Los Angeles, CA

Crenshaw High School here in Los Angeles is in many ways the definition of what is wrong with public education in America. With over a 40% drop out rate and gang violence a constant the school has become in many ways a daycare center for troubled adolescents. While the statistics back up this claim there is so much more to Crenshaw if you look a little deeper. Since 2002 through the efforts of Bill Vanderberg, the Dean of Students and my lead volunteer, the Crenshaw High School Eco Club has grown from a small after-school club into the largest after-school program at Crenshaw with over a hundred members. The Eco Club has helped so many children move their life in a positive direction. The Club takes kids to local parks such as Ken Hahn State Recreation Area http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=612 for weekly hikes and trail clean up but also holds an annual Survivor Challenge where young people who have never experienced the outdoors get an opportunity to see the stars  and enjoy smores for the first time and see that there is nature in their community! The Eco Club has helped some of its members go on to schools such as Tuskegee and Cal Berkeley to major in environmental studies. The Eco Club is helping shape a new generation of environmental leaders who represent the best and brightest of their community.

I am mentioning Crenshaw because last week Bill Vanderberg organized a week long outing with students from Crenshaw and students from Albany, New York led by Children and Nature Network Board Member Yusef Burgess to go to Yosemite National Park and participate in a Wildlink Program through the Yosemite Institute  http://wildlink.wilderness.net/wildlinkofficialprogramsummary.htm

The experience these young people had was tremendous as they saw Half Dome for the first time and got a chance to meet new friends from the other side of the country. They also got to listen to Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton  Johnson, a Buffalo Soldier Living Historian

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/hisnps/NPShistorians/invisiblemen2.pdf

who helped many of these young people see that their forefathers played an integral role in the settling in the West.

I wanted to focus on Crenshaw because so many times on this blog I talk about big picture things in the Leave No Child Inside Movement but what gets me up every day is the inspiring students at Crenshaw and leaders like Bill Vanderberg who are helping create a new generation of environmental leaders whose diversity and passion represents the best America has to offer.

I have a feeling John Muir was looking down with a smile as he saw the Crenshaw Eco Club members hiking around his scared ground.

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