Sweet Success in the National Park Juliet Dana Its easy to forget that great moments are hard

to plan. But I have learned that, more often than not, they just sneak up. Truly, no fantastic lesson plan or perfectly explained activity will override the power of treating young people with respect and valuing their opinions. Those sweet moments come at the end of days I thought might never end, theyre sparked by kids I thought were tough nuts to crack. And, truth be told, thats probably why their sweetness is precisely so sweet. One such particularly sweet moment came on Thursday afternoon of a weeklong spring break day program. The program, called Pura Vida (The Good Life) in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), was created under the auspices of a grant from the National Park Foundation in an effort to increase park access amongst underserved populations in gateway communities. In Jackson, TSS and GTNP collaborated to design a rich, robust week for local Latino middle school students. In our minds, the week would be fascinating, full of adventure, great art projects to complement interesting guest speakers, some awesome field science to accompany lively teambuilders and group games. In reality, it was spring break in Jackson, and the students and I were stuck here in mud season. Our first day had a more than a few normal first-day jitters it was a pilot program after all, and our students were brave trailblazers and our second day brought whiteout conditions, freezing rain, the worst weather Id seen all winter. No one, least of all our intrepid middle schoolers, wanted to be exploring outside. We had an important meeting with a wildlife biologist, to be joined by a reporter and several other park officials. It seemed difficult to explain to these students that they were, in many ways, the guinea pigs for this program and also ambassadors of their community, but I also wanted to impress upon them the importance of showing up respectful. Given our track record with other park officials who struggled to captivate our tough crowd, I was nervous about how this meeting would go. Each of our charming, expressive, and very typical middle school students climbed sleepily out of the van at the Kelly Warm Springs, and we ambled over to the small crowd of uniformed adults. John Moeny, who specializes in hay fields research (already a dry topic), wore a huge grin and shook each students hand. He mentioned that his area of expertise was the hay fields, but immediately he broadened the topic to resource management and cooperative conservation practices between the parks and their surrounding communities. Almost before they realized it, he was explaining the role-play they were going to embrace. His

earnestness and enthusiasm was contagious despite the difficult sell of his topic and by the time he whipped out the official ranger hats they could wear, they were sold. Transporting ourselves back 60 years, we began to prepare our arguments as either park officials who wanted to incorporate the private ranches and homesteads into expanding park boundaries or as Jackson Hole citizens whose livelihoods and homes were at risk of being lost to the government. I saw the embers glowing in these students eyes as I challenged them to create personalities and compelling statements. Judge Moeny called the interested parties over to a mediating session and then let them loose. All of the sudden, the cultural and natural history of this park fused and ignited their arguments. Tempers flared alongside impish grins. You cant be so selfish! one student (the park superintendent) exploded at another (a rancher for nearly 50 years!) but between fits of laughter and gifted poker faces, we slowly, thoughtfully hashed out a compromise. I got to step back at one moment and just watch them articulate their carefully considered points while alternating friendly jabs and dramatic reactions. They brought up the conflicting and dovetailed issues of habitat conservation, economic stimulus, sense of place felt by humans and animals, overpopulation and extinction of all species including humans, and the role national parks play in gifting to the public land that could be (or has been) private. I hadnt realized how much they had been paying attention over these past few days. All of them but one had been born in Mexico, but it was clear these topics had relevance to them. It was a conversation theyd had before: in their classrooms here in Jackson, on a local scale because they live with the Tetons in their backyard, and on a human scale because, as another student said, Everybody wants to have beautiful places to go, but also everyone wants to have a home. As an AmeriCorps volunteer, Ive had the privilege to work with a wide range of students in my time here at TSS, but this afternoon at the Kelly Warm Springs was unique in the way it pulled together so many of the pieces that make this work important. Young people were taking great pleasure from this national park, they were critically examining their habitat and how it came to be, they were working together and articulating themselves eloquently, they were having a great deal of fun, and the sense of camaraderie was almost palpable between us. Many moments of that week struck me as meaningful, significant, or poignant, but Thursday was a surprising, and powerful, combination. After playing a rousing game of PDQ with John, the rangers, and the photographer, we left with spirits high. The students clambered back into the van anxious to know who our next special guest would be and if they could ask him to play games with us, too. And, Juliet, one girl very seriously told me (I could feel the sweet moment coming on), he was too interesting. I looked at her quizzically, waiting for her to continue. Well, she said, I think I might be a biologist when I grow

up.