Bianca Valles on the Path for youth

Bianca grew up in Mount Vernon and graduated from Mount Vernon High School. She participated in North Cascades Wild, a precursor to our Youth Leadership Adventures program, during the summer of 2009.
“I can still remember all the emotions I went through when I got that phone call saying I was accepted to go on this trip.” Bianca recalls. “Pure shock, excitement, anticipation, and wonder overcame me. But once I actually got to go on the trip, my whole point of view of the world changed and many doors opened up for me.”
The following summer, Bianca went on to participate in a 3-week Watershed Ecology program in the Copper River Delta of Chugach National Forest, Alaska. In 2011, she returned to the North Cascades to attend the Youth Leadership Conference. All of these steps symbolize our concept of helping to nurture a “Path for Youth,” repeated experiences in the outdoors that reinforce and build upon each other
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“Once I viewed the beauty of the North Cascades, I realized something,” she says. “I actually want to help preserve this captivating place for many future generations.”
Bianca had a very surprising opportunity to do just that, in a very literal way. When the Goodall Wildfire blew up in the Newhalem Gorge, it began spreading towards our Environmental Learning Center. Two fire crews were called in, including Bianca working on the North Zone fire engine for Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
“It was amazing returning to North Cascades Institute not as a wide-eyed student just starting to learn about nature and stewardship,” she explains, “but as a wildlands firefighter working for the USFS. It really felt like coming full circle, and I don’t think I’d be where I am today without those early experiences with the Institute.”
Bianca is a student at the Evergreen State College about to obtain her dual major in Cultural and Environmental Studies. She hopes to travel to third world countries in order to teach English and raise awareness about the impacts that different groups of people have on their environments and how we all connect to the natural world and each other.