Senator Patty Murray Visits NatureBridge in Olympic National Park
On April 5, 2023, our NatureBridge team at Olympic was honored to host U.S. Senator Patty Murray on our campus. Senator Murray and her team joined us for an afternoon, learning about NatureBridge’s mission to connect young people to the wonder and science of the natural world. During her visit, the Senator spoke with NatureBridge staff about the importance of outdoor education, joined students participating in NatureBridge programs on campus and followed the path of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other national leaders as she explored the historic Rosemary Inn historic district—the heart of the campus and the location of Olympic National Park’s dedication in 1938.
Senator Murray and her team were accompanied by NatureBridge staff and representatives from the National Park Service for a quick campus tour. She was impressed to learn about the wide-ranging impact at Olympic where we serve over 4,000 students and award over $265,000 in scholarships annually, supporting schools’ access to our environmental science education programs and nearly 30,000 students per year across all our NatureBridge locations.
The Senator, a former teacher herself, was especially interested in learning about our pedagogy. In addition to examining how we integrate Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into our lessons, Senator Murray heard how outdoor education programs support social and emotional learning, trauma-informed education, interconnectedness between students, environmental stewardship, and more. She was also very interested in NatureBridge’s Theory of Change model and our Education Advisory Council, both of which help ensure that our instructional strategies are informed by the latest academic research in the field and continue to achieve a high standard of excellence.
We are so grateful that the Senator and her team were able to join us on campus and that we were able to personally thank them for their work establishing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that helped us navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
No visit to our campus would be complete without a spirited team-building game, and so we invited Senator Murray to observe the joy and enthusiasm of students immersing themselves in this breathtaking setting—a true highlight of the visit.
Photos courtesy of the Office of Senator Patty Murray and Katie Risser
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