What Students Learn Thousands of Miles from Home in the Alaska Wilderness
Episode Notes
This teacher story is about two high school students who learned life-changing lessons, not in a classroom with four walls, desks, and chairs, but in a much bigger classroom - the Alaska wilderness. Keisha Orozco and Chris Flores spent three weeks hiking and kayaking with other students as part of STEP, a college-access and leadership program for low-income students in Arizona. Also joining this conversation is Tracy Baynes, the founder of the STEP program, which she started in 2004 after working as an oceanographer and instructor for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
Chris, Keisha, and their fellow students had experienced guides, but they served periodically as leaders during these expeditions. This story is a reminder that deep, transformative learning can happen in the absence of teachers standing up in front of a class explaining subjects to their students. It can happen away from school, without one’s electronic devices, when students have an opportunity to work together and figure things out on their own.
Chris said that he had never internalized a lesson his mother had impressed upon him - that he is his best advocate. “Being able to trust myself…that I know myself best to make those decisions and that I will make sure I will take myself wherever I need to go…That was the biggest takeaway I had from the Alaska expedition. You need to trust yourself because any risk or danger that you have in urban Arizona is amplified exponentially in Alaska.”
For Keisha — who described the experience as “brutal, but in a good way” — one of the most rewarding parts of the trip, something she attributes to being disconnected from technology, was the connections she made with other students. “I couldn't imagine not talking to them if I were glued to my phone.” A key lesson Keisha learned from this experience was confidence. “Beforehand, I was not super timid, but I would be really hesitant with myself. I didn't really think that what I had to say would make a big contribution…Now, I am definitely not afraid to make decisions, big or small,” she said.
Featured Guests:
Chris Flores
Chris is a junior at Williams College located in Massachusetts, majoring in chemistry and biology. As a child, he came to the United States from Mexico with his mom and was raised in southern Arizona. Chris is the oldest of his siblings and is the first in his family to graduate high school and attend college. He comes from a low-income and mixed-status background and was recently naturalized as a US citizen shortly after interning for the House of Representatives. His advocacy persists on campus, where he mentors underprivileged prospective students in navigating the college application process and current students in accessing college resources as a teaching assistant and tutor. Chris hopes to build communities where scientific discovery and advocacy go hand in hand. This is especially the case as a member of the Holland Lab at Williams (that recently published in the Plant Journal), which teaches elementary schoolers in rural Vermont science through hands-on experiments and data analysis. His values stemmed from life-changing experiences, especially the STEP expedition program, which assisted him in his journey to college and onwards at every step of the way. Chris is grateful to pay it forward and back so that STEP and other programs can thrive in their missions for building brighter futures.
Keisha Orozco
Keisha is a senior at Bioscience High School in Phoenix, Arizona, and will be attending the Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, class of 2029. She has been an active member of her high school and a member of the Sustainability Club and Green Shovel since her freshman year. She is now the Head of Compost. In addition to her academic interests, she has participated in research internships since her junior year, including Arizona State University’s Sonoran Photovoltaic Laboratory, where she received awards from the Arizona Hydraulic Society and ASU’s Inclusive STEM Solutions.
Currently, she is an intern in two programs: Dream Research Innovate Problem/Project Based Learning (DRIPBL), where she is helping to create a device that will revolutionize worldwide access to water. At ASU’s Science and Engineering Experience (SCENE), she is working alongside Dr. Line to analyze the atmosphere of the exoplanet.
She is excited to start her college journey out of state in August 2025 and is looking forward to the new experiences she will have. She is interested in pursuing mechanical engineering but is open to other majors. She is thrilled to become a Lafayette Leopard and hopes to join their EXCEL research team.
Tracy Baynes
Tracy Baynes is the Founder and CEO of STEP: Student Expedition Program (STEP College-Prep) – a college access and leadership program for low-income Arizona high-school students. She received her doctorate in oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1993. After several years as a coral reef researcher at the University of Miami and the National Marine Fisheries Service, Tracy turned her full focus to teaching in 1996. She joined Columbia University’s Biosphere 2 Center to teach in their undergraduate program. She later taught and developed college-level field courses for Sea Education Association, University of Pittsburgh, Long Island University, University of Montana, and Prescott College.
From 2001 to 2004, Tracy developed and ran a tall-ship-based ocean semester on the West Coast for Long Island University. SEAmester West sailed from California to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, and across the Pacific to Hawaii. Students participated as active crew members as well as taking on a full load of college courses.
In 2004, Tracy founded STEP’s College-Prep and Leadership Program with the focused mission of educating and empowering low-income Arizona high-school students to enroll in and graduate from college. To date, 96% of STEP’s College-Prep Program alumni are in college or have attained a college degree.
Related Content:
STEP equips low-income students with the knowledge, confidence, and leadership skills to successfully transition to college and attain a 4-year degree.
NOLS, a STEP partner, is the leader in wilderness education. What began in a small cabin in Wyoming’s Wind River mountain range in 1965 has evolved into a global, multifaceted nonprofit school offering a proven leadership curriculum through expedition courses, wilderness medicine certifications, risk management training, and custom education solutions for organizations. Today, NOLS operates 14 campuses worldwide and provides classroom instruction in over 40 countries. The NOLS community includes over 930 active instructors who teach various outdoor skills, from mountaineering and sailing to wilderness medicine, that empower students to step forward.
Outward Bound USA provides outdoor education programs that allow young people to explore their personal potential, since 1962. From expeditions in some of the most remote locations in the U.S. to programs in local schools and neighborhoods, young people nationwide are cultivating a passion for learning, and discovering greater success in school, work and life.
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