Cheyanna Washburn, a sophomore at Diablo Valley College in botany and recreational therapy, is one of those dedicated young leaders who inspires her peers to get involved and active. Before entering college, she was a student at New Leaf Leadership Academy at Vicente Martinez High School in Martinez, where she participated in dozens of creek restoration and cleanup projects and played a leading role in designing and painting seven large murals on the life of John Muir. She also taught elementary school children about watershed health and recycling, and encouraged a general interest in science. But her favorite activity was her internship with the California Phenology Project, monitoring plants at the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez for signs of climate change. After the first year, she was promoted from intern to trainer, and she continues to train new student interns while developing other programs for young people as the Youth Programs Assistant at the Historic Site. Last summer she was selected for a Yosemite Leadership Program Summer Internship, another step toward her dream of becoming a superintendent in the National Park Service.
Read about our other 2014 Local Heroes:
Join us in celebrating Bay Nature’s Local Heroes at our 2015 Annual Awards Dinner on March 22, 2015 at Scott’s Seafood Pavilion in Oakland’s Jack London Square.
>> Click here to nominate our 2015 Local Heroes — and for more details about Bay Nature’s Annual Awards Dinner, including tickets and sponsorship opportunities.
