Community Scholarship for an Outdoor Luchadora
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Our dear Cassandra Castillo (Cassie) will be starting the Teton Science Schools’ Graduate Program in Wyoming this month, August 2020! The program is a unique residence-learning program that provides practical outdoor teaching training. Graduate students get the opportunity to work with local community members and youth to create educational programs and curriculum around the outdoors, ecology, and environmental conservation.
Cassie’s community work has been essential in paving the way to reclaim outdoor spaces for our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities; this is why we are creating this Community Scholarship to honor her work as an Outdoor Luchadora.
Cassie identifies as Mexican-American, mother, and queer woman of color. Raised in the border City of Calexico, she remembers how her grandmother’s garden was her first connection to nature and nature as healer. She says, “As a kid, I marveled at the various plants my grandmother meticulously cared for and neighbors regularly came requesting for their medicinal properties, a particular favorite of mine was Mexican Mint, so much so I was known to fake belly aches to have my grandma harvest these leaves to prepare me a tea. The smell of the fresh cuttings, the boiling water and the warm calming effect in my body upon the first sip, filled my senses with sweet joy, comfort and safety.”
When Cassie became a mother to her daughter Nichole (Nico), she knew she wanted to pass those experiences and lessons on to her. She involved Nico in Ballet Folklorico in Aztlan (BFA) when she was just seven-years-old. In Cassie's words “Theatre and dance became a way to meaningfully share time, culture, and a learning environment with my daughter, Nichole. Through the BFA, led by queer Chicana dancer Viviana Enrique Acosta, we learned how interconnected we are to la naturaleza and to our ancestors. Watching my daughter flourish and exert her confidence on stage, learn to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in Nahuatl, an Indigenous Mexican language, and perform for the community was truly a humbling and affirming moment as a mother.”
Her role as a community organizer:
Cassie is the founder and first Program Coordinator for the San Diego chapter of the national organization Latino Outdoors (LO), where she created outdoor experiences for a larger community as well as connected with other like minded organizations and people. Reflecting on her role, she says, “Latino Outdoors (LO) has offered the opportunity to create connections in the outdoors beyond family and friends. Giving back to the community means to instill the sense of wonder for nature so they can create and deepen their relationship to the environment."
Image description: Cassie, Mellissa Villafranco and Manuel Belmonte leading a LO-San Diego outing to Friendship Park at the U.S./Mexico Border in 2019, in the picture also Latino Outdoors SD community members Maria Celleri, and Mireya Pinell-Cruz. Event included a hike and various leaders from park rangers, to activists and musicians designed to connect participants not only to the natural wonders contained in the park but also to the border wall and its social, political and environmental disruption.
Cassie is also a founding member of the San Diego Queer and Trans People of Color Collective (SDQTPOC Colectivo), which formed in 2016. As part of the collective, she helped organize an annual art show, the first of its kind for the local community, which included performances and visual artists at the Centro Cultural de la Raza. In the aftermath of the horrific Orlando Club Pulse tragedy, they organized and fostered safe and cultural spaces for the community.
Her future plans:
Cassie has a long-term commitment to conservationism, and wants to apply her time and energy to creating spaces that uplift the voices and experiences of BIPOC in nature. She is a strong believer that outdoor experiences make us stronger, healthier and happier, but also work to guide us towards a more environmental, socio-political, and racial justice-centered world.
Thinking about the impact her work will have in the future, she says, “I am working to build the infrastructure for the next seven generations, which is a teaching and learning strategy rooted in Indigenous knowledge... I want to continue to bridge and create networks of relations between the original caretakers of the land in any place that I inhabit and the environmental and conservation world. I want to expand my knowledge and skills at Teton Schools and beyond, and offer it back to the BIPOC community to ensure a future in which our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented.”
Financing:
The Teton Science Schools’ Graduate Program is a one-year program in Wyoming. The programs costs are as follows:
Tuition: $21,900
Food: $8,750
Housing: $3,150-$4,775, depending on cabin
University of Wyoming Credits: $1,600
*These costs do not include moving expenses
To learn more about the Teton Graduate program
Cassie’s community work has been essential in paving the way to reclaim outdoor spaces for our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities; this is why we are creating this Community Scholarship to honor her work as an Outdoor Luchadora.
Cassie identifies as Mexican-American, mother, and queer woman of color. Raised in the border City of Calexico, she remembers how her grandmother’s garden was her first connection to nature and nature as healer. She says, “As a kid, I marveled at the various plants my grandmother meticulously cared for and neighbors regularly came requesting for their medicinal properties, a particular favorite of mine was Mexican Mint, so much so I was known to fake belly aches to have my grandma harvest these leaves to prepare me a tea. The smell of the fresh cuttings, the boiling water and the warm calming effect in my body upon the first sip, filled my senses with sweet joy, comfort and safety.”
When Cassie became a mother to her daughter Nichole (Nico), she knew she wanted to pass those experiences and lessons on to her. She involved Nico in Ballet Folklorico in Aztlan (BFA) when she was just seven-years-old. In Cassie's words “Theatre and dance became a way to meaningfully share time, culture, and a learning environment with my daughter, Nichole. Through the BFA, led by queer Chicana dancer Viviana Enrique Acosta, we learned how interconnected we are to la naturaleza and to our ancestors. Watching my daughter flourish and exert her confidence on stage, learn to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in Nahuatl, an Indigenous Mexican language, and perform for the community was truly a humbling and affirming moment as a mother.”
Her role as a community organizer:
Cassie is the founder and first Program Coordinator for the San Diego chapter of the national organization Latino Outdoors (LO), where she created outdoor experiences for a larger community as well as connected with other like minded organizations and people. Reflecting on her role, she says, “Latino Outdoors (LO) has offered the opportunity to create connections in the outdoors beyond family and friends. Giving back to the community means to instill the sense of wonder for nature so they can create and deepen their relationship to the environment."
Image description: Cassie, Mellissa Villafranco and Manuel Belmonte leading a LO-San Diego outing to Friendship Park at the U.S./Mexico Border in 2019, in the picture also Latino Outdoors SD community members Maria Celleri, and Mireya Pinell-Cruz. Event included a hike and various leaders from park rangers, to activists and musicians designed to connect participants not only to the natural wonders contained in the park but also to the border wall and its social, political and environmental disruption.
Cassie is also a founding member of the San Diego Queer and Trans People of Color Collective (SDQTPOC Colectivo), which formed in 2016. As part of the collective, she helped organize an annual art show, the first of its kind for the local community, which included performances and visual artists at the Centro Cultural de la Raza. In the aftermath of the horrific Orlando Club Pulse tragedy, they organized and fostered safe and cultural spaces for the community.
Her future plans:
Cassie has a long-term commitment to conservationism, and wants to apply her time and energy to creating spaces that uplift the voices and experiences of BIPOC in nature. She is a strong believer that outdoor experiences make us stronger, healthier and happier, but also work to guide us towards a more environmental, socio-political, and racial justice-centered world.
Thinking about the impact her work will have in the future, she says, “I am working to build the infrastructure for the next seven generations, which is a teaching and learning strategy rooted in Indigenous knowledge... I want to continue to bridge and create networks of relations between the original caretakers of the land in any place that I inhabit and the environmental and conservation world. I want to expand my knowledge and skills at Teton Schools and beyond, and offer it back to the BIPOC community to ensure a future in which our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented.”
Financing:
The Teton Science Schools’ Graduate Program is a one-year program in Wyoming. The programs costs are as follows:
Tuition: $21,900
Food: $8,750
Housing: $3,150-$4,775, depending on cabin
University of Wyoming Credits: $1,600
*These costs do not include moving expenses
To learn more about the Teton Graduate program
Co-organizers (3)
Andrea Gaspar
Organizer
San Diego, CA
Cassandra Castillo
Beneficiary
Alexis Nicole
Co-organizer
Mellissa Linton-Villafranco
Co-organizer