NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! Spring Break YLINC 2014 Day 5 and 6

Friday was the last day the students would spend camping, and it easily could have been their best night.

We returned to Stephen F. Austin State University to the beautiful Pineywoods Native Plant Center, which maintains the historic Tucker House and the resplendent Tucker Woods park. The Tucker Woods is a bottomland hardwood environment with paved trails snaking throughout and lies adjacent to LaNana Creek in Nacogdoches, Texas, providing a natural escape and outdoor laboratory for SFASU faculty, staff and students.



As soon as the students got there, they did something very helpful for Elyce Rodewald, director of the PNPC. Several trees had recently been planted around the new educational building at the PNPC and the mulch around their bases was thick. The PLT Greenschools students, having learned about tree planting from when the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation came to Austin High School, simply pulled some of the mulch away from the base of the tree to prevent rot. Nobody told them to do it or even suggested doing it, they just saw a problem and tackled it. Ms. Rodewald was very grateful to the campers for their simple but effective thoughtfulness.

Gaby Bravo (left foreground), Chris Williams (right foreground), Emerson Hernandez (left background), and Anthony Ranmos (right background) saving bald cypress trees from stem rot at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center. 

Dr. Neill Armstrong, Assistant Professor of the Department of Secondary Education & Educational Leadership, talked with the students about achieving their goals at college, and how educators themselves are important, since they are the ones who can empower children to achieve their dreams. But he reminded the campers that it is just as important to give back to their communities, and use their talents to better the world.

Dr. Neill Armstrong, talks to the students about what its like being a teacher, and while there will always be a critical need for educators to lead children to brighter futures. He also encouraged the to pursue their dreams, attend college, and never stop learning.

Sam Camarillo, SFASU graduate student in Silviculture, gave the kids a tour of Tucker Woods and explained the different treatments foresters use to manage forests for timber production. He mixed in a little STEM lesson as well, teaching students some basic Botany principles such as alternate vs. compound leaves, and the difference between needle type leaves and scale type leaves. Sam then split the group into two groups, and had them compete in three different games: with a real deer antler from the forests of East Texas as the prize for a single winner. The first game involved the groups racing to stand in a certain formation that described a type of sivicultural treatment: all the students would sit down for a clearcut, for example.

Sam Camarillo, SFASU graduate student, talks Silviculture (the art and science of growing a forest) with our Y-LINC campers.

Manuel Reyes one Sam Camarillo's informative game which tested the students knowledge of silviculture. Manuel has been accepted into Stephen F. Austin State University and will be majoring in Biology.

Then, the students went to the SFASU ropes course at the SFA Recreation Trails on Surveyor's Hill, where they challenged their fears and tackled the climbing courses with gusto. They especially enjoyed the zip line: the reward at the end of the high flying ropes course.

Giovanni Castro braves the ropes course at the Stephen F. Austin Recreation Trails on Surveyor's Hill. At the end of the course is a zip line. 

Della Barbato, PLT Greenschools! coordinator, and Stephen F. Austin High School student Gaby Bravo swing on the zip line.

Once home, they set up an enormous feast, and danced in the lake house for hours. It was a great way to spend the last night on the lake.

Farewells

On Saturday, the kids will be spending the afternoon at the Texas Wildlife and Woodland Expos, where they will be volunteering for several different event booths. Then they will be going back to their homes in Houston.

Juan Elizondo, Media and Communications teacher at Stephen F. Austin High School, said to the campers as they gathered on last time on the lake house porch "This is not the end here. I encourage all of y'all to think about how you can go out and help connect with others." He pointed out that while the students all came from different tracks in their high school careers, they all worked together to make Y-LINC a good experience. He enjoined them to remember all their fellow students who did not have an opportunity like this to go out into nature, and try their best to do something that would pay it forward, to help the world become a better place, no matter what they do.

Thanks for following our journey! We have plans to have another Youth in Nature Leadership Challenge in August this year! Watch for our Fundly campaign, coming soon!

The Camper's Voice

What some of the campers thought about their experiences, challenges and opportunities they faced by being in nature.

Valeria Barron: "It was good. We communicated alot, and we got to know each other better."

Nestor H. Vazquez: "When I was leaving the city I actually felt good and nervous because I didn't know what to expect about this new experience I was going to be in."

Manuel Reyes-Leon: "I liked camping overall. It was a good experience to push me out of my comfort zone, getting to share experiences with others by gathering around the fire or eating together."

Gabriela Bravo: "I felt excited, anxious, nervous, happy as we were getting out of the city. I saw more beautiful places and small towns."

Cynthia Cantu: "I felt like I was released from a cage. I saw that the closer we got to our destination, the more nature and clean air there was."

Flor Bernal: "The relationships I have developed between my fellow campers was being able to get to know their personalities and getting to be more connected to them than just a stranger."

Giovanni Castro: "During this I've understood every one's own texture in how they feel and care for one another."

Chris Williams: "My challenge was to overcome my fear in the woods."

Nestor Vazquez: "One of the challenges was not having access to the Internet to talk with my friends, but I realize that this is what makes it special, because you are free of everything and everybody. There's only you and nature, and problems and worries disappear magically."

Can't wait to see these smiling faces in August! Subscribe to our blog for the latest FNFGT news!
Top Row Left to Right: Austin High School Art Teacher David De Hoyos, Eliseo Hernandez, Gilberto Carreon, Carlos Jimenez, Maunel Reyes,  Giovanni Castro, Flor Bernal, Abiel Montalvo, Cynthia Cantu, Luis Cruz, Chris Williams, Dr. Warren Conway, US Forest Service Conservation Education Specialist Tamberly Conway, Anthony Ramos, Emerson Hernandez.
Bottom Row Left to Right: Austin High School Media and Communications Teacher Juan Elizondo, Nestor Vazquez, Gaby Bravo, PLT Greenschools Coordinator Della Barbato, Valeria Barron, FNFGT Executive Director David Clipson, Naielli Hidalgo, Lyndi Long