As a teen, Mary Kirby ’07 (Recreation and Tourism Management) enjoyed hiking with friends near Scotland in the English Lake District, a land of mountains and lakes beloved by the likes of Beatrix Potter. Now in her sixties, she has come full circle, still hiking, but in a dramatically different environment: Nevada’s Lake Mead area, where she is an advocate for outdoor volunteerism for seniors.

Kirby had a career in San Fernando Valley real estate before she “decided to go back to school for the challenge.” Following in the footsteps of her daughter Julie ’01 (Business Administration), she chose CSUN.

The returning student invited Craig Finney, Recreation and Tourism Management Department chair, to be her faculty mentor when she landed the coveted Presidential Scholars Award in 2005 and again in 2006.

As a volunteer at Franklin Canyon Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, she “started meeting these amazing people who were building hiking trails, leading schoolchildren, volunteering for the outdoors,” she said. “My research project came out of that.”

Many of the “amazing people” Kirby was meeting were senior citizens. She began to document their experiences for the project, and soon realized she had a book on her hands. “There were all these people in their 50s up to their 80s, teaching third graders, doing trail work, caring for the natural environment…I wanted to know more about them, and their stories were so wonderful.”

Kirby’s project became a book called “Senior Volunteers Outdoors.” She credits her published work and CSUN’s Presidential Scholars Award with leading directly to her current position as assistant to the Interagency Volunteer Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Public Lands Institute. She also writes for the Get Out Nevada online newsletter, researching and writing about volunteers, conservation projects, desert safety and southern Nevada wildlife.

“My mission,” she said, “is to spread the word about senior volunteers outdoors.”

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Presidential Scholars