Grant Funds Forward Social & Emotional Learning at NatureBridge
In recognition of our efforts to support students’ social and emotional development in our environmental science program, NatureBridge was recently selected as a grantee amongst leading youth development organizations considered by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation to be a part of its Character Development Initiative.
NatureBridge programs emphasize personal growth and interpersonal skills. #
Students spend their days working in small learning groups with a skilled environmental science educator. Through reflection, team building activities, and group challenges, students develop stronger social awareness and learn more about themselves. Our educators make learning challenging, engaging, and meaningful. NatureBridge’s curriculum also incorporates multicultural perspectives on humans’ relationship with the natural world that are meaningful to students of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
We are honored to have been recently selected as a grantee amongst leading youth development organizations considered by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation to be a part of its Character Development Initiative. Roughly 48% of our nation’s youth will come into contact with one of these organizations over the course their K-12 career; together, we have tremendous potential to influence and support their development. At NatureBridge, grant funds will catalyze our focus on social and emotional learning, building on our existing strengths to develop organization-wide systems for staff training, support, and accountability. We seek to identify preferred outcomes for social and emotional learning (SEL) in overnight, informal educational settings, ultimately leading to greater program impact across the field of environmental education.
This fall, educators on our campuses participated in trainings focused on SEL in an effort to establish common language and explore the alignment between SEL research and environmental education. The training was grounded in CASEL’s Core Competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making). Educators worked together to identify practices that they currently use that support social and emotional growth in their students. This work will help us to increase the confidence and competence of our educators in incorporating SEL into NatureBridge programming.
Stories
Fall Reflections from NatureBridge Yosemite
As an environmental science educator, I spend a lot of time teaching about nature, but this season I’ve been finding that as it turns out, nature has a lot to teach us, too. Sometimes I can let the trees, the meadow, and the lichen teach for me. They show us how to respect each other’s boundaries, how to celebrate differences, how to work together, and how to lean on each other’s strengths in order to exist in a new place. These lessons felt incredibly relevant to me heading into the first week of November, a notoriously busy time at NatureBridge Yosemite. I wanted to focus on messages of kindness and inclusivity with my students, I wanted them to feel a sense of belonging in this new space, and I also hoped that they would share those messages with others.
An Incredible 10th Anniversary of Evening on the Lake
On October 25, the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle buzzed with celebratory energy as over 300 NatureBridge guests and supporters gathered for the 10th anniversary of "Evening on the Lake," our signature Pacific Northwest fundraising event for our Olympic campus.
"Science became fun" at NatureBridge for Alum Laura Lomeli Russert
Laura Lomeli Russert is a NatureBridge alum who grew up in Groveland, CA and now calls Washington, D.C. home. Laura’s journey with NatureBridge began when she attended the Golden Gate campus as a young student with her class from Tenaya Elementary. Laura credits NatureBridge with shaping not only her love for nature but also her passion for education and science. "Science became fun,” she recalls. “You weren’t learning from a textbook anymore, and it became so much more real." Her hands-on, scientific experiences at NatureBridge laid the foundation for her eventual pursuit of a Ph.D. in psychology. “I feel like I owe a lot to NatureBridge."