|
|
In January 2021, Regina and Anna founded Revision Education to help answer the nation-wide call for increased accessibility and inclusivity in outdoor spaces, particularly in response to the racial reckoning of the summer of 2020, the youth mental health crisis resulting from the pandemic, and the ever growing climate crisis. Outdoor educators and classroom teachers, Regina and Anna met while teaching at High Tech High Chula Vista (“HTHCV”), a Title I project-based learning school in San Diego, CA, where around 90% of students identify as non-white. A refugee from Ukraine, Regina found healing in taking part in her university’s outdoor leadership program, and wanted to facilitate the same for her students. In 2015, she started the first OLT club, which Anna later co-directed.
|
The club facilitated weekly afterschool meetings and free monthly camping and backpacking trips all over California and even in Utah, Arizona, and Alaska. Through OLT, students experienced the outdoors surrounded by a community that reflected their experiences and identities, versus trying to fight for a voice in a white-dominated outdoor space.
|
|
|
Now, the club is entirely run by a student cabinet, all trips are planned and facilitated by student leaders, and before COVID hit, the number of participants climbed to almost a quarter of the school, with about 400 students participating since its inception.
Since its founding in January 2021, the goal of Revision Education has been to work with schools to start outdoor programs that similarly give students with marginalized identities the opportunity to feel belonging, confidence, and competence in outdoor spaces. Simultaneously, our goal has been to hire students to work with us to develop and run this program to ensure it reflects their ideas, needs, and opinions, and to further develop their skills and identities as outdoor leaders.
In June of 2021, we were awarded 4.0 School’s Essential Fellowship to pilot our idea. By August, we had hired four high school and college students to work with us, all of whom identify as non-white. By October, we contracted with High Tech High Chula Vista to restart the OLT program after it was shut down by the pandemic, allowing us to pilot our training structure. We trained ten teachers and nine student leaders in outdoor community building, risk management, outdoor living skills, and program logistics that culminated in a multi-day training trip. The trainings were a success. The club is facilitating weekly meetings with regular participation and has three more trips planned for the semester.
In June of 2021, we were awarded 4.0 School’s Essential Fellowship to pilot our idea. By August, we had hired four high school and college students to work with us, all of whom identify as non-white. By October, we contracted with High Tech High Chula Vista to restart the OLT program after it was shut down by the pandemic, allowing us to pilot our training structure. We trained ten teachers and nine student leaders in outdoor community building, risk management, outdoor living skills, and program logistics that culminated in a multi-day training trip. The trainings were a success. The club is facilitating weekly meetings with regular participation and has three more trips planned for the semester.
|
|
Our next partnership is with Latitude High School. They also have a pre-existing outdoor program, but don’t yet have the infrastructure to make it student-run or self-sustaining. Our goal is to adapt the model that we developed in our pilot to the needs of Latitude, it’s students, and it’s program
