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Expansive Skies /

/ Activist Minds

Tilden Regional Park / June 16-19, 2021

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Photos by Kyle Duane Kazimour

A teenager points up at the sky while laying on a sleeping bag in a park, with green grass beneath them and tall evergreens behind them during sunset.

A teenage girl talks while seated on a tarp in a park, while four other young adults listen attentively.

A teenage boy talks while sitting cross-legged on a tarp in a park with both palms facing up, while a few other young adults listen.

A teenage boy, with his back facing the camera and head turned to the left, relaxes while sitting cross-legged in a park with a few other young adults, all of whom are listening to someone taking off-camera.

Co-founder Sophie Klimcak speaks to the group while co-founder Shasha Du and a teenage girl listen.

A teenage boy smiles while looking slightly to his left, as the setting sun shines brightly behind him.

A teenage girl talks while reflecting on her experiences as two other young women listen, all seated on a tarp in a park.

A teenager animatedly talks while sitting cross-legged in a park.

A teenage boy speaks to a group of young adults as he sits cross-legged on a tarp in a park.

A teenage boy sits cross-legged while writing in a journal, with another teenage boy laying down behind him, doing the same.

A teenage girl is engaged while writing in a journal in a park.

Three teenagers and two young women (co-founders of Wild Awake) pose for the camera at Tilden Regional Park, with a sea of clouds behind them while the sun is setting.

From our pale blue dot

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Wild Awake's inaugural program, Expansive Skies, Activist Minds, took place in the summer of 2021 at Tilden Regional Park.

With guest facilitators Dr. Sarah Ballard, an astronomer, and Lilian Caylee Wang, a poet, students stargazed together in a park, learned about the potential for life on other planets, and articulated their vision for a more beautiful and just world through poetry.

Student Outcomes Included:

An enduring understanding that there are many ways of knowing and making sense of human life—science, art, philosophy, & ethics—and an appreciation for this intersectional way of understanding our place in the universe.
An introductory ability to express themselves through the medium of poetry
Empathy, joy, and wonder for each other and the natural world

Dr. Sarah Ballard, Ph.D

Sarah is an Professor of Astronomy currently at the University of Florida. She is an observational astronomer studying exoplanets (planets orbiting stars other than the Sun). Sarah was part of a collaborative team that was the first to successfully use the transit-timing variation method to detect exoplanets. This resulted in her team's confirmation of this theoretical search procedure and the discovery of the Kepler-19 planetary system with that technique. She took part in the discovery of four exoplanets in the Kepler spacecraft mission prior to its finding of significant quantities of planets around other stars.

Guest Facilitators

Lilian Caylee Wang

Lillian is a poet whose work has been published in the New York Times, the Bold Italic, McSweeneys and more. She is also a multidisciplinary designer who specializes in simplifying complex concepts and working with large amounts of information. Before working at Stripe, she designed for health and financial benefits at Gusto; created end-to-end product experiences for ConductorOne; advised Northbeam; and more. She spends my time creating in other mediums, including handbag design, sketching, painting, and writing about culture, food, and the intersection of the two.