Scholarship Success

The Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund

Norman (Ingwe) Powell made it his life's work to connect children to themselves and the earth. At the age of 70, his commitment to this vision led him to co-found Wilderness Awareness School.

You can continue his commitment through a contribution to the Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund. Contributions to Ingwe's Fund will be used exclusively for scholarships for adults and children to attend courses. Your donation will have a direct impact on a the lives of students, families and communities... just as Ingwe’s work and words continues to influence and guide us.

Stories of Scholarship Recipients

Your support has an immediate and rippling effect in the lives of so many! Here are a few of the stories from scholarship students and families — a snapshot of Ingwe’s fund in action...

• Enjoy a letter from a student who received a scholarship this year
• and inspiring words from other grateful students and families.
• Let scholarship recipients share their thanks in our Anake Outdoor Student video.
• I hope you are inspired by the transformational impact of their experience with us...

Dear Wilderness Awareness School Donors,

I applied to the Anake Outdoor School program on a strong intuition a couple weeks after the program had already started — three days later, I flew across the country.

I was welcomed at Linne Doran on a sunny fall day with generosity, hospitality, kindness and the sounds of bright-hearted people sending bird calls through the forest. I had left a heart-opening and heart-wrenching chapter in my life, helping my brother through his illness as his co-pilot, witnessing him make difficult choices of life and then death... I landed here with a pack on my back, entering the unknown. 

I am reminded of rites-of-passage stories where young people in a tribe are kidnapped at night, taken into a cave for a few days, and left in the dark. When the moment is ripe, an elder lights a fire, and on the walls are painted the tribes’ most important teachings to imprint on the initiates — hungry, broken-down and senses heightened. These are the teachings they must carry with them as new adults, so their people may live in balance with the world and survive. 

As I reflect back to my first days, starting the program felt like bringing light into my cave. All the teachings imprinted so perfectly. I was ready to learn and grow and serve. And the learning has been so stark, significant and subtle that it often feels difficult to articulate.... 

The curriculum and community brings to me practices of nature connection that are powerful in so many ways, including grieving my brother. It is my experience that the practices are potent enough to safely draw up the feelings, the love and the many memories. And also spacious enough to hold the complexity, depth, contradiction, cycles, repetition and awe of the natural grieving and regeneration process. The teachings enable me to metabolize my grief into skills, creativity, connection, inspiration and a timeless sense of self and womanhood of which I feel proud.

It’s difficult for me to adequately express my gratitude for the opportunity to be here this year. I am one lucky gal to have landed here during this deep and raw time in my life. 

I have immense gratitude for the land, people and teachings of the Wilderness Awareness School for the vitality and support in my personal life. And I am grateful for the events in my life which prepared me to inherit and connect to these teachings so deeply, so I can be of service in the world with such inspiring, time-tested and life-giving tools.   

In order to spend quality time with my brother during his illness, I had depleted much of my savings. Upon arriving here in the fall, there were two things of which I was certain: I knew I had to do the program, and I knew somehow I’d figure out how to make all the logistics work. Receiving my scholarship was an incredible and generous help with this task. It is an honor to receive this gift in Ingwe’s name and to have the opportunity to pass these teachings forward in the memory of such an inspiring warrior.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.   

     — Michelle van Naerssen
         Anake Outdoor School

Inspiring words from other grateful students and families…

“Not only has Fiona learned about wilderness survival, plant and animal track recognition and fire building, but also, through her mentors,
 how to be a responsible member of a community and society.
Community School inspires Fiona to be the best person in all aspects of her life.” 
— Barbara Brown, mother of Fiona Bestwick, 16

“I have learned more about myself in a few months than I did over many years
of self inquiry. I am thankful for the generosity and trust of this community.” 
— Judy Osman, Anake Outdoor School

 “It’s really inspiring to be learning such rare and transformative skills
with instructors who really know what they’re doing.”
— Brian Mertins, Anake Outdoor School

“Observing and witnessing the personal (emotional, physical and spiritual) growth that my son is experiencing is pure joy.”
— Christine Jarlik-Bell, mother of Merlin Warnke, 15

I have a deeper connection to the earth and all the life that resides on, in and above this planet. This feeling is like a piece of rope, that each day I awake, a new strand of connectedness is added to the rope, making it thicker, and stronger and washing away any feelings of separateness. 
— Bob Holzman, Anake Outdoor School Scholarship recipient

“This is the only school program that Zizi has been where when I come to pick him up at the end of the day, he is centered and happy.”
—  Gea Bassett, mother of Zizi Smith, 5

“Brooke has benefited from the loving and accepting Community at WAS. In these tenuous teen years she has a place to call her own and a place to be free to grow to be the person God created her to be.”
— Mellissa Steilling, mother of Brooke,

“I cannot express my gratitude and thanks deeply enough to the school, not just for teaching me and transforming my life, but also for helping to transform a wider ecological consciousness and keeping wilderness learning alive.”
— Mark Kang-O’Higgins, Tracking Intensive

Insights from scholarship applicants:

“We see this class as providing a secure grounding in nature and the natural way of the world, that will enhance his ability to relate to the world in a holistic manner.”

“We have experimented with many learning environments. From this experience, we have as
parents observed that he truly ‘comes alive’ under two conditions: when he is in small groups,
and when he is in nature.”

More stories from a recent graduating Anake Outdoor School class (video)…

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Wilderness Awareness School is a division of The Awareness Society, a not-for-profit organization, recognized as Federal Tax Exempt Organization under IRS code section 501(c)(3).