Transformational Experience in The Woods

Dartmouth's saying is "Welcome to the Woods."

Junior Rachel Freer of the equestrian team took that saying to another level this fall by literally going into the woods of Northern New England.

Part of the reason Freer came to Dartmouth was for the college's environmental studies foreign study program, a program which had been held in South Africa since 1983, to learn about interactions between natural resources and the people who use them. The COVID-19 pandemic changed things, but Freer still got to experience something similar, right in Dartmouth's backyard.

"The New England Domestic Study Program offered another option for environmental studies students to still have a place-based study experience," she said. "A lot of the goals were still similar, but just a different case study."

The fall was divided into two sections: fisheries and forestry. The term began in northern Maine, then transitioned to the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

The Gulf of Maine — rural, coastal and forested Maine — was used as a case study to understand sustainable development in rural communities.

"We looked at communities that are uniquely dependent on specific resources and because of that, resilient in some ways, but also really vulnerable to changes," said Freer. "How do we help those people have the footing to be able to evolve in a way that makes them able to survive the changes coming in the future?"

The program focused on answering that question, and socioecological systems overall — sustainable development, problem solving and working between scientific knowledge and community-based knowledge.
Rachel Freer

The term began with a focus on fisheries. Freer and a cohort of nine other students traveled up and down the coast of Maine, talking to community partners about resource use and the economy.

"There was a lot of talk about people's reliance on the lobster industry in Maine, and how climate change is affecting populations and potentially the livelihoods of small-town people who are solely dependent on this," said Freer. "We talked a lot about aqua culture. We went to lobster processing plants. We talked to aqua culture farmers — people who were essentially acting as bridges between the community and science within the climate change realm.

"It was mostly talking to people about their stakes in the game."

Freer stressed the importance of asking questions and described the experience as "taking control of your education to engage with people."

As she said, "It was really up to you what you took away from those conversations."

Along with the 10 students, there were multiple professors who cycled through the fall term. The program was led by Douglas Bolger, professor and chair of environmental studies.

The second half of the term was based in forestry.

"We had community-based projects that were centered around doing research and working with people in a way that would make lasting change in the communities we entered," said Freer. "We did a lot of technical sampling work in Dartmouth's Hubbard Brook Forest, which is the experimental forest that's about an hour off campus, to learn how to sample trees, measure carbon storage and do a lot of tree identification."

Freer and the Dartmouth students also worked with children.

"We helped the children set up plots that they could continue to monitor throughout their years in order to establish a sense of place in these really rural communities, which were very centric around timber before the paper mills closed," said Freer. "There's a lot of rural poverty and a lot of struggle in trying to get people to stay in these communities because of a lack of economic opportunity.

"We were trying to inspire kids to really care about a place — even if it's not for the traditional, industrial way — and gain a natural appreciation of land."

Throughout the term, Freer (and all the Dartmouth students) also had an independent research project.

"Mine was on why people who are especially dependent on local resources are especially good stewards of land," she said. "It focused a lot on values and motivations for stewardship and how we can take those very local, cyclic processes and put them into larger government structures, and more globalized government structures."

During the term, the cohort moved every week to different labs, research facilities and Airbnb's.

"A lot of living in very remote places and talking to people who dealt with living in very remote places, which was interesting," said Freer.
Rachel Freer

The fall experience tied into some career goals Freer already had, while it also helped spark further interest in others.

"I'm really interested in the social sciences side of environmental studies," she said. "I think working with communities to make local-based solutions is where I want to go, probably in the nonprofit sector. This gave me a lot of opportunity to learn about the different career options."

Freer left the fall with a number of very specific takeaways.

"It was great for me professionally and academically to meet these people and realize I probably have to get a master's degree," she said. "I didn't know that. I probably need to get more involved in research and l am lucky to have gotten a job because I went on this program."

The fall program led Freer to a job doing further research.

"I'm working for a PhD student this winter and spring, and it'll probably lead into thesis research, which I had never considered before," she said. "The research I'm doing with this PhD student has to do with barriers to entry in aqua culture for women and minorities."

Freer's experience was overwhelmingly positive. But the decision to take part in the fall away from campus wasn't easy.

"The program aligned so much with my goals, but it was during peak, equestrian season," she said. "I lost a year during COVID of competing and then again, our main season is fall. I'm still able to compete a little bit this winter and spring."

"We missed having Rachel on campus this fall, but I am happy that she was able to have a meaningful academic experience relating to her environmental studies degree," said head coach Tenley Walsh.

Freer was met by nothing but support from Walsh.

"Tenley always says you're a student first and athlete second," said Freer. "This was clearly an opportunity that was going to be pivotal for my ability to make an impact in the world and I think it has been. Thinking in the long term, this is setting me up with the knowledge I need to have the career I want.

"But it was still really sad to be away from the team," she continued. "You see the girls you work really hard with and the sport you love, it's hard to step away from that knowing we have such limited time, especially within equestrian. This is our last hurrah to give it all we've got."

Even though Freer was away from equestrian in the fall, there were some commonalities between an athletics team and a team of students in an academic setting.

"It was a verysmall cohort," she said. "We were together all the time learning all the time and it was great to be surrounded by people who were equally as engaged in the topics as I was. We built off each other so well intellectually. We'd have full field days, talking to people or being in the woods, and everyone would come back tired, and you'd still be so invigorated by what you heard, discussing and building off topics, disagreeing and agreeing.

"Everyone was so bought into their learning."

That learning not only helped the students individually, but also those around them.

Much like an athletics team.
Rachel Freer

"Rachel's adaptability and positive attitude, the same skills that contribute to her equestrian success, ensured she was able to get the most out of this experience," said Walsh.

There were a lot of group assignments.

"There needed to be a lot of communication and establishing a standard for quality of work, and making sure we hit those marks," said Freer. "Goal setting was important. One of our huge research projects ended up being a 17-page consulting writeup about carbon credits for a wilderness commission in Maine."

Being a student-athlete, Freer was used to the teamwork needed to succeed.

"There was a lot of dividing and conquering, but also taking mutual ownership of the work, which was great," she said. "That really connects to the team environment in setting goals, setting expectations, working towards those goals and not sleeping until they're completed. We were all very engaged and there were people on the other side that were counting on us to provide high-quality work.

"As an athlete, I believe I was well-prepared going into that space of working well with others and creating good products that I'm proud of," Freer continued. "In equestrian, there's a lot of mentorship, working together and bringing each other up because that's how we're going to win."

Winning in sports can be very tangible, cut and dry. But there can be intangible aspects as well, including things like learning, growing and improving, which is exactly what the Dartmouth equestrian program is doing.

"We're very new in our new division (of the NCEA)," said Freer. "There's definitely a lot of keeping morale high on our team and keeping motivation high to keep getting better because we are new in this setting."

Freer's setting was much different this fall, but led to a number of victories herself.

"Now, I understand the opportunity for students studying environmental studies, what you can do with that kind of degree and how you can apply it to solutions and social impact spaces," she said. "It was also huge for creating mentorship relationships with my professors and the PhD student that was our teaching assistant. I feel like I now have a solid support group who knows me well and can help guide me through the rest of my time at Dartmouth."
January 29, 2022 Equestrian riders at Auburn

January 29, 2022 Equestrian riders at Auburn

Speaking of relationships, Freer admits she realized the value in maintaining support systems where you are… and were.

"Leaning into new relationships, but also putting effort into fostering ones that are already strong, was a way to keep myself sane in a very intense, fast-paced and mobile academic environment," she said.

No matter what Freer's future path holds, one thing she hopes to do is create positive change.

"Everyone would love their impact to be meaningful, to go into the world and feel like they've made a change that resonates through communities," she said. "I don't know if it necessarily needs to be on the global scale, but even on a local scale and even within the communities that we touched in Maine, I hope my time there was rooted in making positive change and not just extracting information and leaving.

"It's great to go abroad and try to make change on a global scale, but we can't miss the opportunities to make big change domestically."

Schedules

Players Mentioned

Rachel Freer

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Schedules

Completed Event: Equestrian versus Sacred Heart on November 9, 2025 , Win , 6, to, 3

Completed Event: Equestrian at Charleston on February 15, 2026 , Loss , 4, to, 6

Completed Event: Equestrian at Centenary (N.J.) on March 8, 2026 , Loss , 3, to, 7

Completed Event: Equestrian versus Sacred Heart on March 20, 2026 , Win , 6, to, 3

Completed Event: Equestrian versus Centenary (N.J.) on March 21, 2026 , Win , 7, to, 3

Completed Event: Equestrian versus No. 3 Charleston on April 17, 2026 , Loss , 2, to, 7