Stories from the Field

We were fortunate to reconnect recently with NatureBridge Golden Gate (formerly The Headlands Institute) alum Ryan Hunt at our Olympic campus. During his visit to Olympic, Ryan and his fellow team members met with NatureBridge CEO and President Phil Kilbridge, Olympic Campus Director Jen Kidder, National Park Service staff and members of our Olympic staff. They toured the campus and learned how NatureBridge has evolved since Ryan’s time as a student at The Headlands Institute in 1991. Ryan shared about his NatureBridge program where he learned about marine life and ecosystems in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, an experience he termed “seminal” to who he is today. Currently, Ryan serves as a senior staff member on the US Senate Appropriations Committee where he recommends to the Senate how funds should be spent, particularly in relation to the preservation of outdoor spaces.

NatureBridge is pleased to announce Dr. Jordan Thayer as one of our guest speakers at Evening on the Lake, our signature Pacific Northwest event. The event will be held on October 6, 2023 at the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle, where we will spend an unforgettable evening highlighting our Olympic National Park programs and celebrating the stewards of today. We hope you can join us!

A deeply engaged, entrepreneurial, inclusive and collaborative board is necessary for NatureBridge’s long-term success. We seek multiple individuals eager to collaborate with us to elevate NatureBridge to reach new heights and shape the next phase of our journey toward greater impact.

Since opening in 2007, the Intertidal Lab at NatureBridge Golden Gate has been a student and staff favorite. The lab’s “touch tank” aquarium and the experiential learning it offers draw young people and adults alike to its waters for a hands-on exploration of Northern California marine life. It is a space unique to the Golden Gate campus, and it never fails to inspire questions and observations from visiting student groups. As a tool for developing young people’s scientific inquiry skills and passion for the marine environment, the Intertidal Lab is second to none. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic’s temporary closure of the lab represented a heartbreaking but necessary decision in 2020.

In retrospect, the process of this year’s Armstrong Scholars adventure was unexpected. Back in January, it didn’t occur to us that the record-breaking snowfall of winter had anything to do with Armstrong Scholars in the summer of 2023, nor did we think the personal challenges we were facing as individuals had anything to do with it, either.

Last Sunday, eleven fantabulous volunteers (aka Resupply Angels) joined me in hiking fresh fruits and vegetables, bagels and yogurt, chips and cookies, along with next week’s meals to the Armstrong Scholars. This year’s resupply team was one of a kind, in that TEN of us had been Armstrong Scholars or Armstrong Scholars leaders ourselves! Three of us flew across the country to be resupply angels! We represented 2002, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022 and were all there to support the team and pay forward the goodness we’ve received from this program. It was such a delight to see Joie’s light burning so brightly on Sunday! 

“If I was still teaching, I’d still be taking kids up there.” For high school teacher Dave Ficke, class trips to Yosemite Institute (now NatureBridge Yosemite) were always the highlight of his school year. After 27 years of bringing students from Upland High School to our Yosemite campus and sharing his own enjoyment of nature with them, Dave reflects that his focus as a science teacher “was always getting them out in the environment to see and experience.” The immersive, hands-on approach offered by NatureBridge programs—coupled with the passion and compassion of NatureBridge staff—kept Dave coming back with his students year after year.

“These are your people!” Former NatureBridge staff member Cassie Hughes often thinks about this exclamation from her then-girlfriend (now spouse), which was elicited by her first visit to campus to see Cassie at work at Prince William Forest Park. Looking back now, Cassie agrees that her partner’s words succinctly summarized her NatureBridge experience; for Cassie, the best part of working at NatureBridge was “the people, for sure. An enthusiastic, passionate, fun group of people” who were incredibly supportive of Cassie and her family during several major life events and challenges.

When your classroom is the great outdoors, teaching and learning can happen anywhere! That’s the attitude Drew Gallant brings to his work with NatureBridge as a multi-campus educator. Drew first joined NatureBridge as an educator at our Prince William Forest campus in Virginia in the spring of 2022. From there, his multi-campus adventures have taken him to two of our California sites, Dangermond Preserve and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Although it’s located across the country from his childhood home of Maine, Drew now considers our Golden Gate campus to be “home.” This isn’t surprising, considering his favorite NatureBridge memory is that of sighting a pod of dolphins off Rodeo Beach with a group of Golden Gate students!