Diversity Awareness

Inner City Youth Find Peace in the Wilderness

By SAMUEL WILLIAMS JR.

LOS ANGELES—Pressure from the mean streets of South Los Angeles can wreak havoc on the minds of its youth. As they travel the streets, they look over their shoulders, wondering what perils lurk around them.

Fortunately for some of those youth, the world took on a safer, simpler existence due to their membership in the Crenshaw High School “Crenshaw Eco Club,” (CEC).

Erick Morazan, a senior at Crenshaw High School, is one of those students who clung to the safety of the CEC. For him the CEC was a turning point in his life.

“I live in a real tough area of the city and Hispanic gangs want to dominate the area … if you’re Hispanic they expect you to back them up and if you refuse you get in trouble with them. They accuse you of letting the Hispanic race down,” Morozan said. “I don’t want to be part of that and I’ve learned a lot of things since joining the Eco Club. We explore, we have fun and most important we do things during the weekend that keeps me out of trouble and we help the community.”

For Morozan, the CEC provided him one skill that will help for a lifetime: leadership.

“I have learned to talk with people, open up, learn more about them without being scared or shy,” Morozan said.

CEC director Bill Vanderberg said Morazan, like so many other students, has found a respite from street stress because they discover the beauty of the world’s natural environment.

“Eco Club members learn the importance of community service and positive effects it has on them, their community and society at-large,” Vanderberg said. “They learn that doing something good for others is rewarding in itself. Half of all Eco Club activities involve community service.”

In September, the Sierra Club awarded the club $50,000 in funding to finance the group’s activities. Those activities include day hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains, a California coastal cleanup service project, Crenshaw community garden cleanup, backpacking on the Catalina Islands, and a log cabin camp backpacking expedition.

“Being outdoors and close to nature brings me joy,” said Camille Morris, a senior at Crenshaw High School. “The Eco Club is so appealing because it allows me to get away from the problems in LA—the violence and the ignorance.”

According to Morris, her time with nature has taught her to “listen carefully to her surroundings and be diligent about watching where she’s going since “I’m always the one in the group that manages to fall down.”

“But what I learn in the wilderness helps me when I return to the city because I’ve learned to be more calm around people and I really feel centered,” Morris said. “Before the club, I was always stressed out and mad … now if something bothers me I just think ahead and look forward to our next trip. That calms me.”

A study released in 2005 of the effects of the outdoors shows that students not only improved their science grades but also gained confidence from their nature-as-classroom experiences.

Students who spent time in nature related activities increased their science scores by 27 percent. Students also were more cooperative and more engaged in the classroom, and were more open to conflict resolution.

Wendy Velasco, a junior at Crenshaw High School, said she had never been in the wilderness before joining the club but “I’m really into the environment now.”

“When I’m in the wilderness I find an inner peace which is so different than when I’m in the city where there is so much violence, drug addicts all around, and terrible crimes happening all around me,” Velasco said. “When I’m in the wilderness I see a whole new side of the world, a beauty that the world possesses.”

For more information about getting involved with the Crenshaw High School Eco Club’s “Building Bridges through the Outdoors” program, log on to www.sierraclub.org.