VoFLC: Josh Kling

In 1998, I was on a cross-country cycling trip. And we were going from Norfolk, Virginia, to Santa Monica, California, over the course of seven weeks, then maybe 2700 miles or so. And we ended up taking a rest day here in Durango, a day out of the saddle and not biking, which was much needed and looked around. And I said, Holy cow, I want to go to college out west. I was a junior in high school, going into my senior year, coming from the Midwest from Chicago, and looked around and said, "This place is awesome; I want to go to school out here."

And I went home after this cycling trip after I dipped my tires in the Pacific Ocean, got home, and I said, Mom, Dad, I want to go to college out west. And they said, "We've never heard of Durango, let alone Fort Lewis." So we did some investigative reporting with AOL. And some dial-up to find out some colleges, found a bunch and went on a little college tour like people do today came through Durango. And after some digging and looking and bunch of different schools, we decided that Fort Lewis College actually would be a really good fit at the time. This is in 2000, out of state tuition at Fort Lewis College was less expensive than in state tuition at a bunch of the Illinois schools, which is where I was probably going to end up so my parents humored it, and I came out here and I went full on in Fort Lewis. By the end of my first year, I was a Colorado resident paying Colorado taxes with a Colorado license. And by the next year, I was getting in-state tuition. I was a full Colorado resident. I never left, and that was going on 24 years ago, and I've been here ever since.

So in January of 2020, right before the pandemic, the Outdoor Pursuits program ran a trip to Japan, a backcountry skiing trip to Hokkaido, which is the North Island, and we did a nine-day trip with students. And my favorite Fort Lewis story is probably from that September 2019. Before the trip, when students were signing up. Brett Davis, who's the director of the program of outdoor pursuits, and myself, we're going to be the two leaders. And we could only take eight students, but needless to say, there were a lot more than eight students who are interested in signing up for that trip.

In September, we had registration for the trip open up, and 14 different students camped out starting Friday night before registration so they could be first in line Monday morning. It was like they're signing up for concert tickets or something. And I think that amount of Stoke, excitement, and engagement with students to register for a trip is just awesome. I don't know any other programs on campus where there is an excess of students camping out to register for that program.

My name is Josh Kling, and I'm the coordinator of permitting and programming here at FLC.