Benjamin Bravo (BS '16, MS '17)

Public service has been a part of Benjamin Bravo's Stanford experience since the beginning of his time at Stanford. He took the Bridge Peer Counseling class in his freshman fall quarter and served as an active member and peer counselor for the Stanford Peer Counseling Center for the past five years. He has been a strong advocate for emotional wellness and has participated in events such as emotional wellness week and the "Out of the Darkness" walk. Ben put his interest in mental health to use when he planned emotional wellness events for high school students as part of his HAAS Community Service Work Study internship for an East Los Angeles-based non-profit called "El Centro De Ayuda" in the summers of 2013 and 2014. Also as part of this internship, he was able to teach high school students about the fundamentals of camping and first aid.

 As someone passionate about ecology and conservation, Ben has been a Jasper Ridge ranger and docent for the past 3 years. As a docent, he has served as a field assistant to Earth Systems students working on their honors research projects. He also volunteered a good portion of this past summer to label 30,000 wildlife photos. As a continuation of class Earthsys 276 Open Space Management Practicum, he worked this year with Grassroots Ecology to help develop a camera trap program at Arastadero Preserve that will be used to engage community members in stewardship and can be used to teach high school students about ecology and conservation.