As head of Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound, Sylvia McKinney focuses on climate resilience, growth

Cathleen Stone Island, one of Boston’s 34 harbor islands, is within shouting distance from South Boston, with Quincy to its south and Spectacle Island to its northeast. Renamed from Thompson Island for lawyer and environmental advocate Cathleen D. Stone, the island is home to Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound, an outdoor education nonprofit.

In April 2023, the school came under new leadership when Sylvia McKinney, a nonprofit leader and urban planner, stepped in as its president and CEO, the first person of color and woman to hold the title. In her first year and a half with the school, McKinney has emphasized climate resilience and growth.

“It’s been an exciting time to be here, particularly when you have an organization that has … always had a history of working with young people from low-income communities, but [has made] a recommitment to social justice,” McKinney said.

Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound’s history stretches centuries, back to 1833 when it was founded as Boston Farm School, an agricultural learning site for young boys. In the late 1990s, the school, then called the Thompson Island Education Center, welcomed female students for the first time. Today, the institution serves hundreds of young students from all backgrounds, with a focus on those from historically marginalized communities.

In describing Outward Bound, McKinney painted a picture of a dynamic environment that focuses on “social-emotional learning.” Education on the island is not done through books in classrooms but through salt marshes, ropes courses, a 62-foot Alpine tower, and activities like kayaking. The school allows students to spend time outdoors and learn life skills, leadership skills and personal growth.

Taking the helm at Outward Bound was a homecoming of sorts for McKinney who is from South Carolina but received her master’s in city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, got married here and whose son was born here. Her goal when stepping into the position was to “put forth a powerful vision in which to … galvanize support and coach a community towards wanting to achieve a much larger societal goal,” she said.

This focus on strategic planning was something she practiced in previous positions in real estate, at the Museum of African American History here in Boston, and at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. In these roles, she learned the value of mentorship, particularly for young people of color and those from marginalized communities, youth who grew up similarly to how she did.

While McKinney said she hadn’t set out to run Outward Bound, when the board tapped her for the position, “it became very clear to me that this would be my next calling.”

During her first couple of weeks, McKinney participated in “listening tours” where she spoke with stakeholders, board members, students, staff and members of the Boston Harbor community. In these conversations, a question arose about how the school should position itself.

“Given that we’re located in the harbor, and we’re one of the largest islands in the harbor … in addition to being at an Outward Bound site, could we also have a say and advocate for climate adaptation?” McKinney asked.

The island is already experiencing the effects of climate change, she said, pointing to erosion, which the educators use as a lesson. In the face of such changes, the island presents more learning opportunities.

“Now I’m looking at the island in a different lens. Not only am I being the educator, but I’m now also being the person who’s curious about what this island could become,” she said. “And so, for example, to combine the Outward Bound with the learnings of climate impact.”

The island currently runs on electricity. What if it transitioned to solar panels? From there, McKinney said, Outward Bound could incorporate teachings about solar power and renewable energy into its curriculum to allow students to see the change in action.

The institution has always focused on STEM education. Now, McKinney aims to introduce climate-centric pedagogy to “stretch the imagination of young people,” she said.

She also envisions the island itself becoming a broader location for studying climate change and ideating nature-based strategies to address it, inviting other institutions, like the neighboring University of Massachusetts Boston, to participate in the effort.

In July, the institution secured a $12 million donation from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation, which will aid in boosting its climate education programming.

Outward Bound currently partners with Boston Public Schools for its Connections program, a “safe space” in which middle school-aged students come together to learn about leadership and reflect on who they are, McKinney said. The children spend prolonged periods outdoors with no expectations of competition.

“This is a space where you’re really learning about each other and wanting to support each other in ways that are super important,” McKinney said.

Outward Bound also offers the Green Ambassadors program for high school students which focuses on work readiness. The students go to the island four days a week for six weeks during the summer and are paid to intern in various departments.

McKinney said the school’s goal is to “spread our wings a little bit further” by serving students beyond Boston, from communities like Brockton, Fall River, Providence, Rhode Island, Springfield and Lawrence.

Looking ahead, McKinney has an expansive vision of what the school and its grounds could be.

“We are on an island out in the Boston Harbor, which is now, as a result of Cathleen Stone and many others, a vibrant community, a vibrant ecosystem where we can enjoy it for learning, for recreation. We could talk about conservation [and] preservation. We could talk about the history of Indigenous people. We could talk about the history of the Civil Rights Movement,” she said. “There’s so much more to make this such a richer and more robust study, and at the same time [students] get to experience the outdoors.”