Student Alumni

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.

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.

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.

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.

This story is part of our series, Students to Stewards, focused on the incredible trajectories of former NatureBridge students. Specifically, the impact of their program experience on where they are today. Ethan Elkind’s trajectory from a NatureBridge student in the 1990s to a leader in climate change research today is not typical, but it is illustrative — a significant, transformative NatureBridge experience played a role in Ethan’s life that went beyond spurring appreciation of nature. Read our interview with Ethan where we talked about how NatureBridge informed his worldview, the biggest victories he sees in climate policy and why he’s thankful for one particularly infamous meteor.

Rachel Davis is a rare story—she has seen and experienced NatureBridge from almost every possible angle. From an enthusiastic student taking part in a NatureBridge program in Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1993 to a teacher leading her students into the national parks to participate in the same NatureBridge programs that once inspired her. Today, her journey expands even further as the newest member of NatureBridge’s Yosemite Board.

On a bus parked inside Yosemite National Park, Chemnui sat with her classmates as two Secret Service agents in black suits and sunglasses explained the rules: no hats, no hoods; exit the bus in an orderly fashion.

The students, teacher and chaperones filed out. The group had traveled to Yosemite to take part in NatureBridge’s environmental science program. Now, they murmured to each other with excitement as the Secret Service began their briefing.

“That’s when I got nervous,” says Chemnui, who was a fourth grade student at a nearby public school in San Francisco.

“When they said ‘you’re going to meet the Obamas.’”

As the Armstrong Scholars program looks ahead to the next 50 years, one thing is for certain: the spirit of Joie is being actively kept alive. It is woven into the curriculum and through 20+ years of backcountry experiences. The scholars and the leaders and Leslie evoke Joie in ways big and small, inside and outside of the two-week journey.

My connection with NatureBridge goes back decades. In late October 1973, as a senior in high school, I joined 27 of my classmates for a week at Yosemite Institute. It wasn’t my first time exploring the great outdoors, or Yosemite for that matter, but it was magical. What made Yosemite Institute so special? Lots of things — learning lessons that wouldn’t have made any sense if we hadn’t actually experienced them, forming bonds with classmates (and teachers!) that never would have happened at school, the unique environment of the Crane Flat campus and the educators, those wonderful people who taught us so much while we just thought we were having fun. And oh my gosh, we had so much fun!