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.
By: Hannah Bruno, Explore Austin Marketing and Events Manager
When I joined the Explore Austin Staff team in May 2021, I walked in with the expectation the programming would be very similar to organizations I’ve worked for previously. In my experience, youth-focused programs are often simplified for the kids. So, when I agreed to dive headfirst into an Explore Austin Summer Wilderness trip, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Every Explore Austin staff member gets to choose a Summer Wilderness trip to tag along on each year. It was one of the perks I bragged to my friends about as I shared my new role. Having little outdoor experience (ok, none all), I opted to go with one of the younger teams on a backpacking trip to the Ouachita Forest in Southern Arkansas. It seemed the most logical choice, and to be honest, it seemed the easiest. I knew I wouldn’t have time to properly train; biking, canoeing, and rock climbing were out of the question.
The trip was harder than I could have ever anticipated. It was suffocatingly hot and humid. My hiking boots, which had only been tested on short “hikes” in Austin, produced nasty blisters within the first day. We averaged a pace of less than half a mile an hour, wearing 50-pound packs for 10 hours a day. I was terrified by the thought of having to pull a tick off my body. Just one day into the week-long trek, I was sore and tired and angry at myself for not doing a trial run with a pack before committing to 7 days.
As we ate dinner that night, I chatted with one of the Explorers. She told me how tough the day had been. She didn’t think she could do it again tomorrow. I felt her pain – literally. I felt it in the stinging blisters on my left big toe and in the deep ache between my shoulders. I knew I should be positive. I racked my mind for standard pep talk material. You can do it! You’re tough! Aren’t you glad you took on the challenge? Instead, what came out of my exhausted brain instead was a defeated,
“I know. Today was hard. I wanted to quit more than once. I’m not excited about tomorrow.”
The Explorer looked at me in total shock.
“Really?”, she asked. “I thought all the adults here love to be outside?”
I realized that this Explorer had been trudging along thinking that the trip was only difficult for her. I took the opportunity to set her mind at ease – no, you are not the only one struggling. For the remainder of the trip, I took every opportunity to remind the worn-down Explorers that the trip was physically and emotionally demanding for me, too. We commiserated together. We celebrated together each evening as we reached our new campsite, dropped our packs, and headed to the refreshing river for a swim.
The Explore Austin program is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It’s not a watered-down outdoor experience designed to keep youth comfortable. It’s true outdoor high adventure. Challenging our youth develops physical and mental resiliency and a willingness to try new things. But, it’s not only our youth who develop from these experiences. As we adults struggle alongside them, admit that we are being challenged, but ultimately continue anyways, we model the kind of adaptability that leads to success in other areas of our lives. That is the kind of experience that leads to authentic and strong relationships.
Will I go on another Summer Wilderness Trip? Absolutely, I will… just maybe not to Arkansas in July.
