About Us
As an innovative partnership of Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, NatureBridge, Sequoia Natural History Association and the National Forests of the Sierra Nevada, WildLink transforms underserved youth through a series of wilderness and community-based outdoor programs offered at no charge. WildLink inspires youth to become long-term environmental stewards with strong connections to the natural world in both the wilderness and their home communities.
Through WildLink, culturally diverse high school students from across California engage in wilderness and public lands, empowering them to improve their own lives and their communities, through a series of experiences. Since 2000, WildLink has opened the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada to the populations living at its doorstep and demonstrated the relevance and benefits of the outdoors and public lands for all Americans. Through presentations, service and stewardship projects, participants reach out to their peers and their communities helping to ensure California’s diverse residents are informed, invested and committed to the enduring resource of Wilderness.
Our Mission
WildLink gives underserved teens a series of wilderness- and home-based experiences that empower them to better their own lives and their communities; and to ensure that diverse California residents are informed, invested and committed to the enduring resource of Wilderness.
Our Goals
- To make wilderness relevant to the culturally diverse youth in California
- To engage students in the study of wilderness with standards-based curriculum and hands-on experiences
- To empower youth as agents for positive change in their home communities through community stewardship projects
- To create a human bridge between the underserved communities and public lands
- To encourage students to pursue higher education
- To provide opportunities for students to pursue careers related to natural resources
WildLink Staff
Katie Wallace, Wilderness Programs Manager
Katie grew up in the Bay Area along the urban-agricultural divide. She earned her degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Environmental Studies and Global Studies and has dedicated her professional career to working with youth in the outdoors. She is a fluent Spanish speaker, and has extensive experience working with underserved and at-risk youth in California, South Africa, and as a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. She joined the education staff at NatureBridge in 2008, and has led WildLink expeditions since 2009. She is excited to share her passion for wilderness with diverse California students and their communities.