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Bill Duong

Davis, California
Inner City Outings Chair
Sacramento Group

"As a kid growing up in inner-city Oakland, I had no idea what the outdoors was all about," says Bill Duong. "I joined the environmental science academy at my high school because they offered the most field trips throughout the year."

As fate would have it, one of the directors of the academy was also a volunteer leader with the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings program (ICO), and he invited Duong, then 15 years old, to participate in a rafting trip on the American River in the Sierra Nevada.

"That trip scared me," Duong recalls. "I was in the first boat with no one downstream from me, and I ended up in the water in one rapid—and I didn't know how to swim!"

Still, the outdoor bug had bitten him, and the following summer he spent a month in the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park doing service and trail work with the Student Conservation Association. "That experience solidified my love for the outdoors," he says. "It's when I really knew I wanted to work to help protect wild places."

After high school Duong matriculated at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he planned to major in environmental studies. But he found it was "more policy-oriented than I liked, so I went into earth sciences, which allowed me to do a lot of field work outdoors." Duong now works as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm in the Sacramento area.

Through the years, Duong continued to participate in Inner City Outings as a volunteer rafting guide. When he moved to Davis, he also got involved with the local ICO group in Sacramento and volunteered on day hikes and bicycling trips. Last year, he decided to ratchet his involvement up a notch, and he underwent training to become an official ICO leader. He has now led inner-city youth on day hikes, overnight camping, and is working toward leading backpacking trips. 

"Over time, as you take kids out, you see their eyes open to the outdoors," Duong says. "It's great knowing they're having the same types of experiences that changed my life as a kid. Experiencing nature and the outdoors was totally missing from my life at that age. Now, it just makes sense for me to get outdoors—it's part of living."

Published: May 12, 2008