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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.

There is an exceptional passion that radiates from environmental educators at NatureBridge. Its intricacies and quirks are unique to each individual but it is a shared understanding and force that bonds our multi-campus team. That passion is palpable in Chelsea Behymer, our new Program Manager in Olympic National Park, who with barely two months on the job, has already made an impact on the staff, educators and students she supports.

Behind core elements of NatureBridge’s programming, there is a collection of intelligent scientists, professors, researchers and experts in the fields of overnight environmental education. They conduct studies, help publish papers that aid the broader environmental education community and incorporate the latest data to ensure even greater student success for years to come. They are NatureBridge’s Education Advisory Council (EAC), and in speaking with one of its founding members, Dr. Mary Kiely, and its current chair, Dr. Nicole Ardoin, it’s easy to see how this powerful collection of academics is helping to put NatureBridge on the national stage.

Now a highly valued and respected Board Emeritus, Linda Brownstein helped NatureBridge weather some of the organization’s most difficult crises through the years. She turned significant vision into reality and created the space for new policy ideation and strategic planning. “It changed how I live my daily life — supporting other environmental causes, recycling, composting, organic farming…some of the most impactful things I've done have really been from NatureBridge.”

Welcome to the fourth and final feature in our Sense of Place series: Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The national park sits just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, enveloped by the majestic Marin Headlands. Its beaches, wetlands and coastal prairies boast a myriad of ecosystems and habitats to explore and opportunities to build meaningful relationships with the natural world.

Students are back on our Yosemite, Olympic and Golden Gate campuses! Hiking boots are hitting the trails, canoes are gliding into the water and our staff and students are having a blast out in our national park classrooms. Read on for a few highlights from our campuses.