2022 Explore Austin alumna shares how the program has inspired her to become a pilot
When Elyse Ochoa joined the 2022 “Girls Thundercats” Explore Austin team at the end of her sixth grade year, she was, in her words, “extremely shy, insecure, self-conscious and anxious.” However, she quickly bonded with her fellow Explorers and adult Mentors, falling in love with Explore Austin’s monthly Saturday Challenges. She begged her parents to take her to each month’s programming and, in six years, missed only one Saturday Challenge.
For Elyse, Explore Austin offered “an escape” from her home life, where she was told “you can’t do this, can’t do that.” Explore Austin enabled Elyse to become more confident; she “wanted to prove to [her] parents and brothers what [she] was capable of.” During her sophomore year of high school, Elyse confided to her Mentor while kayaking one Saturday that she was struggling academically. That conversation “was a wakeup call” for her. Elyse went on to play varsity sports at her high school and was elected senior class president. Today, she’s in the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Houston on a full scholarship to study aerospace engineering.
“Explore Austin taught me to get out into nature when times are hard. [The program] gave me patience and taught me that when you have a plan and an agenda, you get stuff done. It also taught me about the power of reflection – to this day, I still journal because of EA. EA taught me good habits like this at a young age, which is the only reason I was able to get into it.”
Elyse Ochoa, ’22 Explorer Alumna
Elyse plans to become a commercial pilot, an idea she got after meeting a pilot on the plane ride back to Austin from her 2021 Summer Wilderness Trip to Colorado. Elyse had never flown on a plane prior to joining Explore Austin.
Elyse’s first year of college was really hard. But, she said, “By the second semester, I got into a routine. I got all As except for one B. I knew college would be hard because my Mentors prepared me, especially one who studied engineering in college, too. My Mentors have visited me in Houston several times; they are always checking in on me. One of them even helps me get extra jobs during breaks. Just like in high school, during the Explore Austin program, her Mentors are lifting her up.
When you invest in Explore Austin’s mission, you are letting local youth like Elyse know they are worthy of opportunity and support, and helping them to build their own legacy of firsts.
Explorers, their Mentors and Explorer Alumsexplain the impact the Explore Austin program has had on their lives.
Nature Empowers
Seventeen-year-old Explorer Elliott Merryman-Stewart, now in her fourth year of Explore Austin, has learned to face life’s challenges head on. Due to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, Elliott’s muscles are weaker on one side of her body, making many day-to-day tasks difficult, let alone intensive outdoor-adventure activities in the Explore Austin program like rock climbing, canoeing and mountain biking.
But she hasn’t let this stop her; in fact, from her patience and perseverance has come adaptation and growth, both on her part and Explore Austin’s.
When Elliott joined the program as a sixth grader, there wasn’t yet the breadth of adaptive measures in place for Explorers like her. With the guidance and expertise of the program’s professional Trip Leaders, each discipline has been adapted to enable Elliott’s participation.
“When I think of Elliott, I think about how quickly we learned to change our question from, ‘Do you want to try doing this?’ to, ‘How do you want to do this?’ Because we now know she’ll say yes to every activity and challenge.”
Katie Wilse, Mentor
Early on in the program, Elliott tackled rock climbing using a modified harness to ascend sheer cliff faces. The next year, she trained hard at Saturday Challenges in Central Texas to learn to canoe with an adapted paddle, all in preparation for paddling 50 miles down the Buffalo River in Arkansas during her team’s Summer Wilderness Trip.
Elliott (center) and her teammates on their Summer Wilderness Trip in Idaho.
Emma Herzog, one of Elliott’s five Mentors, describes her as “fearless,” with a “never-give-up attitude that’s contagious. With a near-perfect attendance record with Explore Austin, she is a wonderful member of our team and brings humor, leadership skills and a positive attitude every time she attends an event. We would not be the team we are without her.”
Most recently, Elliott and her team entered their mountain-biking year. Explore Austin initially borrowed a recumbent bike for Elliott to use during Saturday Challenges from Ghisallo Cycling Initiative, a nonprofit that helps people access the world by bicycle.
Said Emma, “It was incredible to see Elliott’s skills on the recumbent bike improve with each passing month. Explore Austin did a great job of adding enhancements to the bike, like an electric motor that I like to refer to as ‘turbo power.’ This gave Elliott the flexibility to add some assistance as she peddled, if she wanted to.”
Elliott ultimately saw the benefit this mode of transportation could bring to her day-to-day life – she lives only minutes away from school yet, due to her disability, was limited to taking a bus that took 20-plus minutes to get her there. As someone who tires from walking long distances, peddling to school with “turbo power” support would allow Elliott to get there efficiently and without exhausting herself. Seeing Elliott’s enthusiasm for biking and its potential to benefit her outside the program, Explore Austin worked with Ghisallo Cycling Initiative to get the recumbent bike permanently donated to her.
Elliott and her team capped their recent mountain-biking year with a weeklong Summer Wilderness Trip in Idaho where, said Emma, “Elliott was out on the trails with us every day. On the final optional bike day, she elected to ride the bike again over a nature scavenger hunt. This is just the most recent example of how Elliott takes every opportunity to participate in all that Explore Austin has to offer.”
While she’s never doubted herself, Elliott has accomplished more than she ever could have imagined through the Explore Austin program. She says that when she’s with her team in nature she feels peaceful and confident. Explore Austin has given her a place to push her limits, grow more self-assured and have a respite from everyday life. Trusting her Mentors and learning alongside her teammates, Elliott is ready to tackle any challenge – now and in the future.
Elliott’s Mentors are proud of her “never-give-up attitude.”
Nature Connects
Gemma Galván has felt the ripple effect of Explore Austin. Because the program only served boys at the time, she didn’t have the opportunity to be an Explorer like her brother, RodolfoGalván; but over the course of his time in the program, Rodolfo shared his newfound love of the outdoors with his family, which Gemma gladly soaked up.
Gemma and Rodolfo were born in Mexico and grew up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of east Austin under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, learning English in elementary school. Their father eventually moved back to Mexico to take care of his ailing parents while their mother remained in Austin as a single mother, supporting the family as a breadmaker.
Brother and sister Rodolfo and Gemma.
“Though it may not be obvious, I owe so much to Explore Austin. Its efforts echo farther than you may ever be able to see. We are changing countless lives – one adventure at a time.”
Gemma Galván
Rodolfo, who has been an alum of the Explore Austin program since 2015, joined as a sixth grader, having never before camped, mountain biked, canoed or rock climbed. He’s now served on the Board of Directors since 2018.
Said Rodolfo, “My first Summer Wilderness Trip was hiking in Colorado. I wasn’t in the best shape of my life, and there was a peak we climbed that gave me a lot of trouble. This happened for a couple more years, but I stuck with the program. Eventually, I found myself at the front, leading the group. I found this new groove, and found so much beauty in everything we were doing.”
Gemma saw Rodolfo’s confidence and resiliency grow – both in the outdoors and otherwise – and came to understand that the outdoors is a space for everyone. Each year, her brother would come home from his Summer Wilderness Trips talking nonstop about his adventures. Descriptions of the “impossibly tall mountains he climbed and treacherous rivers where he white-water rafted” in landscapes he said “looked like paintings” piqued Gemma’s curiosity – she had to see what he was talking about for herself.
“I set off to Colorado as soon as I could. With $200 in my pocket, I drove 16 hours in my friend’s old, beat-up car. I had never driven in snow or put tire chains on a car, and I would soon learn how severely underdressed I was for the weather. But none of that crossed my mind.”
Gemma is now an avid adventurer who summits mountains, camps in extreme weather and has kayaked in Alaska. In addition to being inspired by Rodolfo’s love for nature, Gemma also saw – and herself felt – the impact of Rodolfo’s relationship with his Mentors in the Explore Austin program.
Said Rodolfo, “My relationship with my Mentors was much like a father-son relationship, especially because I didn’t have an active father figure for much of my adolescence. Some of my Mentors were leaders in the tech field, and I realized I wanted to pursue a computer-science degree in college, which they encouraged me to do.”
Today, Rodolfo is a software engineer with IBM and Gemma is a software development and operations senior team lead at Accenture. They balance work with time in nature and know the ripple effect of Explore Austin has only just begun in their lives – and beyond.
Rodolfo began the Explore Austin program as a sixth grader having never camped before.
This piece is the third in a 2023 summer series, “Trip Leader Tuesday,” that highlights the Trip Leaders who make Explore Austin’s programming possible.
When Liya Scott began as a Trip Leader with Explore Austin in 2021, she saw lots of rock walls in her future.
“I imagined I would be climbing all the time. I’ve since discovered that I quite enjoy canoe challenges. For Trip Leaders, there is quite a bit of planning and technical knowledge required in the preparation stage, which I enjoy. Once we arrive at the challenge site, it’s a joy to teach Explorers and Mentors and watch for those ‘lightbulb’ moments. The best part is finally getting on the water and feeling one with the river and nature.”
Coming up on her second anniversary with Explore Austin, Liya has grown accustomed to expecting the unexpected. Another of those moments? Translating her rock-climbing skills underground to cave exploration, one of her favorite memories to date.
Said Liya, “I got to join Trip Leader Kori for my first caving trip – it was such a unique experience! As a climber, it was so cool to use my climbing technique scrambling in the underground. I learned that life is different underground; animals breathe differently, and even rocks and things you might find underground change in appearance if exposed to outside air. The trip was definitely an unforgettable challenge.”
Liya discovered her passion for caving as a Trip Leader with Explore Austin. On a recent Saturday Challenge, she posed for a photo 30 feet below ground in Whirlpool Cave, Travis County.
Liya has been an “outdoorsy, adventurous gal” for as long as she can remember and feels it’s especially important for her to be involved with Explore Austin because, as a woman of color, she’s a direct role model for the program’s youth, 97% of whom identify as youth of color and 50% of whom are female.
“The best part is sharing this love of outdoor spaces with youth. Experiential education is powerful, especially in the context of outdoor recreation. As a woman of color, it’s important for me to be a presence in outdoor spaces to help reverse the stigma and historical trauma of my people,” Liya said.
At family gatherings, Liya’s work with Explore Austin is a conversation starter that continues to stoke her love of nature and her desire to preserve its beauty for future generations. She points out how Explore Austin’s programming differs from most outdoor adventure programs, including its emphasis on mentorship and social-emotional learning through time set aside for group discussion and for “solos,” periods of time alone in nature for self reflection:
“I like how social justice is tied into the mentorship and empowerment piece, and how Explore Austin puts value on debrief and discussion time. The concept behind the ‘solo’ on the Summer Wilderness Trips is really unique, too. These things are all important because we live in a society that does not understand the importance of taking time to slow down, process and practice moments of stillness. As you get older, these moments become more scarce if you don’t purposefully incorporate them into your life, and you won’t unless you are taught how to do it. I’m glad we get to teach this practice to youth.”
While Liya has led school-year Saturday Challenges for nearly two years, last month marked her first Summer Wilderness Trip. After working with the ‘26 Funky Cacti team all year, she co-led them (along with Trip Leader Karley Henson) on a weeklong canoe trip 45 miles down the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas. Said Liya:
“I’ve really enjoyed working with the high school girls this year. It’s neat to be able to relate to their experience in high school, and share insights I’ve gained in the life I’ve lived between high school and now. So many things have changed about middle school and high school since I was there, so hats off to students navigating sixth through twelfth grade – it’s not easy being a kid these days!”
Liya also connected with Funky Cacti’s Mentors over the last year – Annalise, Holly, Kate, Kelly and Patty – seeing how deeply they care for their Explorers, and that the sentiment is reciprocated. Getting to work with this team on Saturday Challenges made Liya confident that their Summer Wilderness Trip would be “a good combination of fun, adventure and challenge.”
Karley, Liya’s co-Trip Leader on the Buffalo River, said:
Liya during a Saturday Challenge with Explorers on Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin.
“Leading with Liya is such a treat! She’s cool, collected and loads of fun. She’s also always on her game; she knows when to let things roll and when to step in to make things happen. I’d lead another trip with her in a heartbeat! Though we had lots of great moments in the field, my favorite was singing with her to Ray Charles’ ‘That’s How I Know’ on the drive home.”
Liya echoed Karley’s sentiments of co-leading, calling her first Summer Wilderness Trip a “10 out of 10 experience”:
“Our group had an absolute blast! The weather was incredibly reasonable, we avoided the severe storms that hit other areas of Arkansas, and the river was breathtakingly beautiful. Of all the wildlife sightings, my favorites were the blue heron (which we named Sharon), the alligator gar (seen from the bottom of the clear river) and a young bald eagle. I got to hear the song of the whip-poor-will bird for the first time, which was really special for me; they only sing at dawn or dusk. One misty morning, we even thought we saw a nutria gliding through the water! I especially valued the time we spent as a team sharing rose/bud/thorn moments, and encouraging one another after a long day. The Explorers and Mentors were really fun to be around.”
Though Funky Cacti’s Summer Wilderness Trip saw its share of technically challenging days on the water, Liya concludes: “We had a lot of fun together too. I like that Explore Austin cultivates moments where we learn together and have fun at the same time.”
Way back in 2006, when Explore Austin was established, our founders wanted to create a way for outdoor adventure to be used as a conduit for youth to learn lifelong, transferrable skills. Enter our ACES curriculum. ACES are the backbone of the Explore Austin leadership program, and each year of the program focuses on developing a particular ACES trait, while the final year focuses on putting all of the traits together. Through our Saturday Challenges, mentors and trip leaders emphasize qualities and actions that make an Explorer Action-Oriented, Courageous, an Excellent Teammate, and a Strong Communicator.
ACTION-ORIENTED:
Climbing a cliff face or biking down a steep mountain trail is no time to be on the fence about your situational goals. We ask Explorers in our program to recognize a need for practical solutions and measurable goals. Learning the importance of being action-oriented means that youth develop the necessary planning and executive skills required to coordinate a 10-mile hike to the top of a summit, delegate necessary campsite tasks, and manage ambiguous outdoor situations. This skill translates into the real world as time management, self-motivation, and confidence.
COURAGEOUS:
There is no better place to develop trust in yourself than the great outdoors. Explore Austin brings youth into a totally new and often intimidating environment – whether it’s their first time sleeping away from home, or they’re scared of heights, or their legs feel like jelly after a day of carrying a 50lbs backpack. When our program participants to push themselves physically and mentally, they develop the capacity to deal with adversity and to keep their goals in sight. It’s this mental fortitude and courage which will empower them to set and achieve big, scary, ambitious goals in education, careers, extracurricular activities, and more!
EXCELLENT TEAMMATE:
As the adage goes, a team is only as strong as its weakest link. As our program encourages both Explorers and Mentors to build solid relationships, it is also equally focused on cultivating youth who are dependable and respectful teammates. Asking youth to reflect earnestly on questions like “Am I responsible?”, “Can I honestly say I’m contributing to the group?”, and “Am I thinking about others or am I only considering myself?” engages them in community-mindedness. Being an excellent teammate in the backcountry turns into being a caring, engaged, and empathetic teammate in your family, friend-group, sports team, and beyond.
STRONG COMMUNICATOR:
Being able to communicate effectively is perhaps the most important of all life skills. Being a good communicator doesn’t only require saying the right thing at the right time. Above all, it requires mutual respect. Through the Explore Austin program, youth and mentors alike are introduced to different world views, perspectives, and belief systems. As relationships are built through Saturday Challenges and Summer wilderness trips, participants begin to share their thoughts and opinion. This open transfer of ideas can only work in a safe and respectful environment. Learning to treat others with dignity and listening to differing ideas and respectfully communicating their own is a crucial skill to develop in our youth.
These are the skills Explore Austin believes helps youth in achieving comprehensive wellbeing and the social-emotional skills that will allow them to achieve their definition of success throughout their entire lives.
