A Moment of: The Great Outdoors

A company we are working with recently asked to schedule a time to visit and take photographs “when our campus is at its best.” For us, it is hard to choose that time, because each season on our campus has its beauty and charms. Even during these weeks of continued gray skies — and even more rain — the hills are lush and green, daffodils have started to spring, and many of us drive to school past fields of mustard flowers blooming. We are surrounded by a naturally beautiful landscape, and we are so fortunate that our founders chose this stunning landscape on which to build our school. Spending time in nature has also long been an integral part of our program. We firmly believe in the power of outdoor education to deepen our students’ connection to the natural world, to promote physical and mental wellbeing, to inspire curiosity and creativity, and to help our students learn about their own place in the ecosystem. 

Over the past two days, during our annual Sophomore Retreat, our 10th graders had the opportunity to engage in outdoor activities, spend time with friends and classmates, and begin the process of coming together as a class as they prepare to take on the responsibility of being upperclassmen. Yesterday, our sophomores took off for Walker Creek Ranch in West Marin. Despite the drizzly weather, they were able to spend time hiking the hills and taking in the peaceful atmosphere of the surrounding trails. Most of our retreats and Passport Programs include an outdoor education component because being outdoors together, in the fresh air and away from devices, allows our students to focus, more meaningfully connect, and see one another in new and more empathetic ways. 

On campus, we are embracing the natural world and thinking about the future of an SA experience in exciting new ways. Embarking on the construction of the Performing Arts Center project allowed us to reimagine our campus garden and horticulture programs. As we considered different options on our current campus footprint, we dreamed about extending our campus to include more space dedicated to bringing our students out of the classroom and into the natural environment. We were incredibly fortunate to have a neighbor approach us this summer about purchasing five acres of adjacent land to the northwest corner of our campus (see picture), and we were recently able to finalize our purchase of that property. 

This property holds a great deal of promise and possibility: robust and vibrant gardens, a barn space that we plan to renovate and use for retreats and reflective space, a pond and creek that runs through the middle of the property, vineyards, and most importantly, assurance that our campus will continue to be surrounded by natural beauty and green space in that corner of campus. 

Our Board’s Building and Grounds Committee has also been engaged in the process of reimagining our Campus Master Plan. To that end, we have engaged the landscape architecture firm Surfacedesign to help us maximize and enhance the numerous outdoor areas, or canvases of our campus. They are well known for designing some of the Bay Area’s most iconic spaces, including the Bay Area Discovery Museum, Golden Gate Bridge Plaza, Mission Bay Bayfront Park, among many others. The ultimate goal of our engagement with Surfacedesign is to conceptualize new ways for us to make the most of our outdoor spaces — creating new areas for students to hang out between classes, study, and meet with classmates and teachers in the natural beauty of Sonoma Academy — while encouraging us to see the outdoors as one of our most important classrooms.

We firmly believe that when students and community members have the chance to learn, adventure, play, and engage with one another in natural spaces, they are able to develop a deeper connection with one another and a deeper appreciation for the land and their sense of responsibility to the natural world. We all use different skills, we develop different knowledge about ourselves, and we are each inspired to create, to investigate, and to take action in new ways simply by being outdoors. This is at the heart of our philosophy around outdoor education, and we look forward to providing more opportunities for our community to get outside together. 

While it may be a bit wet for us to do so this weekend — although I know our hardened outdoor enthusiasts strongly disagree! — I hope we will all take moments this spring to more deeply connect with the outdoors throughout the region and, especially, on our campus.