Students take summer trip to Yellowstone National Park
Social studies teacher promotes the outdoors with camping and hiking adventures
Photo Courtesy of Maribel Ramos
Akins students walk through Yellowstone National Park, appreciating the scenic route. The students are a part of Ramos’ Outdoor Habitat organization.
October 9, 2015
Social studies teacher Maribel Ramos loves the great outdoors and she wants students to do the same.
For the last three years she has escorted Akins students on camping trips — some in Texas and others far beyond.
The trips are part of the Akins Outdoor Habitat organization, which she sponsors as a means of exposing students to the open air lifestyle that many have never experienced.
“I want to show the students the outdoors, national parks, state parks and teach them to learn how to value natural resources,” Ramos said.
Ramos recruited students from all over the campus to attend a trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming this summer.
“Most of the students that went on the trip were students that I taught, so I was able to help motivate them to go with me,” said Ramos, who formerly taught in the Social Services Academy.
In the past Ramos has taken students to visit Bastrop State Park, where a large wildfire ignited in 2013, devastating more than 34,000 acres, most of which was cov- ered in ancient pine trees.
Ramos wanted the students to see how the park was recovering from the disaster and the impact the fire had on natural habitats there.
The Yellowstone trip was different because the campers experienced much colder conditions than what they were used to while living in Texas.
“This trip was a challenge because the temperature dropped to the low 30s at night, and since we were in a very high elevation it made the nights challenging but still fun,” she said. “The students surprisingly enjoyed the cold even though me and my family didn’t.”
Students who went on the trip said it was an unforgettable experience. They brought back lots of stories to share with the friends and family.
“I was excited and nervous because I’ve never been on an airplane before and I had never traveled out of Texas either; it was my first time,” senior, Elizama Bueno said.
Once they arrived and got off the plane, it took them about an hour and a half to get to the place where they would be camping.
“I had my friends Giselle and Holly with me, so we all got along and made our tent together,” Bueno said.
When she first stepped out of the plane, she was surprised, feeling like everything was new and different, and finding it hard to believe she was so far away, she said.
“We stayed three days in Yellowstone and three days in Cody (Wyoming), a small cowboy town,” she said.
Senior Diamond Alvarez, traveled with Ramos on a previous trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona two years ago and felt more at ease with the experience than other campers.
“I had actually gone to the Grand Canyon with Ms. Ramos before, and the Yellowstone trip was by far my favorite one,” Alvarez said.
Statistics show that every year fewer people visit national parks, which are funded by the federal government based on visitation counts, Ramos said. When visits to national parks drop, as does the level of funding they get, she said.
Yellowstone is more than just a nice place to visit, Ramos said.
“Yellowstone represents an idea of ‘We can conserve; we can protect our environment and our animals,” she said.
