Founding the Coyote Club

Sometimes the impact of what we learn and do in life is like a rock thrown into a small pond: a big splash before the water settles. Other times, it’s like a tsunami: a foundational shift that spawns a quiet wave swelling slowly on the horizon, which grows as it progresses. Nature Instructor Training was […]

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Snowshoe John

Life After The Immersion

I’m John Gasparich, a graduate of the 2008-2009 Immersion program, and an apprentice the following year in the Nature Instructor Training program. I also met my wife, Khylynowey, during the program. After my apprenticeship, my wife and I moved to Canada, to the farm where she was raised. In the first year of living on […]

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Vashon Wilderness School

A Journey from Figurine Frogs to Belonging

Figurine frogs. They lined my shelves in my tiny New York City apartment. Those plastic and ceramic friends were my heart’s delight. Nature finds a way to flourish in the human heart, especially in the imaginations of five-year-old urbanites. It’s no surprise that as a young mother of three, I would eventually find myself on […]

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Alumni In Action: The Power of the Heart

I didn’t want to come to Wilderness Awareness School. Rain. Grey. A survival trip that required me to find my own food for a week. I was happy living in sunny California and originally told my partner he could go without me and just tell me all about it on weekly phone calls. Now, here […]

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From The Immersion to Storyteller

Hi, my name is Brian Mertins and I love Wilderness Awareness School. A few years ago I left my life on the east coast of Canada and traveled all the way across the continent to live in Duvall, Washington where I participated in The Immersion at Wilderness Awareness School and the Nature Instructor Training program. […]

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Wilderness Awareness School