I was in English class when I found out I was going to New Hampshire for the Student Conservation Association program for the summer. I was so excited that I asked my teacher if I could go call my mom, and safe to say, he was not as thrilled as I was. The news that I would be spending a month camping outdoors with five other Jewish teenagers and two counselors and learning about environmental conservation did not merit an excuse to get out of class, but it did make the day go by a lot quicker.

I spent the next couple of months in anticipation: picking out the sleeping pad I would be sleeping on for a month, breaking in my hiking boots and figuring out which five t-shirts to bring with me. The end of July came and my backpack was packed. I was ready to spend the next 30 days in the wilderness of New Hampshire.  

When asked to describe my experience, people want to hear more than just how amazing it was. But how do you explain to someone the bond that existed between eight people living together in a beautiful state park? I do not think anybody will ever fully understand the connections we formed that month, surrounded by nature, but the time we shared can be described with several anecdotes.

Every morning, one of our crew leaders would wake us up by playing the guitar. The campsite we built was next to a lake, and most mornings the area was full of fog. I thought the coolest thing was how everyone appreciated the beauty of our surroundings. We never talked much in the mornings since we were too busy—some of us davening, the others packing lunches and making breakfast—but we all stopped at some point to look around and take in the surroundings.

During the first week of camp, we were given a challenging job of pulling invasive species—plants that are non-native to their natural environment—out of a traffic circle. I was trying to pull out a big branch from the tree and it was not budging. All of a sudden, the load got a lot lighter. I turned around and there were two of the other crew members, pulling with me. I never had to ask for help: someone was always right there beside me, willing to lend a hand.

Shabbat was a special time during camp. We would get done with work early on Friday, and drive back to camp, blasting “Shabbos Kodesh” by a band called Moshav from our van's stereo. We spent the rest of the day before sunset putting up glow sticks around camp, making sure that the mechitza (traditional Orthodox partition or curtain dividing the men's and women's section) was still standing, and that the eruv (a fence-like surrounding of an area that allows for the carrying of objects on Shabbat) was still taut. We held services and then ate Shabbat dinner in a small shed to keep away from the bugs. The rest of Shabbat was spent relaxing and having some great discussions.

I gained so much from working with the Student Conservation Association. I not only grew as an environmentalist, but as a person. I learned how much one person can impact the environment and what I can do to help. I gained confidence to let others know what I believe in, and I learned what working as a team really means.

Ricki, 16, is a sophomore at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C. She enjoys playing volleyball, basketball and soccer and is the vice president of the environmental club at her school. Ricki looks forward to continuing her work with the Student Conservation Association this summer when she travels to Alaska with another crew.