Tara Performing Arts High School
TARA students with a whale skeleton in Comcaac territory
Photo courtesy of Kim Williams
In October, we had the honor of welcoming TARA Performing Arts High School for the fifth year in a row! Together, we explored the region through multiple interconnected lenses, gaining an understanding shaped as much by conversation and relationships as by the landscapes themselves.
Local fishermen and conservationists shared the complexities of Laguna La Cruz as a place where tides, livelihoods, and ecosystems rise and fall together. Students stepped into the rhythms, beauty, and challenges of Sonoran ranch culture, waking early to help with milking and cheese-making and experiencing the care that holds rural life together. They shared songs, stories, and traditional games within the Comcaac community, experiencing ancestral ways of relating to the land and sea.
TARA students on a Sonoran ranch
Photo courtesy of Catherine Barricklow
With each visit, TARA students reveal how this time together becomes an invitation—one that draws us into connection, humility, and quiet wonder.
Environmental Education Classes in Local Kino Schools
The Center began offering student-centered experiential education activities in Kino’s elementary schools over 25 years ago.
This season, the Center’s Environmental Education and Community Leadership Program leaders, Johana Nieblas and Edgar Magdaleno, are teaching weekly ecology classes with approximately 45 4th- and 6th-grade students at the Nissan 47 elementary school.
Edgar with students from the Nissan 47 elementary school
Ulises Rancaño/Kino Bay Center
At the same time, they are training a very dedicated group of community members who will start teaching environmental education classes to all of the 5th graders in Bahía de Kino (over 100 students!). The “Eco-educadores,” as they are called, are a group of experienced and dedicated community members who have been involved in community-based education for years.
Stay tuned for more news about upcoming activities with the Jóvenes Delfines ecology club and workshops with high school students.
