Anake Outdoor School
2011-12 Student Biographies

Here are the biographies of many of our new students. We hope you enjoy getting to know the new Anake students!

Erin Maureen Campbell - Virginia

I'm Erin Maureen Campbell, known under many aliases over the years including Booger, Blondie and Naz, but now most folks call me Soupy.  I'm a Virginia gal who first came to love the outdoors through the worn old Appalachian Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley.  After graduating from college with a literature degree, I made a predictable move into the field of home repair.  My love for building took me from the hollers of West Virginia to the Mad River Valley in Vermont, from the barrios of Mexico to the rainforests of Costa Rica.  Memorable projects include a shelving project with over ten different types of joints and a 30'X50' greenhouse renovation. My travels taught me so much--about leadership and living in community.  So why leave this nomadic haven of power tools and wood and big lessons that I created for myself over the years?  The answer is simple: my soul was longing to cultivate a deeper relationship with the natural world.  I am here because I wanted to dive in to this next step on my spiritual path, my life path, my career path. 

Paul Cipriani - Connecticut

My name is Paul Cipriani.  I am 29 yrs old.  I grew up in Branford, CT.  I have lived in Utah, Florida, and now Washington.  I sailed aboard tallships for several years, as well as bumming around Tracker School a bit.  I am married, going on 4 years now.  I love to fish and looking forward to becoming a better hunter.  I love to use sharp tools, stone or steel, and the feel of wood shavings collecting around my feet I find very pleasing.  Ah!  I love food as well, and bet I can out-eat any who thinks they could challenge me!  Italian cuisine is top on the list, but I don’t discriminate much!

Douglas Cowan - New Mexico

My name is Douglas Greaves Cowan, I go by Grey. I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico I came to Wilderness Awareness School after college because I wanted to take a hands-on approach to learning about the natural world. Growing up I was in the Boy Scouts and am an Eagle Scout. Camping and being in the natural world has always been a great past time for me and my brother. We enjoyed many camp outs growing up with or without the scouts. I came to Anake expecting a hands-on approach to learning and that is exactly what I am getting. Besides the Pacific Northwest being beautiful, I chose Washington for wilderness school because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone in the great Southwest and experience a new type of environment. I figured this program would help my strengths in the outdoors mature, resonate, and help me open my eyes wider to the natural world.

Ben Hagedorn - Washington

My incidental backcountry education began when I was approximately six months old. My parents had me out with them on hikes early on in my life and from then on all of my best memories of time spent with my family are associated with time outside. As I grew up I became an avid hiker, backpacker, skier, snowshoer, and mountaineer.

Then came a time in junior high when I was required to complete a certain number of community service hours which is how I first came in contact with Wilderness Awareness School. I volunteered for a few years and was completely enthralled. I was amazed at how much I hadn’t been seeing as moved along trails at what now seems like a breakneck pace (and now that I am older, actually is a breakneck pace). Throughout high school I became more and more entranced by the possibility of participating in Anake Outdoor School. I wanted to try to do it in between high school and college so naturally there was slight, shall we say, discomfort among my family members. The rules were then laid out: I had to get accepted at a university and get a deferral of admission in order for me to be allowed to do this program. So I did. I think it still surprises some people, including myself.

So now I am completely enjoying being immersed in a new culture and a new family as I tediously walk the unpredictable line between adolescence and adulthood. I am now moving into a new level of both nature and self-awareness. Now I just need to adjust to the fact that the only limits on what we can do are the ones that we place in front of ourselves.

Joshua Hancock - Florida

Born in Naples, FL, Josh has spent 4 years in the U.S. Army as an Airborne Ranger, paratrooper, and cook, at Ft Lewis, WA. After which he went to a commercial diving school, and has up to this point done nothing with those skills. Josh has worked in restaurants, prison, pizza delivery, factories, a HVAC distributor, and a couple of aerospace machine shops filling numerous job titles.

In '07 Josh first met his future wife in his hometown and they were married on the beach in October of 2009. Rhonda was a massage therapist and inspired him to become one as well, so in early 2011 Josh completed massage school just before moving back to Washington and enrolling in the Anake Outdoor School. Rhonda was enrolled in Anake as well, but life happened and she is unable to attend at this time.

Some of his hobbies have included reading, roleplaying games, tabletop strategy games, video games, watching educational television like the history channel, music, and guns. Currently he is more interested in tracking, learning to live with the land, wandering, and learning to hunt for food. He would also like to learn herbalism for his healing toolbox to compliment massage therapy.

Michelle Ma - Washington

I grew up swinging in the maple trees and roaming the marshlands of Minnesota. My time outside as a child helped inspire a love of writing and drawing, and I went to school in Chicago for journalism. I covered environmental issues in a small coastal town in Northern California, then moved to Seattle a few years ago to continue reporting on the natural world. Most recently, I worked as an online news producer. I'm here at Wilderness Awareness School to reconnect with the wild, beautiful Pacific Northwest, learn naturalist skills and enjoy being alive in this vibrant community. Follow her Anake journey online!

Michaela MacDonald – New York

I was privileged to grow up in Long Island, NY; a small town called Locust Valley is where I have spent most of my time.  My family owns a garden center, landscape business, and nursery that was started by my grandfather in the 1950's.  After attending college and receiving a degree in Special Education and Elementary education, I had a deep realization that I needed something more.  My heart was quivering for deeper connection, not only to the natural world, but to people as well.  I started working for our family business as an Organic Consultant, learning ways to implement responsible and restorative practices as a landscape/garden center.  During my time with the family business I was blessed to see just how hard my parents had to work while raising myself and my brother, realizing how much I had taken for granted over the years.  I immersed myself in the organic movement and started offering organic lawn care, installation of edible gardens, and non-toxic sprays for people's land as part of our services.  This was a great learning experience for me, but still my heart was calling for something more.  Shortly after I found WAS, and, the pipe dream I put out of attending the Anake Outdoor School has come true. 

It started with enrolling in an Art of Mentoring course in August 2010.  I was completely blown away by the level of commitment WAS had for this vitally important movement of nature education/connection, the community and culture they had created, and the deep pathways available for us to walk if we so dared.  Well, one year later I made it back to attend Anake Outdoor School and I have never had more clarity about anything in my life... this is the place for me... my dream has come true, I'm here!

Trevor Ose - Vermont

"I've been an arrow pointing in this general direction for many years, and when I found the Anake program at Wilderness Awareness School, I knew I had found a place I needed to be. May you take less years to figure out where to boldly go forward than I did.

I grew up playing in the woods as refuge from a childhood that was socially challenging. At the same time, I feared the woods and the unknowns that came with darkness. I hunted and fished and boated and hiked.

I worked warehouse and grocery store jobs, did construction, drove delivery trucks and semis. I worked in utilities construction, as a baker, a rafting guide, and as a field biologist. I went to college. I got married and divorced. I moved from Vermont to Washington to Alaska. I sought spiritual enlightenment. And through it all, the woods and waters continued to beckon.

Here, at WAS, I've found what I came looking for, a community of individuals who love the same things I do, who both support and challenge me to be the best self I can be while enlivening my connection to and understanding of the natural world around me.

Best wishes on all your Travels."

Jan Pieper - Germany

My fascination for nature started in my early childhood. It was focused, when I took a philosophy class in Germany, originating from Tom Brown in 2007. After that I studied environmental engineering for three years. During this time I struggled with my surrounding society and decided to take a long term class. While searching on the Internet I found WAS and the Anake- programm. It took me two years from the decision to take that class to coming to Duvall. I needed that time to make peace with society and come here to explore how wonderful being in a community can feel.
 

Tyler Rautmann - Hawaii

My name is Tyler Rautmann. I am  an 18-year-old, home-schooled individual from Kauai, who loves being outside and practicing primitive living skills. Some other interests of mine include surfing, parkour, fishing, and music. I am here at the Anake Outdoor School because I am committed to becoming the best wilderness educator that I can be.

 

 

Anna-Thea Riisager - Norway

I've grown up in an alternative environment where the status quo has always been challenged with better options and information. My family has always been interested in nature and good living, but I have never been an outdoor geek. I have always liked to look at animals, the beautiful sky, the wondrous plants, soils, stones and all of the universes creations. Taking a swim under the water and feeling the amazing existence of another element, feeling the wind live and tell me I am alive with it, singing from my soul, exploring the things I do not understand in the energy world, wondering about life, trying to evolve into truthful living, is some of my highpoints in life. On that road, I came to know Tom Brown Jr. and the Tracker School, and after my first class there I have wanted to practice primitive skills. Without the support of others engaged in primitive skills I found myself not practicing, and I have been looking for a school for the last two years, and immediately decided to go to Anake Outdoor School when I found it. My future is unknown to me, all I know is that I wish the best for the world, and I will do the challenges I need to find out how to live, and find the steps to best follow that vision. 

Byron Rot - Washington

I have been involved with Wilderness Awareness School for about eight years. After taking the Tracking Intensive, I was super-interested in Anake but doubted that I could get away from the crush of daily life. I've lived in western Washington since 1981, and currently call home Port Townsend, located on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. For the past 12 years I've worked for an Indian Tribe near Sequim, WA, restoring salmon habitat in rivers and estuaries. After 12 years I was also a bit burned out and needed to do something different for a while. I am very grateful to be here.

Alex Tetrault –Quebec, Canada

I hail from Montreal, Quebec, where the summers are radiant and the winters are heavy with snow.  My awe for the outdoors began when I was much younger and my parents would take me camping.  Looking back on my adolescence, I associate time spent in the natural world with balance and clearer vision in those times of turmoil.  In my late teens, I made some new friends who helped me see that this thread in my life could be developed to a whole new level.  By learning the skills of animal tracking, awareness and survival technologies, I could begin to develop a stronger relationship with the natural world, a relationship that has always been central to humanity.  Wilderness Awareness School holds the final piece of the puzzle for me, in that by connecting with nature, you also connect with other humans, and community is born. 

Nyn Tomkins – Ontario, Canada

In 2008 I completed a university degree in psychology and music. The next logical step was graduate school. But I couldn't quite commit, so I worked for a few years searching for what I wanted to do. Nothing seemed to fit.

I was just ending a contract job as a research assistant in a university psychology lab when my sister Karen suggested I come out to Washington with her. After hanging around the community for a few months it was clear to me that I wasn't leaving just yet. I had to do Anake. This is the first time in my life where my thoughts don't constantly drift to the future; where I feel like I am exactly where I need to be.

Estelle Waterman - New York

Estelle found her passion for nature at a young age, growing up near a beautiful patch of woods in Upstate New York. Her experience in nature education began in 2004 through a small after-school program called Primitive Pursuits. She instantly jived with the people and the attitude of the program, and has since spent her summers teaching in programs with 4-H Urban Outreach and Ithaca Primitive Pursuits. In 2009, she began working towards a bachelor's degree at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where she co-founded a primitive skills club with fellow student, Justin Sutera. Wilderness Awareness seemed like the next best step, with a strong community, knowledge of place, and respect for the natural world. Estelle's favorite skills include basketry, hide-tanning, rock-painting, and seamstressing.