Welcome to the EY Family, Sophie!
Elevate Youth is staffing up! In the midst of a busy school year, we are thrilled to announce our most recent hire: Sophie Gould.
Sophie comes to Elevate youth with a strong background in outdoor leadership and youth services, and will provide critical support to our organization as we grow.
Sophie joins us just months after our 2nd most recent hire, Emily Milliken. Together, these two co-instructors will lead our programs, mentor our youth, and draw the roadmap for Elevate Youth. We’re so fortunate to have both of them!
Read more about Sophie and her decision to join Elevate Youth below.
Hello EY family!
My name is Sophie Gould and I am a newly hired Co-lead Instructor for Elevate Youth. I have been lucky to be involved in outdoor leadership since my youth, attending backcountry programming focused on community building, tripping skills, and environmental stewardship since I was 10 years old. These experiences strengthened my sense of autonomy, helped me learn to take the initiative, and instilled in me a long-lasting respect for the natural world. My background in outdoor leadership was so fundamental to my personal growth that I wanted to create space in the outdoors for youth development.
I worked as a Tripping Co-leader and Counselor for two years at Camp Manito-wish YMCA where I had the privilege to facilitate canoe trips and leadership skills amid groups of young women aged 10-14. My passion for the outdoors continued at university where I pursued a degree in Environmental Science at Colby College, and helped organise the college’s outdoor orientation trips for all first-year students. My academic curriculum and leadership experiences emphasised the connection between environmental justice and under-resourced populations, as they often feel the effects of climate change, pollution, and food scarcity most severely. I continued involvement in local volunteerism while living in the D.C. area through Americorps’ Jumpstart youth literacy program. This program emphasised that early-onset initiatives have the longest lasting community impact.
I was drawn to Elevate Youth because it combines my passion for outdoor leadership and community engagement for underserved youth. My experiences have shown me that long-term programming that focuses on relationship building in outdoor leadership is most successful, and Elevate Youth achieves this. Moreover, the outdoors have too long been a space relegated to affluent, white communities and EY works to enact this social change. I am excited to contribute to making the outdoors a more equitable and welcoming place and look forward to serving the greater Boston area!
“The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now”
