From foster child origins, alumna blossoms as an outdoor conservation leader
Sha (Shay) Orton grew up in Bakersfield, CA, until the age of 13, then moved to southern Oregon. Amidst her high school years, she was forced to live in foster care. Her life was tough growing up and she didn’t get many opportunities to enjoy the beauty of the Rogue Valley. But when she finally did, they led to spiritual and healing experiences. She graduated from Crater High School in Central Point and shortly after, became pregnant, which shifted all of her life plans.
She loved the feel of the small town of Ashland and the SOU campus which felt intimate and safe for her. “I didn’t feel overwhelmed with lots of students on campus. In many ways, it even felt smaller and more personal than my high school experience,” said Sha. She commuted her first six months from Central Point while she was pregnant, then made the move to Ashland and SOU family housing. After her child was born, she only took a few days off from school. “It was terribly difficult to take my daughter to daycare, but I felt getting through college at SOU was the best path forward to raise my daughter into the future,” she added.
Pushing through her academic programs on campus, Sha started out as a chemistry major with visions set on pre-med, but quickly became fascinated with and excelled in psychology courses. She switched her major to psychology and studied under professors John Taylor, Rachel Jochem and Mary Russell-Miller in their research labs. She spent her time in leadership of the Psychology Club, was inducted into the Psi Chi Honor Society and founded the student-run research lab.
It was the openness and non-judgmental aspect of spending time in a rock-climbing class as part of the outdoor adventure leadership (OAL) program that really influenced her. “The class totally blew me away. I loved the physical and mental challenges that came with this kind of activity. My peers invited me on adventures and told me to bring my daughter along and that changed my entire view of the program,” said Sha.
The welcoming environment and a trip down the Salmon River in northern California, where OAL department chair Erik Sol gave her an opportunity on the oars is what really built her confidence and desire to add OAL as a major along with psychology. With the plan to study abroad outdoors and apprentice as a whitewater river guide for the Outdoor Program at SOU, Sha launched into all of it. “It was empowering being on the sticks (oars) and having the opportunity to challenge myself like that. It solidified my future in the program,” she said.
Sha immersed herself in the OAL program, traveled to Nepal with her cohort and hiked, camped and rafted in the Himalayas, one of the most remote and challenging places on earth. By her senior year, she became the Service and Stewardship Manager and a Trip Leader for the Outdoor Program. She also sat on the SOU Sustainability Council, where she led an effort on campus called “Take Back the Tap” so that students and staff could fill reusable water bottles at clean drinking water stations on campus, reducing the number of plastic bottles being thrown away. She graduated spring of 2015 with her bachelors in outdoor adventure leadership and psychology.
After graduation, Sha worked with autistic people, getting them outside to enjoy the beauty of nature. She got married and started a business helping local businesses with photography and social media marketing. She’s expanded to work with companies like Travel Oregon, Redington Gear, Rio Products, Columbia PFG, Stio and other outdoor companies. She serves as a fly fishing and yearbook teacher for a local high school and returned to SOU to teach fly-fishing to OAL students. Additionally, she volunteers with The Mayfly Project helping to introduce the outdoors and fly fishing to foster children. In 2020, she founded Southern Oregon Women on the Fly, an affiliate of the national conservation group Trout Unlimited, to get women out on the water. Along with other women leaders, she teaches fly fishing to beginning and novice women as well as knots, fly-tying, education and conservation of our precious stream resources.
Learn more: Southern Oregon Women on the Fly and The Mayfly Project
