Five decades ago, El Modena High chemistry teacher Jeanne Carter started a class about a topic sweeping the 70s: the environment.
Her students quickly caught the bug.
“The kids said, ‘We should do more than just talk about it,’” Carter recalled.
There was this plot of land on campus — all grass, no trees — right next to the baseball field. And so Carter did something more.
Over half a century, that once plain 1-acre plot turned into a bucolic nature center, featuring a pond, a 200-foot stream, wandering paths and tiny bridges that crisscross gardens with mature trees and blooming flowers. It’s believed to be the only nature center of its kind on a school campus in Orange County.
And what’s further unique about it, as Carter emphasizes, is that El Modena’s high school students have led tens of thousands of elementary school children on teaching tours through the gardens over the decades.
“What they love is they’re taught by a high school student,” Carter said. “That’s very unique. It’s the only nature center in Orange County that uses high school kids to teach little ones.”
This Friday, April 21, the Orange Unified School District will honor the 82-year-old retired teacher with a dedication ceremony to officially rename the nature center after her.
Walking through the gardens over the weekend, Carter shied away from the anticipated attention but acknowledged her role in what one former student called “a little urban paradise.”
“I’m really proud of this legacy because it’s teaching about nature,” said Carter. Then quickly, as she did repeatedly throughout a two-hour visit, she maintained the nature center wouldn’t have happened without the help of students, volunteers and community organizations who contributed through the years.
“All the hardscaping — the seating areas, the dock by the pond, the fencing — that’s like 40 years of projects done by the community,” she said, rattling off names of…
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