Living Between The Trees: An ARC Student Profile

Hugo Chavez, a current ARC Community Leadership Program participant, lives a quarter mile from his closest neighbor in rural Merced County. His family’s home is surrounded by agricultural fields. When the almond trees blossom in late winter, his neighborhood is like a forest where the only things you can see are white flowers. During soccer […]

ARC Publishes 2021 Book of Student Writing

Last month we published our book of selected student writing from our 2021 participants! The book includes essays and poetry from participants in our Yosemite, Sequoia, and Tahoe summer courses. In the book, you will read Canita Huang’s poetry, highlighting her determination to adapt to life in the US after immigrating from China.  You will also read Dani Ruiz’s essay describing how […]

Watch Now: Short ARC Film Highlights Two Families

During the early pandemic months, two ARC graduates and their mothers came together to document their ARC stories. We now have the result to share with you: a four-minute, bilingual film (subtitles appear in opposite language of that being spoken – Spanish and English). We would like to give a sincere thank you to Tim Webb and Michele Simenson […]

Power Posing Her Way Through Yosemite

This is a blog post written by Elizabeth Sherer and published by Yosemite Conservancy.  It is re-published here with Yosemite Conservancy’s permission. She had seen the Sierra Nevada mountains above the small Central Valley town where she grew up, but she had never hiked them. It was her first time camping, her first visit to Yosemite, and […]

From Student to Teacher: ARC Graduate Gives Back

Zulema Medina, a 2009 ARC summer course graduate, knew what to expect becoming a teacher at Kings Beach Elementary in September 2019. She was a unique first-year teacher because she had been a student, college volunteer, and student teacher at the school. Zulema had learned to read on King Beach Elementary School’s brightly-colored carpets as a child. Some […]

Watch ARC Alum on ABC10!

ARC summer graduate and Young Professionals Board member, Gustavo Garcia, was on ABC in Sacramento last week! He promoted ARC’s summer course (applications are due on April 23), and he celebrated our partnership with Tahoe Fund. Gus shared at the end of the interview, “Right now, I am in college studying political science at the University of the […]