Since 1972, OCDE’s Inside the Outdoors environmental education program has been generating unique memories for students who go on to become successful adults.
Gloria Montiel is one of them.
As a fifth-grader, she and her classmates visited Modjeska Canyon to learn about the local ecosystem and the interconnectedness of nature. In fact, the lessons of that trip connected science to real life, and they continue to reverberate.
“For me, it was definitely a transformational experience that to this day I remember,” she says.
Montiel attended Santa Ana High School, which became a stepping stone to Harvard University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and her teaching credential. And now she’s incorporating the lessons she learned from Inside the Outdoors into her chosen career field. Watch her explain in the video above.
And to learn more about Inside the Outdoors, visit the program’s website.