Conrad Benedicto - Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative

Conrad Benedicto is a social studies teacher and executive director of the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative (WALC), a small learning community that operates within two high schools in San Francisco: Balboa High School and Downtown High School. For more than 10 years, WALC has worked with diverse, urban students in a junior-senior academic coursework that incorporates outdoor experiences to bolster academic achievement. WALC seeks to nurture within students an awareness of and connection to the different histories and heritage of their communities, as well as the ecological processes that underlie all existence.

WALC uses environmental education and ecological concepts that are taught with the use of place-based experiential lessons as analytical frameworks to integrate three different classes: social studies, language arts and science. The public lands that serve as the locations for field lessons and habitat restoration activities form the foundation of WALC’s curricula. Teachers scout each location extensively, including researching books, field manuals and Web sites. Through team teaching, the instructors ensure each core subject area is integrated into each experiential lesson. For effective team teaching, they prioritize learning the curricular content of each other's courses.

Whether learning about plant biology while helping transplant native plants in an urban park, writing poetry about their feelings in wilderness areas or learning about geologic processes, WALC students learn from their environment. They also learn to succeed. Students who participate in WALC have lower truancy rates and greater university attendance than their peers at the same school. Since resources are limited, WALC raises money for gear, technology, transportation, food and educational materials through grants, fundraising and individual donations. For pictures and samples of student work visit: http://walcsf.net