Sequoias Take Root: Pony Barnes Foundation’s $2.4 Million Gift Carries a Visionary Educator’s Legacy Into SJSU’s Future

She swam with tropical fish, ran along banyan tree branches, and went to school with no shoes.

Born in Marion, Massachusetts on August 1, 1924, Virginia Cooper Barnes - nicknamed "Pony" for her daring equestrian skills - grew up in a household where learning and creativity were simply in the air. She went on to serve as a United States Navy WAVE, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, during World War II, earn a doctorate from Stanford University, spend 25 years shaping the next generation of teachers at San José State University, and built a beloved summer camp in the Sierra Nevadas that would change thousands of lives. She passed away on July 22, 2020 at the age of 92.

Today, her remarkable legacy is being honored with one of the most significant gifts in the recent history of SJSU's Connie L. Lurie College of Education. The foundation that bears her name, The Pony Barnes Foundation, has committed approximately $2.4 million to The Tower Foundation of San José State University, establishing:

• An endowed professorship
• Two permanently endowed scholarship and fellowship funds
• An expendable scholarship bridge fund, and
• A new community initiative

All are dedicated to advancing the experiential, empathetic approach to education that Barnes championed throughout her career.

"Our Spartan family is proud to honor the generous spirit of Dr. Virginia 'Pony' Barnes in this gift of scholarship, ensuring educational excellence in Lurie College programming and sustainable world-class learning communities," said Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of San José State University.

"After visiting Montecito-Sequoia [camp] and seeing the lasting imprint Pony left on that community, it is clear her influence continues to grow far beyond a single generation," said Judy Nagai, vice president for university advancement and CEO of the Tower Foundation of San José State. "This gift will create enduring opportunities for SJSU students, faculty and community programs to carry her vision of experiential and compassionate learning forward for years to come."

A life devoted to learning

Long before Pony Barnes became one of SJSU's most influential education faculty members, she was shaped by a childhood spent barefoot in Honolulu, swimming with tropical fish and running along banyan tree branches with her sister Louise - children who belonged entirely to their surroundings. She came from remarkable stock. Her father, Homer Barnes, known to generations of summer campers as "Chief," was a dedicated educator. Her mother, a hula dance teacher, pioneering author in children's nutrition and toy inventor, ensured that Virginia grew up in a household where learning and creativity were not just valued, but lived.

In 1936, Virginia and Louise attended the Oak Grove School for Girls, a boarding school in Vassalboro, Maine. It was a move that would prove, in the words of those who knew her, to be a defining influence: the beginning of her lifelong pursuit of education and the deep relationships between teachers and students that she would spend the rest of her working life cultivating in others.

It was at Oak Grove that another dimension of her personality emerged. Virginia was an exceptional equestrian. She was so daring, in fact, that she once got in trouble at school for standing upright and barefoot, riding on two bareback horses at once. It was a story she told with obvious delight for the rest of her life. The horse, for Virginia Barnes, was never just an animal. It was a teacher and the inspiration for her lifelong nickname.

After graduating from Oak Grove in 1942, she joined the U.S. Navy WAVES and moved to Washington, D.C., where she served as a general's lead assistant: a formative wartime chapter that spoke to her discipline, her intellect, and her willingness to step into unfamiliar territory at a moment when the world demanded exactly that.

When the war ended, she returned to California. Her college journey took her through Occidental College, Pomona College, and Scripps College before she ultimately earned her doctorate in education at Stanford University. She began her teaching career in the Palo Alto Unified School District before joining the faculty at San José State University, where she would serve for 25 years and ultimately become chair of the Department of Teacher Education, retiring in 1987.

Throughout her tenure at SJSU, Barnes became a pioneer in experiential learning long before the term entered the mainstream of educational discourse. She believed deeply that the most effective teachers were those who had learned to blend theory with practice and intellect with empathy, and she built programs designed to do exactly that. She also recognized the limits of the traditional classroom.

A camp environment provided something richer and more holistic: a place that could build character, develop resilience, and address the whole child and the whole counselor at the same time.

The camp in the Sequoias

Barnes called the idea of creating a children's camp a "reciprocal convergence." She spent a sabbatical traveling the country to figure out how to make her idea a reality, meeting with American Camping Association leaders, visiting camp programs across the United States, and talking with educators at every level. What she came back with was a conviction: that the camp and the university classroom were not separate worlds. They were the same world, approached from different angles, and they were both worlds she knew well.

Camping ran in the Barnes family, and so did camp nicknames. Her father Homer was "Chief," her mother "Busy Bee," and her sister Louise was "Pinto." Virginia herself was "Pony" - a name she earned in the saddle. The family had all worked together at Cheley Camps in Colorado, and Virginia directed the summer camps at Montecito School for Girls near Santa Barbara, where her father was headmaster. When that school closed, Chief urged Pony to take her program to a Sierra Nevada property he had established in the late 1940s among the sequoia groves. At Virginia's insistence, a lake and a pool were built to add water activities, and in 1963, Montecito-Sequoia Camp for Girls began in earnest.

She bought horses from the U.S. Army and recruited staff carefully from California universities and international camp programs. Campers from across the United States and Mexico arrived for four- and eight-week sessions. The camp became known, in the words of those who loved it, as "an East Coast camp in a Western setting."

What made Montecito-Sequoia truly distinctive was Barnes' philosophy, carried down from her university classroom into the cabins, the corrals and the lodge. The signage around camp was written entirely in positive language, instead of "don"t run," it was "please walk." The tables were round, because round tables foster community. Her motto was simple and enduring: "We take fun seriously." There were only two rules - safety and consideration of others. Her continual approach to positive reinforcement was to remind staff to "catch them doing it right."

On Wednesday nights in the lodge, she would teach education theories to her counselors, young teachers, and future educators earning college credit through a leadership intern program she developed in partnership with the SJSU School of Education (now known as the Connie L. Lurie College of Education). Then, she would send them out to practice what they had learned. The following week, they would return to debrief. "How did it go? What happened? What would you try differently?" She had a gift for asking exactly the right questions.

In 1976, Barnes expanded the camp to year-round programming: Nordic skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, and later snowboarding, mountain biking, guided hiking, arts and music. In 1987, the same year she retired from SJSU, she converted the girls camp to the Montecito-Sequoia High Sierra Family Vacation Camp, welcoming entire families for week-long sessions. She sold the camp in 2006 to the Dally family, who have preserved the spirit of hospitality, outdoor recreation and community that defined Barnes' life work.

Barnes left behind not just a camp, not just a career, but a movement: thousands of campers, counselors, teachers and leaders who carried her philosophy into classrooms, community organizations and lives of their own. Those guiding principles were enduring: learning happens best when it is joyful, whole and shared; theory and practice are not opposites but partners; and the most powerful thing an educator can do is create the conditions for someone else to discover who they are.

The steward of a legacy

Marion Soloway, known to everyone who has ever loved Montecito-Sequoia by her camp name, Friski , first arrived at camp in 1975 as a 19-year-old who loved horses and had seen a picture of the camp in "Sunset" magazine.

"I want to work at a summer camp because I can ride horses," she told her mother. She applied, received a letter of acceptance, and was promptly informed that before she arrived she would need to complete a multi-day equestrian safety and skills course. She took it because she wanted the job.

What she found when she arrived at Montecito-Sequoia was something she had not expected: a teacher who made everything click. "The moment that stayed with me in 1975 was the sheer excitement I felt discovering a teacher who integrated theory into practice while I did all the things I loved all day long," Soloway recalled. "Horses, nature, new friends, music, community, and so much more."

What began as a summer job became a 25-year commitment. During the school year, Soloway taught middle school science in San Diego County, while every summer, she rose through the ranks from counselor to unit leader, program director and staff development leader, always guided by the hand of Barnes, the woman she came to think of as a mentor, teacher and friend.

Like Barnes, Soloway believed in the power of hands-on learning in the natural world. Inspired by Jane Goodall's global youth-led community action program, Roots and Shoots, Soloway developed a service learning program at her middle school in San Diego County.Roots and Shoots is an initiative that connects young people to environmental stewardship and compassionate action, under the guidance of volunteer leaders. Soloway received the San Diego County Environmental Teacher of the Year Award for her work, and spent years bringing Goodall's mission into San Diego County communities.

In her final years, Barnes lived in Los Altos. Soloway visited her every week and together they co-founded the Pony Barnes Foundation. Soloway served as its board president, determined to ensure that the educator's legacy would find a permanent home.

The foundation's work extended across multiple causes. In keeping with Barnes' lifelong desire to inspire the love of learning, and Soloway's own deep connection to Goodall's mission, the Pony Barnes Foundation directed significant support to the Jane Goodall Institute and its Roots and Shoots program. Now, with the foundation's planned dissolution, Soloway has shepherded its largest and final gift to the institution that made Barnes who she was.

"Because of her 25-year contribution to educating young teachers at SJSU, and the support she received as a young professor, it seemed appropriate to continue her life's work at the institution that supported her," Soloway said.

Four funds, one philosophy

The $2.4 million gift to SJSU is structured across four programs, each reflecting a distinct dimension of Barnes' educational vision.

The Virginia "Pony" Barnes Endowed Professorship will support Lurie College of Education faculty dedicated to advancing experiential education and promoting cultures of positivity and active learning. Appointed by the college dean, the professorship may fund the development of new university courses, the creation of K-12 curricula, and the design of professional learning opportunities for educators and community-based organizations.

Two permanently endowed scholarship programs will be established in her name. The Virginia "Pony" Barnes Camp Program Scholarship and Fellowship Endowment will award scholarships to students enrolled in teaching preparation programs who have worked in residential or day camp settings - with a preference for camps serving LGBTQ+ students and families, youths in foster care, children with disabilities, or youths who have experienced trauma. A companion fund, the Virginia "Pony" Barnes Teaching Scholarship and Fellowship Endowment, will support students committed to active and experiential learning approaches in the classroom.

Finally, the Pony Barnes Cultures of Positivity Initiative will support Lurie College faculty and students in partnership with Bay Area community organizations, equipping the next generation of educators with the tools to build affirming, empowering learning environments. The initiative will be managed by the Queer Hope Institute, a program housed within the Lurie College of Education.

A bridge to the community

The Queer Hope Institute (QHI) was founded in 2024 by Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Development Robert Marx, who serves as its director. The institute operates as a university-community bridge, partnering with schools and organizations throughout the Bay Area to support the well-being and growth of queer and transgender youth - conducting research, facilitating programming and building the capacity of youth-serving professionals.

The connection between Marx and this gift runs deeper than institutional alignment. Soloway served as a mentor to Marx in the establishment of the Queer Hope Institute, making her investment in their work both financial and deeply personal: one more instance of the mentorship chain that Barnes set in motion and that continues to extend outward, generation by generation.

In spring 2025, the QHI hosted its first annual Unity Conference in partnership with the San Mateo-Foster City School District, welcoming 75 queer and transgender middle schoolers to the SJSU campus for a day of celebration, connection and community.

For Marx, the Pony Barnes Cultures of Positivity Initiative represents a meaningful and timely expansion of that work. This year, with the support of the Pony Barnes Cultures of Positivity Initiative, QHI will welcome 150 queer and transgender middle schoolers on campus; and later in the summer, they will host 40 high school students for a four-day camp, carrying on Pony's legacy.

"We're building programs that help young people imagine a future for themselves. For many of them, that starts with seeing that they belong and that there are adults who will support them along the way," says Marx.

Dean Adrienne Redmond-Sanogo of the Connie L. Lurie College of Education expressed deep gratitude for the gift and its alignment with the college's mission.

"What stands out is not only the generosity of this gift, but the care and intention behind it," she says. "Every part was designed to reflect Dr. Barnes' belief in meaningful, experiential learning. As a public university, we are committed to learning that reaches beyond campus boundaries, and this gift expands opportunities for our students while strengthening the partnerships that connect us to the communities we serve."

The seed and the sequoia

At a campfire celebrating Barnes' birthday, a longtime member of the Montecito-Sequoia community stood up and told a story. She asked the group gathered around the fire: "How big do you think a giant sequoia seed is?"

The answer is the size of a piece of oatmeal.

A seed no bigger than a flake of oatmeal grows into one of the largest and longest-living organisms on Earth, trees that can stand more than 200 feet tall and live for thousands of years. But they do not grow alone. Giant sequoia roots are remarkably shallow for trees of their size. What keeps them standing is not depth but interconnection. They grow in groves because their root systems reach toward one another underground, sharing water, sharing nutrients, and communicating in ways that science is only beginning to understand.

To release their seeds at all, sequoia cones need fire. Intense heat. The kind of heat that breaks something open so that something new can begin.

Marion Soloway has carried that story with her ever since. Some of the longtime members of the Montecito-Sequoia community wear small silver sequoia seed pendants, a reminder of what they came from, and what they are still becoming.

Fifty-six years after a young woman arrived at a mountain camp and discovered a teacher who changed everything, the seeds Barnes planted are still finding soil. A girl who once ran barefoot through the streets of Honolulu, who served her country in wartime, who rode two horses at once and never quite stopped. She spent a lifetime teaching others that learning is not something that happens to you. It is something you do, with your whole self, in community with others, every single day.

Giant sequoias do not grow overnight. They grow because someone believed, decades earlier, that the planting was worth it. Virginia "Pony" Barnes spent 95 years believing exactly that. She planted her seeds in Hawaii, Maine, Washington D.C., Palo Alto, the Sierra Nevadas, and in the classrooms and hearts of generations of teachers at San José State University.

"SJSU will continue her work by planting more sequoia seeds and nurturing them to become giant sequoias," Soloway says. And now, thanks to the gift that bears her name, they always will be.