Program History

CactusToCloud Institute began in part due to our CoFounders’ shared experiences in the UC California Naturalist and UC Climate Stewards programs, and we personally felt the impact these courses could have in our community. Yet we understood that some barriers to participation prevented the course we took from being truly available to all, such as cost, transportation, and conflicts with work and school schedules.

In this spirit, we sought opportunities to make this program available at no cost to youth and young adults from low-income or mixed-immigration status families in the Coachella Valley. This aligns with one of our goals of helping communities be better connected to their desert environment and more climate-resilient.

To help eliminate these barriers, we developed a new program, which we named Nuestro Desierto (“Our Desert”), and began seeking funding to make the program a reality for our community. In the fall of 2021, we approached the local office of the Council of Mexican Federations with our idea for the Nuestro Desierto program and took the lead in developing a grant application for the highly competitive Outdoor Equity Grants Program from the California Department of Parks and Recreation. We were thrilled to be among the first 125 successfully funded proposals, which would help bring this program to our community!

The new program was adapted from the "Desert Sands & Sky Islands” California Naturalist course, in collaboration (“co-design”) with the UC Environmental Stewards program and Coachella Valley community members. The course consisted of eight classroom and field sessions totaling 60 hours of instruction. This also included three single-day field trips and one multi-day camping trip, totaling 44 hours of outdoor instruction. The outdoor opportunities were a vital part of the program, offering students a unique chance to visit local research centers and to experience the beauty of hiking and camping in our local public lands for the very first time. Best of all, we were able to offer the program at no cost to participants. Tuition, textbooks, and college credits, as well as transportation, snacks, meals, and camping gear for outdoor trips, were all provided.

In the fall of 2022, we held the first Nuestro Desierto course at the City of Coachella Library. Over the course of the program, students learned about ecology, geology, botany, zoology, climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and environmental justice. Additionally, many graduates of the program went on to secure careers in the natural sciences, environmental education, public policy, and conservation. As such, the program's application process quickly became highly competitive, as we received far more applications than the program could accommodate from potential students across the Coachella Valley who recognized the many benefits and opportunities it offered! We successfully continued to lead and served as the instructors for the course until 2024.

There are currently no new programs scheduled for 2025 and 2026. However, we remain committed to creating a diverse range of environmental education and outdoor programs for our community, and we are excited about the chance to offer more engaging opportunities in the future.

Your tax-deductible donation today can make a significant difference in making these vital programs accessible to everyone in the Coachella Valley.

Together, we can empower our community through education and connection to the outdoors.