Free field trips give Richmond students lessons no classroom could teach

This story was updated to correct several details, including that Yoots has provided 1,800 low-cost rides to 150,000 children and that the company received the $1.8 million grant from the state’s Clean Mobility Options program.

On a morning in May, 30 sixth-graders from Nystrom Elementary boarded a gleaming electric bus, crossed San Francisco Bay on a ferry and stepped onto Angel Island for the first time in their lives — a day that cost their school nothing and provided lessons that might stay with them forever.

Children in well-funded schools go on an average of four to six field trips per year. Students in Title I schools are lucky if they get to take more than one.

A group of community, education and business leaders is working to close that gap by providing the transportation and funding needed to get students from under-resourced campuses out of the classroom and exposed to real-world learning.

In 2023, the Robert and Kathryn Riddell Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation awarded a grant to the Richmond Outdoors Coalition to fund a three-year pilot program creating outdoor experiences for students at Nystrom Elementary, Verde K-8, DeJean Middle and Richmond High schools. The coalition recently announced that the Riddell Fund has agreed to continue funding the project. During the 2025-2026 school year, they provided 97 field trips for children at those four Richmond schools.

Educators said the experiences left a mark no classroom lesson could replicate.

“It is critically important for all students,” said Merrill Pierce, a WCCUSD science department project assistant who helps coordinate field trips with the Richmond Outdoors Coalition. “There is so much learning that can happen outside the four walls of a classroom.”

Ibilola Soyode’s sixth-graders’ trip to Angel Island’s historic immigration station is a window into how the Riddell Fund pilot program works, from the moment students board the bus to the ride home.

Kids can’t take field trips without transportation

Youth Transportation Organization (Yoots) is a Marin County based nonprofit that provides Bay Area children with low-cost bus transportation.

Craig Flax, a Marin County native, founded Yoots in 2016 after being inspired by the Every Kid Outdoors program overseen by the National Park Service.

It struck Flax that programs that provide children from low-income communities with free entrance to parks, museums and other facilities aren’t effective if the kids can’t get to those places.

“It’s kind of a simple thing,” he told Richmondside. “But it is vital because this can be the largest barrier to accessing anything.” 

Flax noted that charter buses can cost a school anywhere from $800 to $2,500 per field trip. Yoots charges $500, sometimes less.

Since its founding, the nonprofit says it has provided 1,800 low-cost rides to 150,000 children. Yoots also helps schools coordinate with other transit agencies. BART has become one of their prime partners.

“Yoots has a really critical role to play,” said Jenny Mulholland-Beahrs, who co-founded the Richmond Outdoor Coalition in 2017 and now consults with Yoots through the group Inclusion Outdoors.

Soyode’s students were picked up at their Iron Triangle campus by the newest addition to Yoots’ fleet, an all-electric, 47-passenger “mural bus” that is brightly painted on the outside. The vehicle was purchased as part of a $1.8 million grant that Yoots received from the state’s Clean Mobility Options program.

The bus itself is a component of the experience. It has comfortable seats, safety belts and air conditioning. The electric motor is quiet, making for a peaceful ride from Richmond to the Tiburon ferry dock.

Soyode, who has taught sixth grade at Nystrom for 11 years, said that she was able to hear the students’ conversations and the quiet environment seemed to have a calming effect on them.

Before they left, Soyode said she hoped the Angel Island trip would open up their eyes.

“It’ll have meaning,” she said. “They’ll know what all this is.”

Flax was thankful that Yoots was there to help.

“For us, transportation is the missing link between opportunity and access,” he said in a press release. “The Bay Area is filled with incredible programs — museums, science institutions, outdoor education, internships. But if students can’t physically get there, those opportunities remain out of reach. Our goal is simple: Make sure transportation is never the reason a young person misses out.”

Next stop: A ferry to Angel Island

The next leg of their journey began at the Tiburon ferry terminal.

There, the students stepped aboard one of three boats operated by the Angel Island Tiburon Ferry. The $450 ferry ride and the Yoots bus were paid for by the Angel Island Conservancy, so the school paid nothing. It’s an important detail given that WCCUSD is in the midst of a multi-million budget deficit and has cut positions and student programs.

Maggie McDonogh, a fourth-generation ferry captain whose father started the current Angel Island ferry service in 1959, said the student trips have become one of her favorite parts of the job.

“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to provide access for students to the outdoors,” she said. “Students should be able to get places where they can learn.”

Aboard the ferry, the students took in views of the island as well as the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. Some rode near the back, watching Tiburon fade into the distance. Others stood on the second deck, viewing Angel Island as it loomed closer.

The students were allowed to take their mobile phones out of their backpacks to snap photos, something strictly forbidden inside Soyode’s classroom.

Harbor seals lounging on the docks and a pelican diving with gusto into the water seemed to be of particular interest, with children yelling in delight at the sights. The word “cool” could easily be heard amid the clamor.

Educators noted that getting to spend informal time like this together builds friendships and connections that students might not make on campus.

“Spending the day outside is a big takeaway,” Pierce said. “It’s pure joy and so important for everyone.”

After a 15-minute ride across the northern portion of San Francisco Bay, the students stepped onto the picturesque island.

McDonogh said this particular state park is so close to Richmond, but it can seem so far away for those without the means to get there.

“Angel Island is getting away without getting away,” she said.

McDonogh said she hopes to provide this opportunity for many other youths.

“Parks are for the people. They’re for everybody,” she said. “We hope to be able to do this as often as possible.”

Angel Island: Learning about immigration

The students’ first assignment on the island was to walk a mile from the docks to the historic Angel Island Immigration Station, a journey that included conquering 140 dirt stairs that led to the island’s main road.

There was some grumbling about the hike, but educators said the trek was also part of the learning experience.

“There are health and wellness benefits to being outside,” the outdoor coalition’s Mulholland-Beahrs said. “The benefits are immeasurable.”

Soyode said seeing the actual building where immigrants were processed and sometimes detained made history come alive for students. About 500,000 immigrants from 80 countries were processed, detained, and/or interrogated at the site.

In preparation for the field trip, Soyode had the class read “The Dragon’s Child,” a book by Laurence Yep about Angel Island’s immigration camp and the conversations Yep wished he could have had with his father about his experiences there.

“We’re teaching them a part of history and then building on that,” she said.

At the center, Amy Tanner, an interpretative specialist with the California State Parks department, led the tour.

Tanner explained that the center was open from 1910 to 1940 and was used to process immigrants entering the United States. Some people were kept there for weeks and even months before they learned whether they’d be allowed to stay in the country.

Tanner told the students that about two-thirds of the immigrants were from Asia, with about half of them from China. She said the impetus for the center was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that sought to minimize the number of immigrants from China. Tanner said there were many white Americans who felt that Chinese immigrants were stealing their jobs.

“That’s why this immigration center was built,” she told the students.

The students toured a room with 60 beds that served as a dormitory for women and girls who were being processed. Tanner pointed to the fence grates on the windows and asked the students how they thought those immigrants felt while living in that room. Sad, lonely, angry and upset were among the answers.

Tanner also told the students the story of an 11-year-old girl whose family paid for her to sail from China to Angel Island. The girl eventually was allowed to enter the United States but never saw her family again. That fact drew gasps from some of the students.

The class was also shown a smaller men’s dormitory. In both rooms, the students were able to view some of the 200 poems that the center’s occupants carved into the walls in the walls in traditional characters that described their detention as well as their hopes.

Tanner asked the students to think of the “push and pull” of immigration. The factors such as poverty, war and lack of freedom that “pushes” someone to leave their country and the reasons such as jobs and opportunities that “pull” them toward another place.

“It’s very relevant to our country today,” she said.

Pierce, who has been organizing field trips for 13 years, said the knowledge the students gleaned from the tour was invaluable.

“This kind of learning is more than we can quantify and plan for,” she said.

“It’s tangible when you see things first hand. There’s a deeper understanding from being there,” added Mulholland-Beahrs.

The ride home: Students reflect

On the way home Soyode told the children that there would be writing assignments for them to reflect on the day’s experience.

As the bus quietly rolled across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, students were excitedly chattering about what they had seen as well as the fun of riding a bus and not being in class. 

Ricardo Rodriguez Carmona, one of the parent volunteers on the field trip, said these first-hand experiences are invaluable to students.

“It’s something out of the ordinary and it can open up their world,” he said. “It can provide memories that they can hold onto.”

Vilma Renderos Melendez, another parent volunteer, agreed.

“It’s better to explore things in person,” she said. “They learned how hard it was for immigrants to get here.”

Khloe Dixon, 11, said she learned how tough the journeys of immigrants could be. She was particularly moved by the poems scratched into the walls.

“We learned about a lot of different things,” she said. “We saw things and understand them better.”