and not get in the way of the experience,” Yeargan said. “They’re learning that it is not just getting from point A to point B. It is about the mistakes you make along the way and learning from those mistakes.”
Students who participate in WAFFYS continue to appreciate the experience long after the expedition ends. Grayson Berger ‘17, from Atlanta, Ga., believes the program was an excellent way to begin his college journey. “I was able to enjoy a physically healthy activity while meeting new people who were all great,” Grayson said. “I was also able to center myself and make sure I knew who I was before entering a very overwhelming environment, making it a little less overwhelming.”
After the expedition, many students noticed long-term, internal changes. Many found these changes very helpful in their day-to-day lives.
“I became more comfortable and confident in my leadership positions,” Grayson said. “I learned to make important, quick, confident and effective decisions that I can follow through on.”
Susan’s legacy continues to be carried through the Cole Scholarship and the entire WAFFYS program. Though she is not here physically, her work remains at the core of Carolina Adventures. “I just want people to know her spirit is still here, even though we’ve changed so much,” Yeargan said. “We’ve changed the office space, the staff is different, but I still feel her presence and her spirit here, and I think others do, too.”
Susan’s HEELprint is one to remember from her six years here at Carolina. Her family remains proud and keeps her love in their hearts.
“Susan is with us,” Porucznik said. “She is the wind that blows, the stars that shine, and the bird that flies. She is missed, and loved.”
By André Rowe, Jr. ’16
