IMPORTANT UPDATE: In Fall 2023, all non-driver trip participant spots will be selected at random due to high demand. Links will accept sign-ups from 9PM-12AM the night of release.
Signups will go live Sunday after wave release. Before that, the buttons above will redirect you to the homepage.
Join cat and dog owner, Peaks advisor, AND 2023 Award Winner of the USC Mentoring Award for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Students, Abby Fifer Mandell, on the Grotto Trail! On this 2.7 mile hike in the beautiful Santa Monica mountains, we will be searching for caves (and maybe a waterfall?), so get excited! Come ready to hear about design thinking, social entrepreneurship, and how to glamp successfully, all while exploring in one of prettiest parts of LA.
PACKING LIST:
HATS (optional)
SNACKS
SUNSCREEN
H2O
WAIVERS
PROFESSOR: ABBY FIFER MANDELL
DEPARTMENT: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
As senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and founding executive director of the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab, Abby has guided hundreds of start-up teams to apply user-centered design to challenges faced by individuals and families worldwide. Community foci include older adults, farmworkers in California’s Central Valley, and adults diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Abby trains mission-based organizations on fundamentals of user-centered design and in 2018, won the Academy of Management Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award.
Prior to USC, Abby worked at Brailsford & Dunlavey, where she designed educational programs and facilities at Duke University, The University of Vermont, Dartmouth University, and UC Riverside, among others. She is a Wexner Heritage Fellow and serves on the advisory board of United Parents and Students. Abby holds a M.A. in education and received a B.A. in Religious Studies and American Studies from the University of Virginia, where she was student body president. She lives in West Adams with her family.
PEAK: GROTTO TRAIL
DIFFICULTY: 2/5
SCENERY: Pretty waterfalls, a cave!!!, a wooden log fence, and lots of wildflowers
FUN FACT: The word grotto comes from Italian grotta, Vulgar Latin grupta, and Latin crypta ("a crypt"). It is also related by a historical accident to the word grotesque. In the late 15th century, Romans accidentally unearthed Nero's Domus Aurea on the Palatine Hill, a series of rooms, decorated with designs of garlands, slender architectural framework, foliage, and animals. The rooms had sunk underground over time. The Romans who discovered this historical monument found it very strange, partly because it was uncovered from an "underworld" source. This led the Romans of that era to give it the name grottesca, from which came the French grotesque.
TRIP LEAD: HUDI
Still on the quest to take a good hiking picture.
Contact Hudi: ypotash@usc.edu
Read Hudi's bio here.