A summer that changed nine lives
For nine area high school students, this was no ordinary summer. It was a period of challenge, of wonder, of personal growth, and it changed their lives forever.
The Sonoma teens each described in vivid detail the trips they were fortunate enough to take this past summer, to Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, Africa and beyond. The trips were made possible by Summer Search, a nonprofit that provides year-round mentoring, summer experiences, college advising, and support to low-income, high-potential teens.
Without exception, the young participants described their summer trips as life changing: for some leaving home for the first time, for others their first trip outside of California, for all a month or more with a group of complete strangers with whom, at least at first glace, they had nothing in common.
Jonathan Wieland, a junior from Hanna Boys Center, traveled to Alaska with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), which takes people of all ages on remote wilderness expeditions, and teaches them technical outdoor skills, leadership, and environmental ethics in remote and challenging locations. In Alaska, he spent four weeks sea kayaking and hiking in frigid weather and lived in conditions he never imagined even existed.
Senior Irving Rafaela also participated in a NOLS trip to the Yukon, backpacking and canoeing. Said Rafaela, “In my culture, you are taught to rely only on yourself. Through NOLS, I experienced firsthand how powerful and rewarding it can be to combine efforts and work as a team.”
Junior Josh Jones from Hanna Boys Center participated in Deer Hill Expeditions, which offers adventure programs for teens such as wilderness trips and community service. His trip centered around mountain climbing and community service on a Navajo reservation. “Our group did what seemed to us to be impossible – climbing a 13,000 foot mountain – and left feeling like there is no test we can’t pass and no problem that is impossible to solve,” Jones said. He and Wieland were the first teens from Hanna ever to participate in the Summer Search program.
Alex Iniguez, a Sonoma Valley High School junior, went on a Deer Hill leadership trip with students from all over the country. “I was surprised to be chosen,” he said. “I appreciated the opportunity to meet such an amazing group of kids, to visit a world unknown to me, and to find the true me, out in the middle of nowhere.”
Three other SVHS juniors, Yair Alvaerz, JoJo Sanchez Guzman, and Elsa Gomez, participated in Outward Bound trips in different locations. Outward Bound is a national non-profit organization known for its emphasis on personal growth through experience and challenge in the wilderness. “The combination of physical exhaustion, unpleasant living conditions, the sheer dirtiness of it, I was really worried in the beginning that I wouldn’t make it through,” said Guzman, who did a three-day solo expedition in the mountains of Oregon as part of his rafting trip. “Making it to the end, and loving it… it taught me so much about myself and what I am capable of.”
Some students went even further afield. SVHS senior Jorge Torres traveled to the West African country of Ghana where he participated in the Global Leadership Adventures, a program that offers high school students from around the world unusual leadership opportunities in far-flung locations. ”On my trip, there were twelve girls and only two guys,” he said. “That sounds great, I know, but when I first met the other guy I was really worried. We had nothing in common and I was dreading a summer stuck with just him.”
By the third day, Torres said, “I realized how much I liked him and how cool it was to become friends with someone so different from myself. I really think he’ll be one of my best friends for life.” In Ghana, Torres did community service in local schools and orphanages, an experience that he says has left a lasting impact on him. “Their appreciation for even the most minor positive human contact was heart-breaking to see,” he recalled.
SVHS senior Victor Robles traveled to Mississippi with Visions, a summer community service programs for teens which blends ambitious volunteer work, cultural immersion, and adventure. Robles worked in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and he was struck by how much destruction is still apparent so many years later.
All the students agreed that a highlight of their trips was meeting peers from other parts of the country and the world.
“We’ve been tremendously impressed by the personal growth we’ve seen in the Sonoma students we’ve worked with,” says Ryan Cooney, Summer Search director of outreach. “Many of these students had a limited world view and a narrow sense of the options available to them when we first met them. Just a few months into the program with exposure to the world beyond this Valley, without exception we’ve been moved by their newfound belief in their options and their ability to realize their dreams.”
