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What's in a Name?

By Jesse Cohen

This weighty question is one that BOLT has been struggling with for the past two years.  For ages, ever since the first BOLT men and women strode proudly up Thayer Street, BOLT has been made up of Leaders and Participants. 

However, last year, Steering Committee wondered if the name “Participant” did not send the message we wanted to send, perhaps stifling rather than promoting the discussion of leadership on the fall trip.  Steering Committee wanted to give more agency to the sophomore and transfer students going on the BOLT trip, so this past year we tried out new names.  We called the sophomores and transfers “Leaders” and trip leaders became “Leader Trainers.” 

We really liked how it made more people think about leadership from the get-go, but, as you can probably imagine, it also proved to be a little more confusing than we may have anticipated.

So, this past fall Steering Committee bravely stepped forward to tackle the problem once more.  While many proposal were made—one memorable suggestion to call former participants “Drones” and leaders “Queen Bees” stands out in particular—we finally found what we humbly think is the best of both worlds. 

Leaders will once again be called Leaders, but now all sophomore and transfer students will be known formally as BOLTers.  BOLTers participate on trips and are active members of the BOLT community.  With all the recent hullabaloo surrounding these titles, we hope that BOLTer can be a less weighty term that we can embrace.  It is our desire that this name will be one that everyone affiliated with BOLT can identify with. 

Once a BOLTer, always a BOLTer.

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