{"id":7633,"date":"2023-04-13T15:10:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T21:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voile.com\/blog\/?p=7633"},"modified":"2023-04-13T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T21:27:38","slug":"22-23-wandering-trails-scholarship-recipients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voile.com\/blog\/22-23-wandering-trails-scholarship-recipients\/","title":{"rendered":"22\/23 Wandering Trails Scholarship Recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Each year the most challenging part of running this scholarship is having to select recipients from a pool filled to the brim with incredible applications. This year is no different! It’s truly amazing witnessing the bravery each athlete showed by sharing their stories with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We couldn’t be more excited to announce Mai Li O’Keefe (Grand Prize) and Laura Wang (Runner-Up) as the recipients of the 22\/23 Wandering Trails Scholarship for Women in the Backcountry<\/a>. To all who participated in this scholarship, thank you for sharing your stories, thank you for trusting us to listen, and thank you for providing us with the inspiration to find our true selves in the outdoors while uplifting other people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to check out the winning essays…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grand Prize: Mai Li O’Keefe<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Portland, OR \u2022 Skier<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m a non-binary, AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) Korean adoptee. I know very little about my roots or existence prior to my first flight at 3 months old. I am the only biological family I know, and I usually forget that a woman once carried me, that my body came from hers. Growing up in Wisconsin, I grew up without mirrors – I never saw myself in the people I could look up to. Women of color were nowhere to be found in my family, and there were very few in my hometown and the media I consumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skiing never crossed my mind, and my family couldn\u2019t afford it anyway. When I moved to Switzerland for three years as a teenager because of my father\u2019s job, I didn\u2019t have a choice but to learn. The eight days I skied were on mandatory field trips, and they were filled with highs and lows. I wish I was more present to remember the wonder of the mountains. I do remember the otherness I felt in the hyper white, wealthy, and male dominated space more clearly though. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve experienced more times than my days on the hill as an Asian femme-presentin person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 15 years later, my relationship with skiing has completely transformed thanks to finding WTNB (Women, Trans, Non-Binary), BIPOC, and queer community – people I can see myself in. Throughout my reintroduction to skiing, I\u2019ve had the honor of connecting with women, trans, and non-binary people that hold different intersections of identities and experiences. Skiing amplifies my gender euphoria and is one way I feel ownership of my body, but it is the community that has afforded me the safety to be myself. My body has felt phantom to me for most of my life, and many see my body as a woman\u2019s body. It has experienced similar change, pain, and growth to many other women. Even though I no longer identify as a woman, it\u2019s impossible to separate my woman-ness from my non-binary, Korean, adoptee, and skier identities. I am ready to take the leap from resort to the backcountry as my whole self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voile\u2019s support through their platform and scholarship enables me to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n