Need to touch grass but can’t get outside? For just a few dollars, you can buy lotion that smells like cherry blossoms or soap that smells like the beach. Today’s computer screens can emulate grass and trees in striking detail. Using a virtual reality headset, you can go fishing from the comfort of your home or take a nature walk without moving a muscle. No actual grass needed.

We’ve never had greater access to nature. That is, from afar. Thanks to modern technology, we have nearly unbridled entry to parks and preserves and green spaces around the world, all via our screens. But as we’ve expanded our knowledge about the great outdoors, we’ve progressively moved away from being physically present in it. 

On average, humans live roughly nine miles away from a natural area, according to a study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Natural areas range from wildlife refuges and national parks to urban gardens. Access to these safe green spaces hasn’t just diminished; it is also unequally distributed. People of color, particularly Hispanic and Black populations, and low-income individuals in urban areas are underexposed to green spaces, according to a study in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Losing access to these pockets of green can impact one’s physical and mental health.

“I know from a personal level how much better I feel when I’m sitting out in nature,” environmental studies and science Professor Leslie Gray says. “Watching nature exist, the bees buzz, and the birds fly. Everything that happens is just a remarkable [and] inspirational sort of thing. When it’s cloudy all the time or you’re inside all the time, it can be a little depressing, but when the sun comes out and you see the greens and the vivid colors, it just sparks the imagination.”

People need real nature, not just virtual or simulated environments. And yet, nature is getting farther and farther away. At Santa Clara University, there’s work underway to bring it closer or at least get us closer to the green. 

Walk Across California

The crunching sounds of gravel and the feel of tall grass brushing against our knees remind us of the nature that lies just beyond the concrete structures and cookie-cutter homes we’re usually surrounded by. So, too, does the scent of crisp fresh pine, vistas of rolling golden hills, and greetings from sunny orange poppies. Walking closer to nature are theater and dance Associate Professor David Popalisky and a group of SCU students as they embark on a 225-mile journey through California. Together, they’re stepping away from neatly paved roads and air-conditioned classrooms to embrace the brilliant, messy outdoors.

This trek is part of Popalisky’s popular “Walk Across California” course that began in 2012. For two weeks in June, students and faculty camp and eat together as they trek from Ocean Beach in San Francisco to the towering peaks of Yosemite.

Popalisky sees this course as a chance to give students substantial time to be in nature, something many of them haven’t really experienced before. “When you are in touch with that, whether it’s the smile on a person’s face, the wind in the trees, or just a memory, you are more alive,” Popalisky says. “You’re healthier, you’re happier.”

Beyond getting people off their phones, Walk Across California is also about making connections with the land and those who inhabit it. Along the way, students meet with local naturalists, farmers, community organizations, and members of the Me-Wuk tribe in Tuolumne. Interacting with different people and feeling wonder with each step is all part of what Popalisky calls “human witnessing.”

“To witness is to observe and see, but also empathetically seek to be in the other person’s shoes,” Popalisky says. “You are open to what they’re going through, whether they’re telling you it or not. It may not be appropriate for you to do anything [and] you may not be able to do anything, but at least you’re being in a human relationship with someone in an empathetic way.”

Exploring the world in this way requires spontaneity, Popalisky says. While the trip and destinations are extensively planned, there’s always room to encounter something new or meet new friends. Allowing for spontaneity teaches flexibility and adaptability to students in ways they wouldn’t have gotten if they had just taken a road trip or a regular class.

“Walking reminds us how much time it takes to get someplace at that pace,” Popalisky says. “It’s really interesting when your day job is just to walk 15 miles. I don’t have to go to work, I don’t have to get my paper done, I just got to walk. I just got to be and that’s very profound in these times.” 

Into the Wild

While Santa Clara sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, nature remains so close. You can find it peering from just beyond grey asphalt and reflective glass from all sides of campus. An hour’s drive in any direction and one will find themselves amidst the lush trees of Mt. Umunhum or along the wind-worn coastline of Half Moon Bay. 

“We’re surrounded by beautiful mountains and nature and animals in the ocean,” says Jules Holland ’24, president of the Into the Wild student club. “There’s so much for us to explore, and I think Into the Wild does a really great job offering students that ability to explore what’s so close to us.”

Big factors in accessing green spaces are tied to space, money, and safety. Aiming to overcome these hurdles, as the largest student-run organization on SCU, Into the Wild is getting students back in nature by providing easy access to the wilderness through weekly field trips. The trips can vary from short day-long activities like backpacking or surfing to overnight camping trips. With each excursion, Into the Wild aims to cut down on costs by offering rental gear and providing discounts for drivers.

The club has also pushed for greater funding from the school to increase accessibility and affordability for their trips. Since their founding, they’ve collaborated with the Center for Sustainability, LEAD, and the Multicultural Center to increase their outreach. In this year’s Day of Giving Into the Wild also managed to fundraise over $5,000.

“Even just a few minutes outdoors without technology and being surrounded by like-minded individuals who just want to experience the natural beauty of the world, it’s refreshing,” Holland says. “Especially after a really hard and long demanding week at school. Being outdoors offers a breath of fresh air for people to be able to see that there’s more to life than just studying in the library and it inspires people.”

Beyond increasing accessibility to explore California’s wilderness, Holland says that a key aspect of Into the Wild is the camaraderie and community it fosters. For Holland, her time with Into the Wild has taught her how to work with her peers and persevere against adversity. On trips, Holland has seen students from all walks of life connect, and it’s especially helpful for incoming undergraduates to expand their social circles.

Going outside and accessing green spaces can enhance people’s days and Holland believes that it can make people grateful for what they have and feel connected to something bigger than themselves. Each trip could be the turning point for students to make lifelong connections with others and the world around them.

“We need to continue to feel more connected to our world and our earth or else we’re not going to align,” Holland says. “We need to work with the world and with nature. Getting students outdoors will help that because they’ll realize the natural beauty that we have and be grateful for what we have.”

Ecospirituality

Our collective loss of access to green space also means a loss of connection to something beyond us. This disconnect has led to concerns over the social and physical costs to human health. It might also be impacting the health of the environment and how we understand it. 

Environmental studies and sciences Professor Leslie Gray explains that this alienation can cause something called nature deficit disorder. According to Gray, this condition contributes to diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, poor health, and higher rates of emotional and physical illnesses. 

“When you don’t have green spaces and you have sterile urban environments, you can see increases [in] street traffic, and people don’t feel like they want to be out in nature or want to ride their bikes,” Gray says. “The lack of green spaces doesn’t give people the sort of vision that’s needed to see the importance of nature in the future.”

To help students battle nature deficit disorder, Gray’s course “A Deep Dive into California Foodscapes” gives students a taste of the verdant greens Santa Clara helps cultivate. Through close interactions with faculty, weekend field trips, cooking, and immersion into the state’s complex food systems, students gain a better understanding of how food is grown, by whom, and how it roots us to culture and community. 

“One of the things we do in this deep dive class is harvest from the Forge Garden [on campus] and make a meal together,” Gray says. “That’s a really rich experience, particularly for undergraduate students it’s a new thing for many of them. Learning how to cook seems hard, but it both creates community and creates skills and confidence in a way that other things don’t.”

While classes alone may not change entire systems, the philosophy and awareness they inspire can trigger a cascading effect of appreciation and action for the good of creation. As religious studies Associate Professor Paul Schutz sees it, institutions like Santa Clara University have a moral responsibility to mold future generations into people who care for the natural world and strive to protect it.

Schutz believes that people connect with the environment on more than a physical level. Dipping into the psyche and reflecting on the functional awareness of ecosystems and food systems fosters a kind of awe at humanity’s connection to nature—it’s ecospiritual. 

“When that deeper connection that touches on the depths of who we are as people, we understand the world as a place of beauty and wonder, and it leads us to feel a deeper connection with the world,” Schutz says. “We recognize that somehow we are connected with nature, our ecosystems, and the whole history of the cosmos.”

Nothing exists in isolation, and feeling this interconnectedness is what Schutz says drives positive environmental action. Simply understanding processes or talking about policy and economic transformation isn’t enough. Impactful and lasting structural change is only possible by changing and addressing deeper motivations. And it’s something the University as a whole must prioritize and nurture within its students.

“When a person has that deeper spiritual attunement, they will naturally be led to act differently,” Schutz says. “If we form people into those depths of relationship through spirituality, whatever shape it takes, then I think action would quite easily follow because we would be changing how people see the world, not just how they act in the world. If you change how people see, you’re always going to change how they act.”