A Record Number of Junior Rangers are sworn in at Yosemite National Park — 22,600.
Each of these young people completed their duties, either by attending a Junior Ranger program or completing a booklet, and took an oath to continue to “Explore, Learn, and Protect” Yosemite National Park.
The Junior Ranger Program in Yosemite aims to engage children as stewards for one of America’s most beloved national parks.
The origins of the program began in 1930 with the Junior Ranger Nature School.
An article in Yosemite Nature Notes published in June 1937 states “The 1936 summer meeting of the Yosemite Junior Nature School showed an increase in the numbers… with a total enrollment of 410 children.”
The Junior Ranger Program is one of many educational programs in Yosemite National Park designed to reach out to young people to create the next generation of park stewards.
Yosemite partners with the University of California at Merced and NatureBridge on many innovative and groundbreaking programs to reach out to young people with diverse backgrounds in underserved communities who have never had the opportunity to visit Yosemite National Park.
These programs include Adventure Risk Challenge, Yosemite Leadership Program Summer Internship, and Parks as Classroom.
Yosemite National Park also offers distance learning programs utilizing video conference technology for schools that are unable to arrange a field trip to the park.
