Quick Facts
- GETTING READY FOR 2016:
A Call to Action- Action Item:
- Live and Learn
- Also Promotes:
- Step by Step
- Year Accomplished:
- 2012
What could be better than learning about your cultural heritage? Teaching it to others.
For the 2011-2012 academic year, the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail launched a youth development project, the Anza Ambassadors program, in partnership with the Santa Fe Ranch Foundation of Nogales, Ariz.
High school students in Nogales and Rio Rico signed on to learn about the multicultural Anza Expedition of 1775-76, when families from present-day Mexico forged an overland route to settle Alta California.
Guided by project coordinators at the Santa Fe Ranch, the Ambassadors worked on education and service projects throughout the year. By spring, they were working in local elementary schools to teach 4th-graders about the lasting legacy of the Anza Expedition. The Ambassadors mentored the elementary school students to perform a play about the Anza Trail for their classmates.
"This club has bestowed me with traits that cannot simply be acquired through reading a textbook or by watching a documentary," one Ambassador wrote of her experience.
"Like Anza himself, I have become a leader and a team member."