The Oakland students networking on top of a 3,849-foot mountain peak
The group knew little about one another before starting the climb, but soaking in Mount Diablo’s 100-mile views quickly brought them close.
OAKLAND – On a recent Saturday, 13 miles east of Northeastern University’s Oakland campus, a troupe of eight first-year students shielded their eyes from the late-morning sun as they gazed upward at Mount Diablo – an isolated upthrust peak that pierces the sky at its 3,849-foot summit.
Strapped into sturdy shoes, some of the students came to the 8-hour climb carrying liters of water, snacks, lemonade for cramping, and hiking poles. Others simply wore comfortable clothes and flat-bottomed sneakers. Together, the motley crew of advanced hikers and newcomers hit the trail, carefully scaling switchbacks and ridges toward an unforgettable view of the San Francisco Bay.
More than an adventurous way of exercising, the 2026 Hiking Club’s first outing on Saturday, Sept. 26, served as a novel form of professional networking, according to club president Priyanshu Singh. Though the group knew little about one another before starting the climb, their shared experience scaling Mount Diablo and soaking in its 100-mile views quickly brought them close, he said. It gave the students from different backgrounds and fields of study ample time to talk and celebrate their collective triumph, forming a rich bond that will only strengthen as the semester continues, he said.
“It’s good to know people around you,” said Singh, 19, a computer science student interested in pursuing AI and cybersecurity. “When you’re actually out in the world, they’re the ones who are going to be looking out for you.”
Hailing from New Delhi, India, Singh is one of the most experienced hikers in the newly-formed campus club. His earliest memories of hiking began when he was 8 years old exploring unlabeled paths in Mussoorie, a mountainous region in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Singh’s father works in IT and spends much of his time on the computer, he said, and so used hiking as a way to keep the family healthy and active.
After moving to Maryland for high school, Singh continued hiking wherever he could and even took over as president of his school’s hiking club in his junior year. Trailblazing across Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park gave him a thrill of adventure and connection to the natural world, he said, cementing a love of climbing that has carried over into his young adulthood.
“I want to be part of nature, I want to experience it,” Singh said. “I’m a computer science guy, so when I’m outdoors, I want to cherish those memories.”
Singh met electrical engineering student and fellow outdoorsman Alex Le Rouge during Welcome Week at Northeastern Oakland in September. Le Rouge grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, frequently hiking in the Cuyahoga National Valley, which abutted his backyard, he said.
He and Singh discovered their shared passion and decided to create the Hiking Club together, with Le Rouge serving as its operations chair. After a couple of weeks advertising their club on campus and through the NU Engage app, which is used to organize student events, the group acquired five officers, a photographer, and more than 100 interested students signed up to receive new alerts, Le Rouge said.
Singh and Le Rouge happily sacrificed their preferred, speedy hiking pace during the club’s first trip to Mount Diablo to accommodate the wide range of hiking experience among the group. They took frequent breaks on their 13-mile trek up the mountain, and Le Rouge shared the extra water he was carrying with those in need, he said.
Conversation percolated among the group as they went, Singh said. Some members shared stories of their own favorite hikes and made suggestions for the club’s next outing. Others spoke about their career plans and mused about the things they’d like to experience when they move to the Boston campus, the next step in their journey as Northeastern students.
“There were some people from my class I had just said a few words to,” Le Rouge said. “It’s nice chatting with people you don’t know.”
Editor’s Picks
Reaching Mount Diablo’s summit was well worth the difficult climb, Singh said. The group posed for portraits and snapped shots of the 360-degree view. They then enjoyed ice cream at a nearby outpost station, which can also be reached by car.
“We all felt like we got closer,” Singh said. “Getting to know stuff which we probably wouldn’t have otherwise.”
For instance, business administration and finance student Alex Sung, from Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, educated the group on various species of trout that are endemic to the West Coast. A passionate fisherman, Sung suggested that in the future, the club visit hiking locations near inland bodies of water so that he can work on catching cutthroat trout.
“They’re only in the West usually, so I definitely want to go catch at least one cutthroat before I go back to the East Coast,” he said.
Sung, 18, said he had never hiked before the Mount Diablo outing, and admitted he had arrived relatively unprepared for the extreme climb. But the struggle was worthwhile because of the new friendships the club members made along the way, he said.
“Doing something challenging is really nice, and doing it with friends was the best part,” he said. “Going through a hardship together definitely made us closer.”
Singh and Le Rouge have already mapped out a series of hikes for the rest of the fall semester, they said, and hope to organize longer club outings to famous sites like Lake Tahoe or Yosemite National Park. With enough consistency, Le Rouge said he hopes their club attracts the kind of students who value pushing themselves to achieve their goals.
Le Rouge said he has always used hiking as a form of therapy. He still thinks fondly of, as a child, setting out alone from his backyard and ending up on a distant peak, sometimes as far as 14 miles away.
“If I’m really feeling like I need to blow off some steam, I know I always have this as a mental break,” said Le Rouge, who has gone on a hike every Saturday since arriving at Northeastern’s Oakland campus. “If anybody needs that kind of thing, then they should probably join this club.”
