Thanks to Jon, Destry and other impactful leaders and passionate teachers, NatureBridge has served 8,964 kids since 2012 in Prince William Forest Park. After nearly 80 years, the park is living up to the promise of experiential education that was made in the 1930s. On the very same grounds where segregated housing was built, NatureBridge centers equity in its student programs. Not only is the promise being realized, but it is being expanded and made better for the next 50 years and beyond.

Andrew West attended Yosemite Institute in 1997 as a high school junior with a group of students from the Redding Area. That trip was transformative for Andrew. It was the foundation of his life's work, as he returned to Yosemite National Park upon college graduation where he worked for over a decade.

When Isabel Esparza was nine years old, she said goodbye to her family, greeted a crew of friendly flight attendants and flew half-way across the country to Michigan — alone. It was one of many trips for the former NatureBridge educator that was driven by her mother’s adventurous spirit. Isabel shares how that infectious spirit influenced her career path and the way she dreams of raising her own children. She also reflects on how an equity thought experiment she would propose — “Imagine a scientist” — helped students at our Mid-Atlantic campus see themselves represented in environmental education.