Joel Duarte is a sophomore in high school from Dos Palos, California with a radiant smile. While backpacking to Illilouette Falls or rafting the Merced River, Joel exuded great excitement and enthusiasm for Yosemite. On the 40-day course, he shared that he felt much brighter and more positive on the trails and in Wawona at ARC’s basecamp than he feels at home.
At home, Joel wrote in his metaphorical poem, “My life is not the best. I don’t feel supported…I sometimes think that I am the only tree in a giant meadow…I feel that I’m the only one living in my house.” He described these feelings of loneliness as similar to a tree “withering” away.
Dos Palos, Joel’s community, is a small agricultural town in the Central Valley where 90% of high school students qualify for free and reduced lunch (as of academic year 2016-17). ARC has been serving Dos Palos students with after-school, weekend, and summer programming since 2009, our first year in Yosemite National Park. Joel was recruited to ARC by Jesus Alejandre, a full-time ARC staff member, who graduated from the Yosemite summer course in 2012.
Joel says he joined ARC because “I wanted to get away from all the negativity in my family and because it seemed like a fun challenge.” He and has teammates went on three backpacking expeditions in Yosemite; they went rock climbing, kayaking, white water rafting; and they participated in an intensive academic program focused on environmental science and English education, with over 140 hours of literacy instruction per student.
Joel found the backpacking challenging. He wrote, “I wasn’t really as prepared physically as the other participants, but I still wanted to show them and the instructors that I could finish the hike and wouldn’t give up. On the second day, the hike was around 4 miles, with a giant backpack, and that distance wasn’t even the longest we walked during the course. It was a crazy experience.”
However, he shared that it wasn’t the backpacking that he found most challenging about his ARC immersion course, it was sharing his feelings with his teammates. In his final essay, he wrote “I was feeling sad and scared because I never told anyone how I felt about my family. I was revealing so much about myself and showing my true emotions…I was scared they were going to say, ‘That’s why your family doesn’t love you.’ However, I realized as a result [of sharing] that people here at ARC care about how I feel, and won’t put me down.” Joel discovered during his ARC summer that he wasn’t alone and that he had a group of teammates and instructors who supported him unconditionally.
Joel wrote at the end his experience, “I learned to be an independent, problem-solving leader. I’ve become more independent by learning how to cook my own food, by doing chores that no one asked me to do, and by taking initiative in my education. I’ve become a leader by setting my goals high and not being afraid to push myself. I realized that I can share my emotions or problems with people…and express myself.” Even though the backpacking was “crazy,” Joel said “All these experience at ARC have made me feel proud of what I accomplished.”