WildLink and TEAM: Sharing Leadership in the Heart of Winter

From January 12-14, 2007, more than 30 youth from the Great Central Valley and the Bay area came together for the first annual WildLink/TEAM Youth Leadership Weekend. This has been a long anticipated collaboration, as both programs provide leadership training for youth, but do it in very different ways. WildLink develops its participants' leadership skills initially in a wilderness setting, then later in their schools and communities through its Wilderness Ambassador Program. TEAM does most of its work in a more urban setting, in which it gives youth the tools, training and opportunities to succeed as community leaders.

One of the most exciting elements of this collaboration is that WildLink is a Yosemite Institute project,and the TEAM youth leadership program is from its sister campus the Headlands Institute, which is located in the Marin Headlands. Each year, TEAM hosts its annual YouthQuest conference, which is an annual environmental youth conference at the Headlands Institute.
It is youth-led and gives attendees a chance to participate in and lead workshops about current environmental issues that are affecting their communities. WildLink's Delta Vista High School group will be attending this event in March.

The weekend was youth-facilitated, with students from each program sharing their skills with one another. Along with snowshoe, cross-country skiing and snowball adventures, they also focused on the concept of leadership. Whether it was the leadership compass activity, in which students explored their personal leadership style; or a literal map and compass activity, which gave them the survival skills they need to thrive in an unfamiliar place, one thing is certain. These youth know where they are headed, and they're ready to lead the way.

To see more images from the weekend, click here.

Click here to learn more about TEAM.

Click here to learn more about YouthQuest.

WildLink Welcomes Melanie Madeiros, Our New Community Coordinator

Hi, my name is Melanie Medeiros and I am very excited to be joining the WildLink team as your Community Coordinator. New to WildLink and California, I look forward to learning more about you, your schools and your beautiful state. As the Community Coordinator I have the great job of working with teachers and students to extend the WildLink experience beyond the awesome expeditions and into the Wilderness Ambassador Program.
It’s a very windy road that brought me here to Fresno, where my office is based. I’d say that my story begins when my parents immigrated to the United States from the Azores (Portuguese Islands in the middle of the Atlantic). The first person in my family born in the United States, I was very lucky to be given many opportunities and felt a strong responsibility to give back to the global community.
I went to college in Washington D.C. for International Relations and after graduation moved to Senegal, West Africa with the Peace Corps. I was a rural health educator in a remote village of 100 people for 3.5 years and had a profound and enriching experience. To build upon farming skills I learned in Senegal, when I returned to the U.S. in May 2005, I worked and lived on an organic farm for 8 months.
When winter hit, the travel bug called to me once again and I headed off to Brazil to work in the Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil’s Yosemite) as an eco-tourism consultant and guide. I returned to the U.S this summer for the incredible opportunity to guide a group of California middle school students on an international exchange trip to Senegal.
Let’s just say that after that trip I learned that students in California are amazing and I began seeking opportunities to work with Californian students once again. Lucky for me, WildLink was hiring for a position that would allow me to work with students and teachers in California and continue my life goal of “giving back” and experiencing, sharing and protecting the wilderness.
When I’m not working a job that I love, I enjoy hiking, biking, dancing, watching a good movie, learning languages and of course traveling! Once again I look forward to meeting you all, learning about your interests and continuing to explore the wilderness together.