For Aubrey Tallon, the outdoors has always been more than a place to visit. It is a place to learn, build community, find belonging, and, ultimately, recognize that everyone has a place in nature.
As the volunteer program manager at The Arboretum at Penn State, Aubrey brings years of experience in environmental education, outdoor recreation, and natural resource management to a role centered on people. Since joining the Arboretum staff in 2023, they have worked to create meaningful opportunities for volunteers to connect with the land, with one another, and with the broader Penn State and State College communities.
Their path toward this work began long before their career in environmental education. As a fourth grader, they organized a protest when their elementary school planned to clear-cut the forest behind the school. Years later, they helped found Students Against Sexual Harassment at Bellefonte Area High School, an organization that served as the school’s equivalent of a gay-straight alliance at a time when using that name was not an option. These experiences, combined with Aubrey’s experiences as a queer person growing up in a rural community, shaped their understanding of inequity and the importance of creating spaces where people feel welcome.
That perspective now influences the way they approach their work at the Arboretum. For Aubrey, a successful volunteer program is not simply one that fills shifts or measures its success in hours contributed. It creates connections between Penn State and the surrounding community.
“Volunteerism at the Arboretum,” they explain, “provides an opportunity to bring community members into the University while also allowing Penn State to provide meaningful service outward into the community.”
Building Community Through Volunteerism
Volunteers are essential to the Arboretum’s work, but Aubrey sees their contributions as extending far beyond the tasks they complete. Through volunteering, people gain opportunities to develop practical skills, build professional connections, and experience the personal satisfaction that comes from contributing to something larger than themselves. Students interested in careers in environmental education, horticulture, and nature centers can gain hands-on experience while building relationships within the field. In some cases, volunteer experiences can even become pathways to future opportunities; Aubrey shared that one current Arboretum intern previously volunteered for more than 200 hours.
But perhaps the most meaningful outcome is the sense of ownership volunteers develop toward the place they are helping care for.
Aubrey believes those relationships can extend beyond the Arboretum, inspiring volunteers to pursue environmental stewardship in their everyday lives. The program also creates opportunities for partnerships with community-based programs, including Penn State’s Master Gardener program, which has a strong local community presence.
In this way, volunteering becomes a two-way exchange: volunteers give their time and energy to the Arboretum, while the Arboretum gives them a place to learn, connect, and contribute.
Breaking Down Barriers to the Outdoors
While the outdoors can feel accessible to some, Aubrey recognizes that many people face barriers that make natural spaces feel unfamiliar or out of reach.
For some, the barrier is simply a lack of exposure. Someone who has never spent significant time in a natural area may not know what to expect or may even find nature intimidating. Education can help make those spaces feel more familiar and less overwhelming.
Transportation can also play a major role. The Arboretum’s location on Penn State’s campus provides an important advantage, particularly for students who may not have access to a car. Its proximity makes it possible for students to experience a botanical garden without needing to travel far from campus.
For Aubrey, creating inclusive outdoor experiences means recognizing these barriers and actively working to reduce them through education, accessibility, proximity, and opportunities to participate. Their background in childhood environmental education and outdoor recreation has helped shape this approach. That experience gives Aubrey a broader understanding of the people who participate in Arboretum programs, from children and families to students and adult volunteers. It also informs how they train volunteers, lead tours, and develop programming.
Creating Space for LGBTQIA+ Youth
Aubrey has also carried their commitment to inclusive outdoor experiences beyond their professional role.
They previously created Lavender Scouts, a scouting program hosted at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center for local LGBTQIA+ youth. The idea came from their own experience as a queer child involved in Girl Scouts and from seeing the need for young people to have a place where they could participate in outdoor activities without feeling pressured to hide who they were.
Although the program is currently paused, they saw firsthand the impact that a welcoming environment could have. Participants developed stronger communication skills, improved their environmental literacy, and formed a close-knit community with one another. For Aubrey, the experience reinforced that even when a resource serves a relatively small group of people, the need for that resource can be significant.
The experience reflects a larger philosophy that they bring to work: creating inclusive outdoor spaces is not about making everyone experience nature in the same way. It is about making sure people have opportunities to experience it as themselves.
Creating Opportunities to Connect
That philosophy can also be seen through the Arboretum’s work with LifeLink PSU, a cooperative program that brings groups of students to volunteer at the Arboretum during the spring semester.
For some students, the experience provides an introduction to hands-on gardening and outdoor work that they may not have encountered before. Through activities ranging from gardening to routine maintenance, students gain experience outside of the classroom while developing relationships with their peers and learning more about how the Arboretum operates. Aubrey has also seen how these experiences can spark interest in potential careers in horticulture and related fields.
These experiences demonstrate what they believe outdoor programming can accomplish at its best: not simply getting people outside, but giving them a reason to feel connected to the place and to the people around them.
Everyone Belongs in Nature
At the center of Aubrey’s work is a simple belief: people are not separate from nature.
“We are a part of nature, not apart from nature,” they say.
It is easy to think of nature as something distant: a mountain, a forest, a beach, or another remote landscape. But they argue that nature exists everywhere because humans exist within it. That means access to nature and outdoor experiences should not be reserved for a particular type of person.
Their work at the Arboretum reflects that belief every day. Through volunteer opportunities, educational programming, community partnerships, and a focus on reducing barriers, Aubrey is helping create a place where more people can find a connection to the outdoors.
And that impact extends beyond the Arboretum itself. Every volunteer who learns a new skill, every student who discovers an interest in horticulture, every community member who finds a place to belong, and every person who leaves with a stronger connection to the natural world carries that experience with them.
For Aubrey, making the outdoors more inclusive is ultimately about making space for people to recognize that they already belong there.