Fellows
Maisie Ferner
Maisie Ferner
Maisie Ferner is a senior at Archie Williams high school, and is excited to attend Colorado College in Fall 2026, where she plans to study Organismal Biology and Ecology on a pre-veterinary track. She is a dedicated member of Archie’s Team Academy; an experiential outdoor education program that connects students with the natural world through immersive, place-based learning.
Maisie is passionate about the outdoors and helping others – interests she has combined into her Pseads fellowship project focused on support systems for youth with disabilities alongside environmental care. Since elementary school, Maisie has been an avid part of the Pseads community through volunteer work, filmmaking projects, and poetry and creative writing programs. As an inaugural member of the 2025-26 Lambert Light Fellowship cohort, Maisie continues to integrate her passion for the outdoors with her desire to help others.
My Project
This project is an offering born from lived experience – a story shared in words and photos that shares the joy and journey of reconnecting with nature I have experienced over the last several years. It is shaped by my experience of juvenile arthritis – a condition that is not well known or understood. Going through juvenile arthritis, and then participating in the Arthritis Foundation JA Camp and joining TEAM, the outdoor education program at my high school, influenced how I understand movement, access, and the relationship between human beings and the natural world. I used this opportunity to reflect on how time outside – sometimes easy, sometimes limited – can build joy, confidence, strength, healing, and community.
Grounded in a commitment to people and the environment, this project highlights self-growth that emerges within individual and shared outdoor experiences and celebrates different ways of learning and being in the world. I hope this project will inspire youth with disabilities to recognize that connect to nature doesn’t have to look one way, and that even small, accessible moments outside can carry meaning, impact, and transformation.
A Personal Journey Shared
Me Before Arthritis
Before I began experiencing symptoms, I was a kid who loved exploring the world. My parents were both scientists, and loved to take me and my sister into the open space preserve behind our house. I spent much of my childhood playing in the creek, running down the path, and climbing trees, learning the land through movement and curiosity.
My parents had planned to start me backpacking as soon as I could, and got me used to spending nights in tents through experiences of car camping. Being outside felt natural and full of possibility. That is, until my joints began to become inflamed. What had once felt easy and joyful started to feel different – sometimes painful, sometimes exhausting. Even being outside, something I loved, started to feel like a challenge and a chore.
After I Was Diagnosed
When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with Juvenile Polyarticular Rheumatoid Arthritis, which resulted in nearly all of my joints becoming stiff and painful. When I think back on my childhood, I remember hospital waiting rooms, missing school, and sitting on the sidelines.
One of my most vivid memories of growing up with arthritis comes from an outdoor adventure summer camp. While all the other kids were running around exploring, I sat in a wagon the counselors could pull around. It was the first of many moments where I watched from the sidelines, aware that I couldn’t fully participate in the way I wanted to.
Nature causes pain; that is the understanding I had for most of my childhood. Every time I went outside, I ended up in a lot of pain because of my arthritis. It shaped how I felt about the outdoors and impacted the love of nature I felt so clearly when I was young.
Over time, I began treatment and my symptoms became more manageable, my relationship with nature began to shift again. My joint pain began to lessen with the help of medication, and I slowly began to re-engage with outdoor life – enjoying car camping with my family, hanging out at the beach with friends, and walking my dogs. I found myself happier, more balanced, and more engaged with life when I was outside.
Wanting to deepen the sense of balance and belonging I was feeling, I chose to apply to the TEAM Academy – my high school’s outdoor education program – for junior and senior year, despite knowing that the hiking and physical demands of TEAM would likely cause joint pain.
Learning to Embrace Arthritis
As I learned more about my arthritis, I became a participant in an inclusive, educational camp for young people with arthritis. I built bonds with peers and younger campers that deeply affected me, and I’m returning as a counselor in 2026.
I began attending JA Summer Camp my freshman year of high school. During the weekly sleepaway camp, I formed strong connections with young people my age who also live with arthritis, while participating in fun activities designed to be accessible and inclusive.
This camp helped change the way I view my arthritis. It provided a space where I could bond with others and talk openly about our different experiences without feeling judged, isolated, or pitied. Through thoughtfully adapted, safe, and inclusive activities like an accessible rope course, pool time, arts and crafts, and evening campfire circles, I experienced what it feels like to belong to my body, in nature, and in a community at the same time. I also got to know counselors and adults who went through what I did. Seeing them leading, connecting, and participating gave me a powerful sense of possibility, posing inspiration for what I could become.
This experience not only helped me embrace my own journey with arthritis, but also inspired me to return as a counselor in 2026, so I can help create the same sense of belonging and possibility for other young people.
Embracing Myself on TEAM
Wanting to deepen that sense of balance and belonging I found at JA Camp, I decided to apply for the TEAM Academy – my high school’s outdoor education program – for junior and senior year – despite knowing that the hiking and physical demands of TEAM would likely cause joint pain.
On one of our backpacking trips, with every step down, my right knee began to throb more and more intensely. I paused to rest, taking in the view of the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains. Looking into the valley below, I could make out a small lake surrounded by trees turning yellow for fall. Renewed by the beauty, I continued my descent, listening to my classmates’ heavy breathing around me. “Two more miles to go until we set up camp! Doing great, guys!” one of the leaders called out from the front of the group. I was in the wilderness with a group of 13 students, all because I wanted to challenge myself to participate more fully with life while living with a disability.
TEAM is an experiential academy that integrates wilderness learning and community service into the local public high school. The experience pushes students to be the truest version of themselves, to work together in the outdoors, and to find ways to make a positive impact on the world around them.
Over time, TEAM has shown me that my differences are not my limitations – they are my strengths. I have learned how to listen carefully to my body and advocate for what I need. I’ve discovered that my skills of observation and listening, honed from years of sitting on the sidelines, help me lead others with calm confidence. I’ve learned how to be comfortable being myself in a larger group, and find deep connections with unexpected people.
TEAM helped me embrace my differences and push myself to contribute to my community. I finished my junior year as a more grounded person who is confident in being myself, and thrives being with my community.
Back in the Sierras, hiking down the steep trail with my knees on fire, and surrounded by my TEAM family, I remembered to feel a sense of accomplishment. I distracted myself from the pain the way I learned to as a kid, by watching what was happening around me. Being on the mountain, laughing with my friends in the middle of nowhere, I felt happy. I used my hiking poles to make the final scramble a little easier, and then finally, I reached the flats.
After completing that first backpacking expedition, I came home with the feeling that I finally learned how to embrace my arthritis, and not let it control my decisions. I overcame the biggest challenge I ever faced in my life not by pushing through it, but by accepting it. I will always have different limits for my body, but that will never stop me from figuring out what I want and how I can achieve it.
Reimagining Belonging in Nature
Growing up with arthritis, my relationship with nature was one of caution. JA Camp and the TEAM program helped me repair this relationship with nature and reshape it again into something that I cherish.
Being outside has become the place where I am my most authentic, free self – away from the pressure and worry-consuming life in the front country. I also find that in nature I am able to connect on a deeper level with the people around me, bonding over shared experiences in the wilderness. These experiences create a kind of honesty and closeness that is difficult to find anywhere else.
My relationship with the natural environment has continued evolving through my senior year, providing me with new opportunities to learn and grow. The grounded sense of self I feel in the wilderness is something I wish to spread among others, helping create opportunities for more people to build their own meaningful, accessible relationships with the environment around them.