Student Stories: Jean-Baptiste Le Cann (MiM), a four-day trek designed to bring people together

I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to be part of TREKEMA

When I joined Adréna'Lille as a first-year student in the Master in Management Program (PGE) in late 2025, the TREKEMA project immediately caught my attention. I’m a trail-running enthusiast, so naturally, spending several days hiking in the mountains, sleeping in tents, and experiencing life outdoors is right up my alley.

But what really made me want to get involved goes far beyond the sports aspect. It’s the opportunity to have a genuine human experience. This year, 25 of us will be taking part in the adventure: 16 SKEMA students, three members of the organizing team, including me, and six people from the Perce-Neige Foundation, including support staff. This mix of backgrounds is exactly what TREKEMA is all about.

On the trail, you connect with people differently

For four days, we’ll be making our way through the Vaucluse Mountains together. There will inevitably be miles adding up, elevation gain starting to take its toll on our legs, breaks we’ll be eagerly looking forward to, and evenings when everyone comes back together after a long day.

With the members of the Perce-Neige Foundation, that is exactly the spirit we want to bring to this adventure. We don’t want to manufacture an encounter. We simply want to give ourselves the time and space to experience something together.

What I’m most looking forward to, though, are all the moments that will happen along the way. When you spend several hours walking alongside someone, conversation comes pretty naturally, with topics passing by almost as quickly as the miles. You start by talking about simple things, and sometimes the conversation becomes more personal. You discover someone else’s journey, their experiences, and a way of looking at life that may be different from your own.

That’s also what I love about hiking: you move at the same pace, you share the same effort, and somehow, differences become much less important.

With the members of the Perce-Neige Foundation, that is exactly the spirit we want to bring to this adventure. We don’t want to manufacture an encounter. We simply want to give ourselves the time and space to experience something together.

Before hitting the trails, there are months of preparation

Of course, when you think about TREKEMA, you picture the scenery, backpacks, and nights spent under canvas. That’s the starting point. But from our perspective, we also see everything that happens before we even set off. Preparing four days like these takes months of work.

We have to map out the route, plan accommodations, organize equipment and transportation, manage a budget of around €5,000, and, above all, make sure the adventure can take place safely and under the right conditions for everyone. This third edition also has something different about it. Previous editions traditionally took place in the Vercors, whereas this year we chose the Vaucluse Mountains. Changing locations also means accepting that you have to start partly from scratch and rethink a whole range of details.

And as departure day gets closer, the pressure inevitably starts to build a little. But it’s also the moment when all those months of preparation finally become real.

In Vietnam, I realized that simply being there could already make a difference...

The reason the human side of TREKEMA matters so much to me is also connected to another experience I had recently. I’m a member of HOPE, SKEMA’s humanitarian student association, and this summer I spent a month at an orphanage in Hue, Vietnam. Before leaving, I genuinely wondered what we could contribute on our scale.

I arrived wondering what we could realistically change on the ground and how we could have a positive, inclusive impact.

Once I got there, my perspective completely changed. Some of the children had been through extremely difficult experiences. And yet what struck me was how things that might seem very simple to us took on an entirely different meaning there: simply being present, spending time together, playing, talking, and sharing a moment.

I arrived wondering what we could realistically change on the ground and how we could have a positive, inclusive impact. I left realizing that you don’t necessarily have to do something huge to make a difference. It’s an experience that has stayed with me. It continues to shape my everyday life and the way I approach this new TREKEMA project.

Of course, TREKEMA will involve a physical challenge. We’ll be walking, climbing, and our legs will probably hurt at times. There will likely be fatigue, unexpected challenges, and moments when we’ll need to support one another to keep moving forward. But no one is there to race against the clock.

What interests me most is everything we can’t plan: a conversation around a bend in the trail, someone giving another person a helping hand on a climb, a shared laugh during a break, or simply the satisfaction of reaching the end of the day together.

Because ultimately, TREKEMA is four days of hiking, but more importantly, it’s four days during which 25 people with very different backgrounds will share the same adventure. And I think that’s what we’ll remember once we’re back home.

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N.B. The TREKEMA student project is led by the Adréna'Lille student association in partnership with the Perce-Neige association.