LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 12 Up and Comer: Meet Inyene Bell Hi I'm Inyene! I'm a Senior at Miss Halls School, an alum of North Country School (NCS), and the co-founder of Access Wild Places. Access Wild Places (AWP) is a program that brings marginalized students attending Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead, NY to my former school, NCS. AWP feels like a summer camp for the kids as it runs one week ev- ery year in June as the kids enjoy outdoor activities for free such as hiking, rock climbing, and canoeing with leaders in the outdoors who are people of color (POC). The leaders include a range of people like Mirna Vale- ria, aka The Mirnavator, to other former NCS students of color like Marcos Fernandez who discuss their own experiences in the outdoors with the students and guide the kids as they go out of their comfort zone throughout the week. Access Wild Places is a tangible manifestation of my appreciation for the outdoors, however, my relation- ship with the outdoors wasn't always the most idyllic. I actually used to dislike the outdoors a lot. My initial dislike of the outdoors can only be under- stood by illustrating my first experience that plunged me into the deep end of a life in the outdoors. On my first day of North Country School, my dorm's orienta- tion activity to start off the school year was a well- known hike on campus called Trouble. The name alone wasn't a good sign. While the hike is short and easy for me today, as I've hiked much larger mountains since then, in the moment it was the most exhausting thing I had ever done as a 10 -year-old. I took so many breaks before making it to the top of the steep mountain. It didn't help that the trail was slightly muddy. When I finally got to the top, I told myself I would never hike again, which was a promise I certainly wasn't able to keep for myself. I remember the whole event feeling like an out-of-body experience because I was just trying to take everything in. This was the longest I had ever spent in the woods, and even though I was in the same state as my home, the Adirondacks felt like a foreign place. To truly understand my initial dislike of the out- doors, you have to understand my background. Before being exposed to the outdoors at North Country School, I lived in New Rochelle, NY— a town in Westchester County considered a suburb, but it felt more like an extension of the city because of its close proximity to the Bronx. Because of New Rochelle's city-like qualities, it wasn't a place with a lot of natural spaces. But even if there were, I doubt I would have taken the opportunity to indulge in outdoor activities. This was mainly because I didn't come from a family that engaged in those types of activities with things like going on regular family camping trips. This is just another reason why participating in outdoor activities felt so unnatural to me. A part of my background that impacted my relation- ship with the outdoors the most is my identity as a Black woman. As a Black person, I always categorized Access Wild Places participants gather for their first ski lesson.

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