The Yosemite Institute, a nonprofit educational group focusing on the environment, has hosted over 500,000 school children on one night expeditions in Yosemite National Park since 1971. The Yosemite Institute exposes school children to a variety of topics such as geology and biology, while teaching about the landscape and natural habitat of the park. The facilities current buildings are 38 years old and sorely in need of repairs and upgrades. Although the buildings are usable, clean and safe many of the institute's educators find the campus to be a challenging teaching environment.
Located 15 miles northwest of Yosemite Valley on the Tioga Road at Crane Flat, the current campus is a group of wooden buildings with corrugated metal roofs. These buildings first served Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps. as a summer camp in 1933. Although the educational program has developed with the ever changing times, the campus itself is far from being considered state of the art. The students quarters currently sleep 60 in crowded bunk houses, the paint is beginning to fade and most of the floors have become slanted due to use. The campus will host up to 390 children a day and due to the small quantity of beds, 60 to be precise, most students are required to sleep at hotels in Curry Village in Yosemite Valley, which the institute pays for.
Most people would agree that it is time for the Yosemite Institute to upgrade is facilities in order to host more students and open its doors to tourists. The institute hopes to move their new campus to Henness Ridge, along Highway 41 near Glacier Point Road. The new campus will have a hosting capacity of 224 students, a fire station and solar panels. The new facility will also be available to host educational seminars for the public.
