Hunter Spannaus

Adventure Program Coordinator, grew up in Wake Forest, North Carolina but calls many places home. He attended college in Boulder, Colorado, and Durham, New Hampshire, earning a B.S. in outdoor education. In a gap year between the two universities he attended an outdoor educator semester through the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) where he was trained in wilderness medicine, winter expeditions, whitewater canoeing, extended backpacking trips, and rock climbing throughout Wyoming and Utah. While those are some areas of his training and certification, Hunter also loves most anything that gets him outside; including farming, fly-fishing, skiing, hunting, ice-skating, and much more.

Before joining Oliverian, Hunter worked a variety of jobs across the country, including farming in New Hampshire, outfitting trips for NOLS in Lander, WY, operating lifts and a ropes course at Squaw Valley in Tahoe, CA, and instructing whitewater kayaking and survival skills for a summer camp in Golden, CO. He is passionate about living a life connected to the outdoors that provides fun, healthy, and sustainable life pursuits. With experience leading outdoor trips for UNH, NOLS, and summer camps, Hunter believes in the power of outdoor experiential education and loves to share his passion with students and peers alike. Whether it be paddling big water, bagging peaks, or simply finding a peaceful nook of the woods to read a good book, it all comes down to getting out and enjoying yourself and those around you. He loves being a part of the Oliverian community and having the opportunity to enjoy the great Northeast outdoors with everyone there.

What do you love most about Oliverian?
“I love the uniqueness of Oliverian's community. Not only is it great to be a part of a community that is small and close-knit that shares in each other's successes and struggles, it is especially great to be a part of the Oliverian community that has all of those qualities in addition to an unlikely combination of personalities, passions, and backgrounds that make this place truly one-of-a-kind.”

What motivates you to work with kids?
“I feel motivated to work with teenagers because those years are an amazing time in life. When I say, 'amazing,' it's with full respect of the word; which is to say that not everything 'good' is amazing. The teenage years are stressful, confusing, exhausting, frustrating, as well as enlightening, motivating, and carry a certain intensity that makes them potentially the most transformative years in a person's life. It is the chance to have a positive influence on someone during those years that draws me to working with high-school aged people.”