My name is Julie Eliza Cardenas and I am a San José, California native. I was born to immigrant parents (Mexico and Peru) and am one of
seven children.

I have worked in the field of education for 19 years but one thing remains consistent in my approach: an attempt to bring the natural world into the classroom.  And to make our connection to the natural world matter to students and their families.  I have done this work through different means: by providing mud play areas and a natural material shelf in our classroom.  By having nature walks and inviting parents to join us.  By taking care of our gardens and growing our own food.  

I am also an artist and have thought a lot about how to make my art practice more enviromentally sustainable.  Recently I finished a fellowship with the City of San Jose that addressed many of these issues and I look forward in implementing sustainability into my work.  In addition, my art practice focuses on issues regarding food injustice.  I am currently a second year community member with a food collective called La Mesa Verde that supports urban gardening 

I have two graduate degrees: M.Ed in Arts Education from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA) and MFA in Comics from the California
College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA.
 

After my final year of teaching, I decided to take a two week National Parks road trip where I visited Crater Lake NP, Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons NP and Arches NP.  It was life changing and I realized that I really wanted to expand my teaching experience to include enviromental education.  When I came back home, I began my training as Visitor Center Host at Martial Cottle Park through Santa Clara County Parks.