Welcome to the HSI Blog!
Mandie Reish and Kani Miller
Published November 05, 2025
5 Minute Read
Welcome to the new HSI blog!
We are so excited to share with you the stories of our alumni, faculty, and staff, as well as program highlights. We’ll be posting new blogs quarterly. To kick things off, we’ll have a few blogs posted close together to show the different storytelling styles we will be using.
HSI has been spreading its roots through Wyoming for over forty years. From its start in the mid-80s to the present, the program has remained mostly the same, still holding onto the same core values and holding true to our traditions. Through the small changes that have occurred, HSI continues to bring bright students from across the state to explore what UW has to offer academically, while also experiencing their first taste of college life. The college-like aspect of camp is made possible through our faculty who take time to teach and mentor students with their courses. Our staff also go out of their way to give students unforgettable experiences through exploring the local Laramie area, taking students on fun excursions, and giving them a space to find themselves.
These experiences that students from across Wyoming gain at HSI help to plant the seeds of their future careers and life paths. Through these blogs, we hope to highlight the different ways our alumni have branched out in life while still remembering their roots in HSI. We also want to highlight the dedicated faculty and staff who make HSI what it is, because even if their roots didn’t begin here, their impact continues to shape our community. Our hope is that these stories inspire future HSI alumni to grow to even higher heights.
Why are we starting this blog?
With over 3400 alumni, HSI has built connections and community within Wyoming that go far beyond our state. We have alumni around the world in a variety of life stages and career paths. Our recent alumni are laying down the seeds for their future, while others have grown trees along their paths. We hope to spotlight alumni as they continue through life and showcase the assortment of people we have within our alumni.
The breadth of our alumni experiences gives rise to a multitude of voices in their various stages of personal and professional growth and development. Showcasing the many people of our alumni is part of why we have decided to create this blog. Older alumni have stories to share with our younger alumni (and prospective alumni). Younger alumni have the enthusiasm to bring in other future alumni in their communities.
Through this blog, we also want to give a platform for the faculty and staff. As any orchardist will tell you, a lot goes into growing and sustaining an orchard. Apple orchards can’t grow without water, fertilizer, or pruning. Our staff and faculty are the orchard farmers and arborists of HSI. Faculty plant the seeds of a love of learning within HSI students and water that growth through their college like courses and experiences. Staff, like our Program Coordinators and camp officials, give scholars the structure and support they need to grow into their best selves. By working together our team keeps the orchard thriving for future generations.
All these voices and roles play a key part in maintaining our apple orchard, and we want to give them a space to tell their stories.
How can you be involved?
Over the last year, we have been spotlighting alumni on our social media accounts which has been a great way to see where our alumni have branched off and grown. To dig deeper into our alumni stories, we’re creating this blog. We also want to give alumni another avenue to connect with each other and future alumni through these posts.
Our goal is to illustrate the wide range of experiences in and outside of camp to show the lasting impact of HSI. We hope to tell the story of camp through those who participated in the experience. If you are interested in being featured, click the button below to fill out an interest form. We will then email you within a few days with a series of questions we would like you to answer. While you wait for the email, dig through old boxes and hard drives to try to find some old HSI photos. On your blog post we hope to feature a picture of you from your time at HSI (or around that time) and a current picture of you to show your growth over the years.
We can’t wait to hear your story and share how HSI has shaped the path you’re on today!
