Growing up in Southern California, I was exposed to many of its unique ecosystems from an early age, especially when taking family camping trips to the mountains and summer trips to the beach. However, it took me 19 years of living within two hours of Joshua Tree National Park to finally step foot in the futuristic landscape that continues to grasp the imagination of its 3 million visitors each year. Once I made it to this unique desert, I was hooked. I spent the next three years of my college experience planning trips out there to backpack, climb rocks, or just watch a beautiful sunset with some friends.
As a child my parents put me in numerous extracurricular activities, and I was particularly active in Girl Scouts. I spent summers with my troop camping in the mountains of Idyllwild, which were some of the most impactful moments of my adolescence that I still cherish today. I think that if I were to have gone to a camp in Joshua Tree my perception of the desert would have been completely altered and provided those same significant experiences in an environment I may not have otherwise visited. The basics of camp for younger ages, including arts and crafts, conversations with rangers, and hiking can all be applied to the program Joshua Tree Residential Education Experience (JTREE) is building. Camp helps kids understand themselves and their peers better, learn through hands-on activities, and make meaningful experiences outside of their home environment.
The desert is often underrated, viewed as a lackluster environment drowned in excessive heat waves, but Joshua Tree breaks this misconception. The landscape of Joshua Tree National Park gives it an advantage over other California national parks. You can teach hiking and backpacking basics, an intro to rock climbing, the importance of fault lines in creating ecosystems, count constellations throughout the Milky Way at night, bike along the scenic Park Blvd, explore wildflowers in the Spring, and learn about native cultures from over 6,000 years ago, all in the same place. The complexity of this landscape makes it a unique space to teach kids about the importance of nature and our relationship with it, thus molding them into environmental stewards of tomorrow.
I spent my Junior and Senior years at the University of Redlands as an Outdoor Programs Trip Leader, which trains students to lead a variety of outdoor trips for their peers. In Outdoor Programs we did everything with intentionality. Every decision we made, on campus and on the trail, had a purpose. This ranged from setting group expectations, to teaching about Leave No Trace principles, and coordinating meaningful conversations about the world, nature, and our existence within it. Although the age demographic will be very different for JTREE, intentionality will still be sewn into the fabric of camp life. All of the factors mentioned above are methods in which done with intentionality, can provide amazing outcomes for underserved students.
Being in the outdoors changes the way you process and learn new things. Programs that bring students in nature are becoming ever more important as we become engulfed in technology from younger and younger ages. Ben McCue, Executive Director of Outdoor Outreach, an organization aiming to inspire students by experiencing the outdoors, explains, “The outdoors can provide a physical and mental refuge that helps us process and deal with the stress of daily life.”
This is highlighted in the mission for JTREE, which has a unique opportunity to tackle multiple issues that face the future generation at once. I fully believe this program will benefit students locally and across the Southern California region, breaking the typical mold in which outdoor camps are usually developed in the mountains and at the beach. Personally, I am envious that I was not able to experience this camp during my own childhood.
