It’s the middle of a busy week on campus. The rhythm of Penn student life has kicked into full swing, and it feels as if everyone is stuck in a constant rotation between dorm, class, and library. Everyone is rushing—to finish the coveted club application, to score an A on the next exam, or to nail their upcoming internship interview. Amid it all, on a Wednesday night, Henry Montano (C ‘26) gathers the Penn Outdoors Club to play Pictionary.
Henry grew up in Los Angeles, where the urban landscape held few chances to connect with the outdoors or see the stars. “I never realized how bad it was in LA until I came, and I thought Philly was good compared to LA. In LA, I can see maybe four stars in a night.”
Amid highways and high rises, Henry found his love for astronomy while watching Nova on PBS. As he learned about galaxies and nebulae, he began to nurse a passion for the natural world that would extend to his college career. As a recipient of the prestigious Gates Scholarship, Henry was one of 300 students selected out of a pool of 34,000 to have his undergraduate education fully funded. At Penn, he chose to major in physics and concentrate on astronomy.
Ironically enough, Henry explains that moving from Los Angeles to Philly, from one city to another, has fostered his love of the natural world. He attributes this to the climate—the climate created by the people he has found in UPOC and the Penn Astronomical Student Association.
“It’s definitely a fun group of people,” Henry describes. “They’re not gonna pressure you to do anything. They’re not gonna grill you on any specifics of your career. They’re just really fun people, really spontaneous, erratic.”
As the president of both UPOC and the PASA, Henry is an expert at finding and carving out room for things that often go unnoticed on Penn’s campus. Running outdoors clubs in an urban space requires a unique ability to find pockets of time to appreciate the natural world within the racing bustle of city life.
“I think being in an urban area, even doing something slightly related to the outdoors, gives you a nice break from the city. I think it’s something people appreciate a lot more, because it’s not something they get exposed to a lot,” Henry says.
Henry has cultivated a rare kind of space on campus. Open to any and all students, UPOC’s Wednesday meetings are meant to be an escape from the busyness and stress of campus life. Over icebreakers, snacks, and activities that range from games to outdoor safety education, UPOC meetings are a chance for members to slow down. In an environment that often feels shaped by pressures to get ahead, UPOC’s primary mission is simple: to connect students to each other and to the world around them.
“When I first came to Penn, I really did not want to [have to] apply to something to enjoy an activity,” Henry says. “So I really was drawn to clubs like the outdoors club. There’s no obligation. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t do a resume or anything to get into the club. You stay in the club. You just show up when you can, enjoy the people.”
Henry has dedicated himself to reminding students to slow down and connect with the outdoors throughout their daily lives. On clear Thursday nights, PASA can be found in the middle of Locust Walk with their four–foot telescope, giving passersby a chance to look at Jupiter. On cold winter days, UPOC can be spotted having snowball fights on College Green. When the weather is nicer, club members stretch a slackline between the trees by Harrison and Rodin College Houses, inviting students to join in on the tightrope–like activity.
Henry has also helped students discover worlds outside of campus. Under his leadership, UPOC has taken trips from Vermont to West Virginia, participating in activities that range from camping and hiking to bouldering and backpacking. Meanwhile, PASA makes a trip to Cherry Springs State Park every semester, where open fields far from the city’s light pollution give way to thousands of stars. The club has also gone to Acadia National Park, which lies in a dark sky zone that makes it possible to see the Milky Way in the summertime.
It goes without saying that they did not miss the opportunity to catch the solar eclipse last April. After trekking to Ohio and camping out for the weekend, the club woke up to cloudy skies on the day of the once–in–a–lifetime event. Just as he was driving everyone home, however, Henry spotted a tiny patch of blue sky miles away. He decided to follow his gut, chasing that patch of sky until he found it. “We saw the entire eclipse. It was perfect. It was just nice that everything worked out at the very end, right when it needed to. I guess that just gave me a sense of reassurance that things work out. Everything. Everything always works itself out,” Henry adds. Trips like these go beyond club bonding events, becoming first–time experiences and lifetime memories for members.
“We’re trying to make it a more regular thing, so that we can take more people to see dark skies, which a lot of people haven’t. One member mentioned that they’ve never seen so many stars when it came to Philly, which, to me, is insane,” Henry exclaims.
After he leaves Penn, Henry aspires to attend graduate school, where he plans to study cosmology or astrophysics. Beyond that, though, he will continue to embrace the kind of spontaneity that he has discovered in UPOC to guide himself through whatever comes next.
That’s who Henry is—the kind of person who chases solar eclipses all the way from Pennsylvania to Ohio, trusting he will find that tiny patch of clear sky; who will have impromptu snowball fights and look for planets in the middle of Locust; who will look beyond the hustle of daily life to what we sometimes forget really matters—the world and the people around us.
