Above: Stephanie Calderón loved the challenge her kayak journey presented last summer.

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Somewhere out on Prince William Sound, paddling a sea kayak in icy Alaskan waters, Stephanie Calderón found freedom from the chaos of her troubled life in Tucson. "I could finally just breathe!" she says. "All the distractions were gone." Calderón, 19, who was once homeless and reduced to sleeping in a car, says her very existence was transformed on a 23-day kayak and camping journey last summer. She joined 11 other low-income but highly motivated teens in a leadership-training adventure called the Student Expedition Program.

The Tucson-based nonprofit program, known as STEP, uses challenging kayak journeys to inspire underprivileged youths with good grades to find ways of succeeding in college.

Calderón, now a University of Arizona freshman who made the dean's list last semester, will give a free talk and slide show about the expedition Thursday evening. See accompanying box for details.

"My life was changed by this," she says of the expedition. "It's important for me to tell others about the experience."

That experience was the brainchild of Tracy Baynes, founder and president of STEP.

An oceanographer, educator and outdoor-leadership expert with a passion for "bringing students out into the field," Baynes started the program in 2002 and led the group's first expedition to Alaska in 2005.

She chose Alaska's Prince William Sound for the 2006 trip as well because of her interest in adventures at sea — and because she "wanted to put these kids on the moon — put them in a place unlike anywhere they'd been before."

But what's the rationale? Why plunge a dozen urban teens into the Alaskan wilderness for three weeks of kayaking and camping?

"They face a host of unknown challenges," Baynes says. "And in meeting and overcoming those challenges, they gain increased confidence, self-esteem and a strong sense of personal responsibility with which to shape their futures."

With funding from sources including the Pima Medical Institute, family foundations and individual donors, Baynes relied on two youth-at-risk organizations — Youth on Their Own and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson — to identify participants for the program.

Applicants paid no fees but had to meet four requirements: be of high school age, have a grade-point average of at least 3.0 or show academic promise, have a strong desire for a college education and be classified as low-income — based on qualifying for free lunch and other factors.

Last summer's group of nine girls and three boys included seven students from Tucson and five from the Phoenix area. They were led by Baynes and two instructors from the National Outdoor Leadership School, a wilderness training organization with a branch in Tucson.

Calderón and other members of the group say those weeks in the Alaskan wilds brought a new life focus.

"My whole senior year in high school was like chaos," Calderón says. "Because of problems, I couldn't live at home with my mother."

She says she lived off and on with friends and a person she called her "mentor."

"But at times I had nowhere to live. I just slept in my car," she says. "I kept it a secret at school because I didn't want people to think of me as homeless."

In a stroke of good fortune, a school counselor suggested that Calderón get in touch with Youth on Their Own, which provides financial aid and guidance to homeless Tucson teens. That connection led her to the Student Expedition Program — and a grand adventure in Alaska.

The group flew to Anchorage last June 7 and — after basic instruction in kayaking and camping — started paddling from the town of Whittier en route to Valdez.

The trip would cover 130 miles of coastal waters. Rain would fall on all but five days of the 23-day journey.

"That weather was a lesson," Calderón says. "We learned to just ignore it. I learned to stop focusing on things you can't change."

She also speaks of learning to keep her composure, to stay positive.

"I couldn't even feel my fingers, it was so cold. I wanted to scream," Calderón says. "But I tried to look like I was having a good time. There was something good about that."

Other teens on the expedition say they returned home with improved skills for everyday living.

"It was a chance to spend three weeks with people you depend on for survival. You have to get along — even if some people seem to have certain flaws," says Jem Valdillez, 18, a senior at Pueblo High School. "It makes me feel that when I get to college, I'll be able to handle things."

Samantha Bossert, 17, a senior at Catalina Magnet High School, said the expedition took the group to terrain "so beautiful I can't even begin to tell you." And it forced participants to get to know one another well beyond the superficial level.

"I learned to never judge a book by its cover," Bossert says. "I'd never met any of the people on the trip. . . . They had such interesting personalities that you never would have guessed by just looking at them."

In the early days of the trip, the students had to quickly learn how to deal with a capsized kayak, to set up a tent in lousy weather and to cook from scratch over a small camp stove.

"We were also teaching them navigation," Baynes says. "About halfway through the course, students became leaders for the day. Our whole goal as instructors is to become obsolete and have students themselves lead the expedition."

Says Calderón: "the experience of being a leader felt so great — having that trust from the instructors. . . . It was really cool to feel so respected."

The expedition's lessons, she says, have served her well in her first year of college, which she's financing mainly through scholarships and financial aid programs.

"In Alaska, there were things that had to be done — and done now," Calderón says. "The tide is coming in and you have to move the kayaks.

"It's the same in college. Things have to be done by a certain time. When that happens, I just think of Alaska and realize that this is easy by comparison."

When the time came to share a dorm room with other college students, it was no big thing. Calderón, after all, had spent three weeks in a tent with people she'd just met.

The journey wasn't all life lessons and hardships.

Magnificent mountains, glaciers and wildlife produced new scenery every day. Harbor seals, sea otters, sea lions, a killer whale, dolphins, bald eagles, a black bear and a porcupine put in appearances along the way.

Paddling near a glacier for a close-up look brought Calderón and her companions into the midst of almost surrealistic beauty.

"I felt like I was in a snow globe," she says. "I could see only land, glaciers, water and sky."

Baynes says the program will expand this year thanks to additional funding from the National Outdoor Leadership School.

"This summer, we expect to do three trips of 12, for a total of 36 students," Baynes said. "And we'll also be dealing with high school counselors to help us identify students for trips. . . .The idea is to continue having a positive impact on young people's lives."