People of Sanborn: Noah

Name: Noah Fisher
Current Role: Staff Coordinator for Big Spring
Tenure at Sanborn: Noah’s first summer was in 2018. He stayed for the fall season that year, and then joined our year-round team.
Fun Fact: Noah spent 6 weeks living in Russia during high school as his paleontologist dad’s field assistant. He also holds 4 gold medals from Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) track - he ran track for 8 years.

What is your first memory at Sanborn? Noah recalls arriving slightly late to the first day of staff training - he drove in just after dinner started. As he drove through the main gate, he couldn’t help but notice that no one seemed to be anywhere, which was pretty confusing. Soon, he saw two people, who he later learned were Oliver Fisher and Stephen VanAsdale, get into a car and drive up to the Big Spring lodge. Noah followed them at a distance because he felt like they knew where they were going. He walked in alone in the middle of the meal to loud, raucous, welcoming cheers from the rest of the staff.

Favorite memory? During his first summer, Noah led the Antero, Shavano, and Tabeguache long trip, fondly called Ant/Shav/Tab. He remembers summitting both Shav and Tab before the sun even rose and the memory of the sun rising that morning is still very clear to him. He also convinced the campers to test out a little bit of trail running for a period of the hike down, which made his former-track-star-self pretty happy. He remembers lots of laughs on that trip.

Favorite cookie? If you know Noah at all, you know that Noah is passionate about the cookie jar. You can always tell if Noah has been on a trip because the cookie jar is much more full when he’s gone! If he had to choose, he’d pick Bernie’s raspberry chocolate cookies, or a well cooked chocolate chip.

Hardest camp trip? Noah goes back to Ant/Shav/Tab for this one - it was definitely his physically hardest trip. He remembers a sustained gentle uphill for multiple miles. On this stretch, he expected the campers to be just as exhausted as he was, but the kids were cruising - though Noah was hiking as fast as he could, the campers were right behind him. The last push to the summit of Antero was also memorably hard, with a long haul on a road before the final ridge walk.

Favorite camp tradition? Noah is particularly fond of the tradition of openness in the camp community. This aspect of camp has been so meaningful to him and is a huge reason why he loves it here. It’s so important to him because he really hadn’t experienced that openness in other communities before - here, he noticed it right away, perhaps even before actually arriving on property. He loves that everyone is ready to share their own excitement with others. In particular, during the first time off, he didn’t know what was doing yet, but a group of guys invited him to climb for his first time outside and that set the tone for his whole summer - openness and a welcoming community.

Favorite part of conducting interviews? He loves getting the opportunity to introduce himself and hear the story of the person on the other end of the call too. He finds that this leads to better communication throughout the interview process. Noah typically goes pretty far in depth about how he got here, through his upbringing, and the other person typically follows with openness and in-depth stories.

Most meaningful BOOM bead to you? Adaptability - Noah thinks that this bead is the most applicable to his position, since it is somewhat undefined. He has defined his job by making the name of the game support in any way he can, which requires lots of flexibility and adapting throughout the summer season. It makes it interesting and productive to have that adaptable mindset about the summer.