What do gall wasps, mountain lions and college career decisions have in common? For a group of San Diego County high school students, they’re all part of the learning experience at Mission Trails Regional Park.
Through the nonprofit Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation’s free Eco Ambassadors program, teenagers get an up-close look at the natural world while meeting scientists, park rangers and conservation professionals, making new friends and exploring possibilities for their futures.
This fall, the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation’s free Eco Ambassadors program celebrates a milestone: 200 high school students have completed the program since it launched in 2023.
Each cohort brings together approximately 30 students from 25 to 30 schools across San Diego County for eight weeks of hands-on environmental education.
Helping lead the program is Jonathan Serna, the Foundation’s education and outreach coordinator, whose take on the outdoors can be summed up in his five favorite words: “We’re here out in the wild!” Serna loves getting students outside to learn.
The program has a particularly strong connection to the neighborhoods surrounding Mission Trails. Since 2023, 21 students from Patrick Henry High School alone have participated.
Among them is senior Lily Giancola, who’s been visiting Mission Trails with her family for as long as she can remember. Her father is a regular hiking companion, and her mother enjoys birdwatching. Lily sometimes heads into the park on her own to fit in a quick hike before school.
This fall, she joined Eco Ambassadors, where she learned from park rangers and environmental professionals about the many ways to turn a love of nature into a career.
For Lily, the experience has also reinforced something she’s known since childhood: spending time outdoors is good for the soul.
“I feel very liberated,” she said. “It gives me moments of peace when I’m in nature.”
For Leena Wyse, a senior at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts in Chula Vista, Eco Ambassadors opened her eyes to the many ways people can help protect nature.
Leena loves hiking but considers herself more of an English and history person than a scientist. The program helped her realize she could combine those interests with environmental work.
“This program helped me figure out that you could care for nature while not just being a scientist per se,” she said.
Leena also recalls learning about mountain lions, including how to respond if she ever encounters one. She enjoyed her first Eco Ambassadors experience so much that she returned this fall as a peer mentor.
And there’s evidence that the experience can have a lasting influence.
Former Eco Ambassador Jade Cely is now a sophomore at UC Berkeley, studying biology. She works as an ornithology curatorial assistant at the university’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and is considering a career studying birds.
Jade grew up hiking at Mission Trails and joined Eco Ambassadors while in high school.[JM2] She still remembers a particularly fascinating presentation about gall wasps living on oak trees.
She credits the program with expanding her understanding of scientific fieldwork and helping her narrow her academic interests.
But one of her most meaningful takeaways wasn’t academic.
“I met one of my really good friends through Eco Ambassadors,” Jade said. The two are still close, even though they attend different colleges.
For students like Lily, Leena and Jade, Eco Ambassadors offers time outdoors, opportunities to learn from professionals and connections with peers who share their love of nature.
Whether they become scientists, writers, park rangers or pursue entirely different careers, they’re gaining something that can last a lifetime: a deeper connection to the natural world.
Kinsee Morlan is the communications and external relations manager at Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation.