DOINews: NPS-Everglades National Park: Students Participate in Wilderness Writing Expedition

Students on the Everglades Wilderness Writing Expedition Team pose for a photo with writers Michael Grunwald and Audrey Peterman and National Park Service ranger Sabrina Diaz. Photo by NPS.

On Oct. 2, Everglades National Park hosted a private reception to announce the students who were selected to participate in the Everglades Wilderness Writing Expedition, a new and innovative program that will connect aspiring local writers to the Everglades wilderness while creating future park stewards.

These students, all from south Florida universities, will participate in the adventure of a lifetime. The program was open to students in the fields of journalism or writing between the ages of 18 and 25.

The reception was an opportunity to introduce the 10 local college students, all of whom are aspiring writers, and to be inspired by other writers who have written about the wilderness and the Everglades. Author, journalist and Time Magazine senior correspondent Michael Grunwald was the keynote speaker at the reception, and author and conservationist Audrey Peterman was the guest speaker.

Over the next six weeks, these lucky 10 students will delve into the mysteries and beauty of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness of Everglades National Park. The student writers will participate in a series of wilderness day trips that will have them hiking, slogging, and paddling through the wild landscape of the Everglades.

Their final journey will be a multi-night expedition, led by North Carolina Outward Bound author and poet Anne McCrary Sullivan and park staff. Their contribution for this adventure – they'll be tasked with documenting their experience and sharing their stories with millions of people in the local south Florida community. The project highlights the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.

This program has been made possible through generous donation of the National Park Foundation and The South Florida National Parks Trust and through in kind support from North Carolina Outward Bound School, the University of Miami, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, Southdade Newsleader and Fairchild Tropical Gardens.

To learn more about this program, click on the “More Information” link below.

More Information

By: Sabrina Diaz, Pine Island District Interpreter, Everglades National Park, NPS
Nov. 18, 2014

Related Links:

NPS-The Morning Report
NPS-Everglades National Park