Bliss Bonner

Gabby Paterson

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Crossing the street while exploring the quiet town of Saurahai, Nepal, on her first trip with the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, UW freshman and Cody High School graduate Bliss Bonner was surprised when a curious elephant reached over with its massive trunk and introduced itself.

“It was kind of funny,” Bonner said in an understated way. “We were on our way back to the camp, and there was an elephant right in the street. We tried to walk around it ... then it reached out and touched me. It was really cool.”

She was on the post-Christmas semester break trip as the solo Park County UW student to be named a 2025-26 Tomé Foundation Scholar. Travel abroad is but one of the wonderful benefits she and five other freshmen were awarded when selected — not only for academic achievement, but for “leadership potential and a clear commitment to making an impact in their communities and landscapes as well,” according to a press release from the school last week.

The Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and the University of Wyoming, in an effort to support students who embrace and contribute to diverse communities and are enrolled in science, technology, engineering arts, or math degree programs, award a full-ride, four-year scholarship to select students through the Tomé Foundation. The scholarship is for 100% of tuition reimbursement, room and board, as well as funding for one or more unique experiences.

“The scholarship also has stipends for food, which you can use for groceries if you move off campus, and for housing, which you can use toward an apartment if you’re living off campus,” Bonner said. “So, for all four years, there’s not much I have to worry about other than just learning.”

The program is available to new, first time freshmen and is made possible through
generous gifts from Carol and Ramon Tomé, who call UW their alma mater. Carol is currently the CEO of United Parcel Service while Ramon is a retired environmental technologist formerly with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

“The Tomé Scholars inspire us with their passion, ambition and commitment to service,” said Dean of the Haub School John Koprowski when the scholarship was first announced. “Each student brings a unique perspective on how to care for people, landscapes and communities. We are thrilled to welcome them to the Haub School and look forward to the contributions they will make on campus and far beyond.”

Love of the outdoors

Bonner, daughter of Yancy (owner of Yancy Interior + Home) and Brad Bonner (lawyer and co-owner of the Powell Tribune), enrolled in the school to prepare for a career in science communications or journalism. It’s something she has dreamed of since she was a child.

Trips with her family were often done outdoors. She fell in love with northwest Wyoming landscapes and wildlife, especially birds, Bliss said. She knew from a very young age she wanted to work with wildlife, but didn’t know exactly how. She did know, however, she didn’t want to be a veterinarian.

Since she was an 18-month-old toddler, Bliss traveled with her mother into Yellowstone National Park every year for opening day at the East Gate.

“We’ve always done a lot of outdoor things. We’d go hiking on the weekends and camping in the summer. A lot of my best memories are, like, every May when the East Gate of Yellowstone opens. For as long as I can remember — pretty much my whole life — my mom and I always tried to go to Yellowstone on opening day. We’d drive through the whole park and I just always loved doing that. It’s so exciting.”

They are also some of her mother’s fondest memories.

“It has always been just the two of us,” Yancy said. “The anticipation of opening day coming up, driving up the North Fork and going through the East Gate were some of the most magical memories that the two of us have made together.”

Bliss gobbled up information of nature and wildlife as soon as she could read a book and use the remote. She remembers watching endless nature shows on television and being forced to add fiction books to her diet of nonfiction reading materials from the Park County Library.

“I remember going to the library and the librarian wouldn’t let me check out if I didn’t get at least one fiction book,” she said. “I’d always go for all of the nonfiction books about animals, even if it was just about chickens or cats.”

Back in class in Nepal, it wasn’t unusual to have a domesticated Asian elephant walk through their outdoor classrooms or to hear the distant descending sharp trills of a White-throated Kingfisher with its distinctive bright blue wings, chestnut body, and large, bright red bill flashing in the sunlight. 

Despite the excitement of traveling with her classmates on a dream trip for field work in Nepal, Bliss was fairly nervous.

“Nepal was kind of a crazy experience,” she said. “I had never been that far from home for that long, or anywhere without my family for that long.”

Her mother was equally nervous. Fortunately, there was a decent Wi-Fi signal at camp, allowing for the family to keep in contact, her mother said.

“As long as she had a Wi-Fi signal she could FaceTime with us, which was really helpful for a mom of an 18-year-old to be able to see her baby’s face while she’s all the way across the globe,” Yancy said. “Nepal is 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of us, and so we could actually talk in the morning and the evening. That definitely kept me sane, knowing that she was so far away.”

Conservation focused

Among other students on the trip was 2023 Powell High School graduate and Tomé Scholar Gabby Paterson. She had already traveled with the Haub School to the Italian Alps and Chile in her first two years at UW.

Paterson wants to go into the field of conservation, whether it be wildlife conservation or environmental consulting. She wants to stay in Wyoming after graduating.

“There’s a lot of options out there,” she said.

She’s interested in possibly studying for a masters degree and then hopes to work for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Game and Fish Department or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a biologist.

Both students were amazed by conservation strategies in Nepal; the community focus exhibited by those fighting to protect the environment.

“They wanted the input of local people, and treated the local people like experts, which they are,” Paterson said. “I really admire their focus on getting everyone involved and restoring that balance and harmony between people in the environment.”

Bonner hopes the topic of community conservation continues to grow in the U.S.

“The whole focus of the trip was how [conservation is] so different and so similar to ours at the same time. Like for them, community based conservation is a really big thing, and that’s sort of something that’s become more talked about in the U.S. recently. But for them, that’s just sort of how they’ve always done it. As long as there has been conservation and conservation initiatives, they’ve been doing it with the help of the community and with the community’s input,” she said. “I think it’s kind of a valuable lesson for anyone looking into conservation, just to involve the people who are affected by it.”

The students, along with Koprowski and Dean of the Honors College Peter Parolin, spent eight days of the trip working in Chitwan National Park, staying in a camp run by the Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation.

Also on the trip from Park County were two other former Park County students previously awarded Tomé Foundation scholarships; Paula Medina and Hayley Pearson-Horner.

“It helped knowing that Bliss was with two of my favorite deans at the University of Wyoming,” her mother said. “I knew John and Peter were going to take really good care of our kid.”

However, while watching Bliss grow into an adult is very exciting for the Bonner family, it is also bittersweet for Yancy as the opening of Yellowstone looms in the coming months. Bliss will be taking final exams on May 1; ending the tradition of being in Yellowstone when the gates finally open after the long Wyoming winter season.

“Knowing that we can probably postpone it a week or two is some consolation, but it’s still not opening day in Yellowstone,” Yancy said.