Six years ago, Sabrina DaSilva was a high school student in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She’d never been to Acadia National Park – or any national park. But a conversation in her high school lunchroom would connect her to the outdoors in unexpected ways, and it would change her life’s trajectory.

DaSilva met Tanner Burgdorf, deputy director of Groundwork Bridgeport, during one of his visits to the school to talk about the Groundwork Bridgeport program. She spotted him sitting behind a table during lunch hour and decided to walk over.

Groundwork Bridgeport’s mission is to provide opportunities for young adults in the area to learn and engage with their community and nearby communities. This includes hands-on experience involving urban planning and landscaping, trail restoration and river cleanup, and understanding horticulture and its environmental impact. In addition, students who complete the eight-week service/ learning program earn a financial stipend.

DaSilva loved that she could attend after school, and that she’d have the immediate impact of helping beautify her town. She was also enticed by the opportunity to travel to national parks with the program, which would be a new experience for her. Among those park opportunities: Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Acadia National Park.

She signed up.

Burgdorf sees those national park experiences as being particularly eye-opening to program participants, opening them up to nature in ways that are long-lasting. “The trips to national parks provide life-long memories and hands-on experiences that are invaluable to our students,” he said.

Friends of Acadia is a partner with Groundwork Bridgeport, helping create connecting experiences during their time in Acadia National Park. It’s a collaboration forged by Burgdorf and Paige Steele, Acadia for All Director at Friends of Acadia.

“Perhaps if one of the students enjoys the experience, then they might encourage their family to visit Acadia,” Burgdorf said. “Which melds well with the Acadia for All program.”

When DaSilva first stepped foot in Acadia National Park in 2019, it was her first time in Maine. The same was true for the other students in her group. She was thrilled for the opportunity to learn about this amazing national park and was eager to get started.

Sabrina Dasilva, front left, on a hike with fellow Groundwork Bridgeport participants during their visit to Acadia National Park in 2019. (Courtesy Groundwork Bridgeport)

Guided by their two Groundwork Bridgeport leaders, new experiences – and a new view of their worlds—began to unfold. Blackwood’s campground was their basecamp for the week, where they cooked fireside. Camping equipment, cooking kits, and hiking boots were provided for all participants. They quickly fell into a routine of packing daily lunches and digging out quarters for showers.

“Tanner would give us stacks of quarters every day and we would use them to shower…that was another first for me on this trip,” DaSilva said. “It truly is city kids in the wild connecting with nature, coupled with a good balance between work and play.”

And then there were the hikes – new sights and new heights. While Sleeping Giant State Park is a half-hour drive from Bridgeport, the variety of hikes in Acadia felt epic. Throughout their visit was a focus on stewardship and recreation, meaning the team worked and enjoyed the park. They installed trail footings on Champlain Mountain North Ridge Trail and dug irrigation ditches on Kebo Brook Trail for water to drain properly.

LEFT: Sabrina Dasilva, right, gazes up while standing inside the birch teepee at Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park in 2019. RIGHT: Dasilva, seated in the rear of the tandem, during a kayak trip in Frenchman Bay. (Courtesy Groundwork Bridgeport)

“While working on the trails, the everyday hikers would stop and sincerely thank us for our time,” Burgdorf said. “That made quite an impression on me.”

They cut back woody debris, pruned evergreens, and maintained the landscape around the Jordan Pond House buildings. They’d
done similar work in Bridgeport, which provided a base of confidence to ensure they could complete the tasks at hand.

DaSilva found that her confidence grew as the knowledge transfer from work at home to Acadia made her feel competent.

“While the service work was hard at times it was rewarding to see the results and our real-time impact on our work area,” she said.

They took time to enjoy and explore, too. They hiked Gorham Mountain, scampered along Sand Beach, kayaked in Frenchman Bay, and tiptoed around Otter Cliff. Each new experience served to widen the depth and breadth of the students’ understanding of themselves and their worlds—and perhaps give them pause.

Groundworks Bridgeport participants take a breather during a day of trail work in Acadia National Park in 2019. (Courtesy Groundwork Bridgeport)

Burgdorf believes in the value of connecting students to national parks so they can experience stewardship in another location, meet park staff, and perhaps envision themselves working in a professional role in a place like Acadia. And the skills they develop along the way transfer forward.

“If you show students your greatest passion when giving your time, and you push civic engagement, I believe it carries forward in life,” Burgdorf said.

When their time in Acadia came to a close, the tuckered-out group climbed into the van to head south, but Burgdorf announced they had one more stop. Despite the loud groans, he steered the group to the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

It was on the way, Burgdorf said, and he admires the college, so he figured he should swing by with the students.

“It was the prettiest campus I have ever seen in my life,” DaSilva said. She knew nothing about Bowdoin at the time. But soon she’d know it very well.

LEFT: DaSilva holds a black bear cub while doing fieldwork during her tenure at Bowdoin College. Students worked alongside Maine’s Fish and Wildlife department tagging cubs and getting their measurements. RIGHT: Dasilva looks closely at a sea star at Bowdoin’s Schiller Center during a lab course while attending Bowdoin College. (Photos courtesy Sabrina Dasilva)

DaSilva was the salutatorian of her high school class. She applied and was accepted to Bowdoin College with a full scholarship, earning a degree in biology with a concentration in ecology, evolution, and marine biology (EEMB) in 2024. Burgdorf attended her graduation and remains a mentor.

“He was and is amazing, and he has served as my mentor since I joined the program six years ago.”

Her experience with Groundwork Bridgeport and in Acadia National Park enabled her to feel self-assured when doing lab work outdoors for her coursework as well as going camping and hiking with new college friends.

She’s comfortable taking water samples, digging in mud for clams, and hanging off a dock to pull barnacles off the pilings. She loved working in Acadia’s forests during her 2019 trip, which later led to her doing research during a college summer, studying how willow tree DNA moves through rivers.

Tanner Burgdorf and Sabrina Dasilva at Sabrina’s graduation from Bowdoin College in 2024. (Courtesy Tanner Burgdorf)

“I never would have felt comfortable camping, working in nature, or focusing on plant life had it not been for the program and for our trip to Acadia,” she said. “It was one of the coolest places I have ever traveled to.”

Fast forward to today. DaSilva works at Fidelity Investments in Boston in an 18-month Emerging Leader Program, giving her the opportunity to rotate through multiple departments.

She hopes to be placed in sustainable investing, where she can research funds that work with companies with track records for interlacing environmental, social, and governance factors into investment research and decision making.

The collaboration between Groundwork Bridgeport and Friends of Acadia opens doors for young adults to learn, work, and explore in Acadia National Park. These experiences last well beyond the six days they spend in the park and sometimes shift what a participant believes is possible.

ANNE LEHMANN is a business consultant, journalist, and freelance writer. She has written for the Boston Globe and a number of other New England publications.