Anthony Barrasso New Wilderness Dir For In Balance Academy

My name is Anthony Barrasso and I have become the new Wilderness Director for In Balance Ranch Academy. Matt Walker, our previous director, has resigned. I am very excited about this opportunity and the future of our wilderness program.

I graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor's in Philosophy in 2004 and then again in 2006 with a Master's in Public Administration and Policy. After which I continued my education at Sandra Day O�Connor Law School at Arizona State University, where I received a Master's in Legal Studies. My relevant work experiences includes: 7th&8th grade boys and girls basketball coach, Wilderness Staff for Aspen Achievement Academy and Intern for the Department of Defense in the Office of Force Transformation.

My relevant life experience includes: Journey of Hope, a 4,000 mile cross country bicycle trek to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities; 3 months study abroad program in Urbino, Italy; and 22-day excursion to South Africa with 14 In Balance students.

My current position is functionally important to In Balance in that I have set up systems of accountability that have allowed the ranch to reach levels of efficiency that is unusual among "mom and pop" businesses, enabling In Balance to be more competitive in an increasingly corporate environment. However, this is not where my real passion lies. When I participated on the Journey of Hope I experienced a summer that changed me forever. I realized the importance and impact of true service; it is this gift that I hope to share with the rest of the students of In Balance.

I will be transforming the wilderness program into a more service and experience oriented direction. It seems that most our students are coming to us with 7-9 weeks of time spent with some of the greatest wilderness programs in the country. We now wish not to try and copy or compete with this experience, rather we would like to allow the students to have experiences that they have not yet had before. Already, I have planned and participated in the trip to South Africa where the boys of In Balance lived and worked in Khayelitsha, a town that was decimated by the apartheid government. I am currently planning future community enrichment trips to Mexico, working with Habitat for Humanity, and in December I will be traveling to India, scouting it as the next possible Ranch trip.

Change is inevitable and it is a program�s responsibility to anticipate it and adapt to it if they wish to remain strong. Matt�s presence at In Balance will be missed but it has allowed us to take our wilderness program into a different direction, a direction that we are all excited about and we believe will be more profound for our students. Thank you and I look forward to being of service to you.