Kinesiology major Itzela Darkenwald comes by her love of adventure honestly. “My family is a huge part of who I am and why I am here today,” she said, “My father is a pilot, so I grew up travelling the world. … And my mom is from Panama and is a massage therapist, so that gives me another international connection as well as my interest in the human body and how it works.” From her parents, she said, she gets “a lot of my aspiration and drive for new adventures and new things.”
A member of WNMU Cross Country team, Darkenwald originally chose kinesiology with the intention of going to graduate school and becoming a physician assistant. “Being an athlete, I have always been super interested in the body and how it is working in relation to exercise, so that really drew me to kinesiology,” she said. However, her experiences as a minor in the Outdoor Leadership program have opened new possibilities for her to explore.
One of the key things she has learned in Outdoor Leadership is “to prepare for anything,” she said. “Having knowledge in so many different fields—whether that is knowledge of the landscape or medical knowledge—is important so you are prepared,” she added, “but you also need to prepare those you are leading into the outdoors; that is the most essential thing.”
Preparing others was a crucial part of Darkenwald’s responsibilities last summer, when she served as an WNMU Outdoor Program guide to high school students in the northeastern United States. She and the other WNMU students on the trip led the students on educational paddling, caving, and hiking adventures.
Darkenwald said that the most challenging dimension of the experience was “learning how to maneuver myself through lessons and outcomes for kids that age. You have to be very strategic and careful, especially in the outdoors, in a foreign place, where they have no technology. [The students] are already uncomfortable, so you have to get them excited for things they are not excited for and to make them feel comfortable and safe. That was one of my biggest takeaways.”
Closer to home, Darkenwald has led fellow students on a number of local adventures. “The wilderness is an unknown place for [many students], and it can be scary if you do not know what you are doing,” she said, “Getting people to experience the outdoors will be one of my favorite memories of my time at WNMU. It is so satisfying, especially when people are not expecting what I am throwing at them.”
Darkenwald said that she feels more confident as an outdoor leader now that she has taken the Certified Wilderness First Responder course offered by the university. The course, she explained, covers everything from CPR to splinting to giving injections. “That was my all-time favorite course,” she said.
Darkenwald’s adventures will extend abroad this summer, as she is traveling to Madrid, Spain for a six-week long Spanish language emersion program. She will be staying with a family that her father stayed with when he was an exchange student as a young man. “I know they are excited to host me, and I can’t wait for the experience,” she said.
While Darkenwald is not sure what her next steps will be following graduation next fall, she knows additional adventures await. “I have no limits,” she said, “I am honestly just ready to commit to anything and explore anything, even if it is a new and uncomfortable situation.”
Itzela Darkenwald is a featured student in the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of “The College Tour” that was filmed on campus in November.