Alumni Community
Your NatureBridge experience doesn’t end after your program—it’s just the start of a lifelong connection! Through our Alumni community, you can stay linked to the inspiring community of NatureBridge graduates, educators, staff, and families who share your passion for the environment. Reconnect with nature and each other through alumni events, outdoor adventures, and ongoing learning opportunities. Plus, explore ways to network with fellow alumni in your area and beyond. Together, we can continue to build a community dedicated to stewardship and a love for the natural world.
Alumni Quotes
For me, NatureBridge was a life changing experience. I will always look back at the wonderful memories that NatureBridge has given me.
Reflecting on my time at NatureBridge, I realize it has become a repository of core memories. These are the moments that define my journey, serving as beacons of joy and inspiration. I cherish each memory created during my stays and eagerly anticipate the prospect of returning in the years to come. NatureBridge has woven itself into the fabric of my life, and I eagerly await the next chapter of adventure and discovery it holds.
Because of NatureBridge, I was able to see people like myself outdoors… Being in Yosemite solidified my decision for my future career path… I wish to inspire, teach, and instill the love and care I have for the great outdoors on to future generations.
Although it was only one week out of the hundreds of weeks I have lived, the ripple it created grew into a wave that I will never forget. Thank you so much, Nature Bridge, for this memory. I will remember it forever.
For once, I got to experience what being a scientist is like, and it was something I could see myself doing in the future. This was definitely one of the major highlights of my trip, and something I will remember for a long time.
NatureBridge has given me [the opporuntity] to make a positive impact on others lives and the environment and how I can help make a difference in preserving our natural world.
Thank you Nature Bridge for the wonderful experience and lessons you provided me in such a short span of time!
Through NatureBridge, students like me are guided through our overwhelming, interconnected environment, facing the harsh realities of our changing world while being motivated towards positive climate action.
Alumni Stories
Blog Posts
Rooted in Nature: How Anya Gupta Found Her Path with NatureBridge
"It’s pretty impressive to say that I’ve been obsessed with a place since I was 13—thanks to the NatureBridge program!” For alum Anya Gupta, that place is Yosemite National Park. Starting with her eighth grade trip to NatureBridge Yosemite in 2014—a trip that Anya declares “changed my life”—Anya has been pursuing paths that would allow her to return to Yosemite to explore, discover and serve. Even when she is physically distant from the park (as she is right now while completing dual bachelor’s degrees in Earth Climate Science and Environmental Science at Duke University), Anya keeps Yosemite close to her heart.
Alumni Spotlight: Ryan Hunt
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.
Alumni Spotlight: Cassie Hughes
“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.
Alumni Spotlight: Whitney Mowll
Whitney Mowll’s experience with NatureBridge (then Yosemite Institute) always returns to the question “Why,” but not in the way you might expect. An innocuous moment conducting water monitoring tests caused Whitney to wonder why she only thought of science as a singular experience revolving around lab coats and test tubes, and why does any of this type of science matter in our daily lives? This led her on a lifetime’s work in and around environmental education and stewardship. Now, as the Executive Coordinator for the National Park Service Friends Alliance and Instructor at the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, “Why” is the question that continues to inspire her work both personally and professionally.
Alumni Spotlight: Julie Byerly
At NatureBridge, our goal is to inspire every student to become an environmental steward—and there are as many different expressions of that commitment as there are NatureBridge alumni. For some students, their NatureBridge experience even inspires their career trajectory and crystallizes their sense of identity as champions of our wildlife and wild spaces. One such student alum is Julie Byerly.
Student to Steward: Marisa Granados’s Unstoppable Trajectory
We last spoke with 2018 NatureBridge Student of the Year Marisa Granados six months prior to the onset of COVID-19 in the U.S. At the time, a day in the life of Marisa sounded as wildly busy as it did impressive: she was the resident assistant of a dorm, honors student, weekend snowboarder, NOLS Wilderness First Responder, blog writer, an involved fellow with Our Climate Voices and she even logged hours in pursuit of her private pilot license.
In the subsequent years, Marisa has drawn closer to obtaining her degree in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, and has faced the same challenges that many students have due to the pandemic — isolation, a virtual learning environment, increased academic pressure.
Her experience and insights about self-care and trying to conduct science fieldwork in a virtual setting only serve to highlight why she won Student of the Year in the first place.