RECognition: Risa Sundu, Outback Adventures

Recreation's monthly series where we highlight our amazing staff.

By Shawn Cyr

As we close out the first month of our new RECognition series, we'd like to focus the spotlight on one of our brightest stars in Outback Adventures: Risa Sundu!

Risa is a lead guide for our Outback Adventures program, which runs outdoor trips for UCSD students. Outback trips — which can be as short as a single day or as long as 7 days — provide an experience where participants can meet new people and try new things while connecting and engaging with nature. Trips include kayaking, canoeing, surfing, backpacking, rock climbing, hiking, snorkeling, and more.

“I went on an Outback Adventures Wilderness Orientation trip as an incoming freshman,” says Risa, who joined REC in 2021. “I thought my guides were the coolest people ever and wanted to be just like them. I'm still close friends with them to this day!”

And Outback is happy to have her, says Outdoor Education Director Simon Teale.

“Risa is cool under pressure, highly creative and perceptive,” Simon says. “Anyone on one of Risa's trips is going to have an awesome time.”

Risa, who is majoring in speculative design and cognitive science with a graduation date of spring 2025, says many of their most cherished memories at UCSD are from Outback trips — including a particular Wilderness Orientation sea kayaking trip that they led last summer.

“The whole trip was magical, and my co-guides and I loved watching the group bond even more with each day,” Risa says. “The most memorable moment was when we saw the most unique and beautiful bioluminescence and all shared in the delight of that experience.”

When she’s not guiding trips, you can often catch her on a wave — “I love to surf, which I learned to do when I came to UCSD,” she says — or making (and breaking) things at EnVision Arts & Engineering Maker Studio.

“I love to design and create, from laser cut and 3D-printed jewelry to interactive electronic displays,” they say.