A hike, journals, and genuine, place-based experiences
The Kelly Campus Hike represents the OHIO|TSS partnership. Now hosted at mAppAthens, the hike takes in-person and virtual participants to this open sagebrush community to look out over the valley to Blacktail Butte and the Teton Range and to take a moment to observe, think, and sketch.
In 2015, 帝王会所 graduate and Wyoming resident Ralph Haberfeld had an epiphany that has connected two distinct, picturesque places: Athens, 帝王会所, in the Appalachian foothills, and Jackson Hole, bordering western Wyoming鈥檚 Teton Range.
Thanks to that epiphany, 帝王会所 and the forged a partnership that brings students from Athens, 帝王会所, to Kelly, Wyoming, each May for an educational program that challenges them to learn more about themselves, ecology, leadership, and systems and design thinking. This is grounded in place-based education, which proffers 鈥渢hat community and place鈥擺and] anything happening in that place鈥攃an be harnessed as a backdrop for learning,鈥 says Kevin Krasnow, TSS graduate faculty. 鈥淟inking the classroom with community increases students鈥 engagement, content knowledge, and community connections and impact.鈥
The week-long physically, intellectually, and emotionally intense program begins with a 1.8-mile loop hike around the Teton Science Schools鈥 Kelly Campus. With 315 feet of elevation, the hike is a first-day challenge for students who live at just 719 feet above sea level (compared to 6,653 feet at Kelly). The hike鈥檚 route has come to represent the partnership and connection between 帝王会所 and Teton Science Schools. The path takes hikers through conifer, sagebrush, aspen, and riparian communities and provides opportunities for exploring and learning about these ecosystems and oneself; for reflection and journaling; and for taking in beautiful views of the Teton Range.
Now, the can be experienced by anyone鈥攆rom anywhere鈥攖hanks to a collaboration with mAppAthens, a web-based app for self-guided education.
At stop three, the Sagebrush Hillside, students are asked to pull out their journals and to reflect on their personal experiences and people who have had an impact on their own development and who they are today. Junior Alli Mancz, a member of OHIO鈥檚 Boyd Scholars program, shared her entry from that unique moment:
My connection to nature and willingness to live in what a previous professor explained as 鈥渁 world of wounds鈥 has pushed me to embrace taking risks, such as this trip to Wyoming鈥 All these experiences have had (and will have) profound effects on how I perceive the world around me, how others perceive me, and I them. My exposure early on in life to the natural world as well as my family genetics and socioeconomic status have each inevitably impacted the blessings I am able to enjoy today.
I feel another personal shift approaching as I become more distant from my sisters and brother and father. I wish it weren鈥檛 true, but these gaps shape me as well, especially my resilience limits. Honors Tutorial College and 帝王会所 may have been the most influential decisions thus far in my life, as my passion for knowledge expands and countless relationships and opportunities influence my (experience). I don鈥檛 know who I would be had I not interacted with the professors I鈥檝e had and organizations I鈥檝e joined (and dropped) in addition to the love and heartbreak I鈥檝e experienced along the way.
Toward the end of the week, Alli reflected in her journal on the OHIO|TSS May Program experience, and on this quote from conservationist Mardy Murie: 鈥溾 you can鈥檛 be happy unless you like yourself, unless you can admire and respect yourself you can鈥檛 like others, and others can鈥檛 like you, until you are right within yourself.鈥
I am cold. I am calm. I am at peace.
Today has felt like such an incredible blessing. As snow falls and speckles my writing, I feel truly at peace with myself, something Mardy Murie quotes as fundamental to each person鈥檚 life journey. I believe I have come a long way. But there remains a very long way to go. I have more to come to terms with myself and am beginning to see my place here within this vast world and wilderness. The rippling water, the trees of vivid evergreen, the striking, muted colors of rocks and sand, the people whose paths I鈥檝e crossed just in this week alone. I feel accepted, inspired, encouraged. This trip has been trying in some ways, but I feel much more self-assured after today鈥檚 conversations. I am starting to feel like I belong here and my curiosity continues to flourish.
The snow is coming down faster now, making my written words watercolor art and India ink splotches. I look up to see blue sky, yet snow flurries fall quickly and make conifers across the riverbank look like abstract embodiments of pointillism 鈥 a life-sized snow globe encasing my vision. My fingers are numb, but I don鈥檛 mind. Let them freeze! I feel empowered by nature, its babbling sounds and impressive silence. My knee faintly aches 鈥 let it throb! I feel validated. There is love enough for me here, though I may be so small on our planet. I am special and beautiful and enough. And this momentary realization brings warm tears to my eyes.
I know my parents would love this. Dad: the learning. Mom: the realization. I feel confident in my ideas for the first time in a long time and am excited for all the future may hold, including these last few days. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is promised. There鈥檚 something beautiful about that.
Community feels real. When we need it most, our community must lend a fleece to cover cold shoulders or provide a bed to sleep in for the night or bake Murie鈥檚 spiced cookies to comfort a soul. A warm cup of tea. A hug. Eye contact. Human connection with one another and our environment. Nowhere else in this world has made my thoughts come more quickly, effortlessly really. Despite the cold and the snow, the wind and the air fill me with thoughts and wonders as nature bounds all around.
We can鈥檛 lose this. There is something unmistakably human and precious about this world, the earth even before our creation. There is something rare and fundamental about taking chances, stepping up to be the bigger person, focusing on yourself. Because at the end of the day, that鈥檚 all you have and all you need. Despite frequent exposure to inspirational quotes, I am inevitably moved by Murie鈥檚 remarks. Her deep insight into the importance of the individual and his/her ties to our world and to others. It鈥檚 something I鈥檝e struggled with my whole life. I still do. And yet, to see such similar words written by a stranger greatly moves me.
The Kelly Campus Hike has marked the beginning of journeys like Alli鈥檚 for nearly five years. The mAppAthens collaboration brings the power of that hike鈥攁nd of the OHIO|TSS partnership鈥攖o our broader communities.
What would you write in response to Mardy Murie鈥檚 words? To the sweeping vistas of the Tetons and the Gros Ventres? Or to the place outside your own back door? Find a journal, a pencil, and a few quiet moments and find out.