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Homeschool Nature Program for Teens
Community School

"We have a lot of fun in nature, a refreshing change from regular life where you can just let go of whatever else is going on and just relax and have a good time.... and be aware and connected with the earth, I feel comfortable there. "
-Rutah, age 14

Our Mission Why Study Nature? Our Educational Philosophy Teaching Through Mentoring

Our Curriculum Instructors 2008-09 Calendar & Enrollment Tuition & Scholarships

Our Mission

The Mission of the Wilderness Awareness Community School is to create an educational environment that helps homeschooled teenagers engage their natural intelligence and awakens their innate abilities to perceive and connect with the world around them.

Our students immerse themselves in intensive, experiential studies of nature from both scientific and indigenous perspectives. In this effort, our students are instructed and supported by a large, diverse community of mentors from all ages and walks of life.

Why Study Nature?

For millions of years, humans have lived in direct contact with the natural world, and our senses developed to attend to its rhythms and sounds.

It is only in the last couple of hundred years that we have insulated ourselves from nature with things like buildings and cars and pavement. One unfortunate result of this separation is that our senses atrophy from lack of use. With no reason to pay attention to birds, we don't even see them as they fly by. We don't hear the deer or raccoon as they sneak away through the bushes. And we slowly grow deaf to our own intuition and instincts which guide and connect us to the world.

Our goal at Wilderness Awareness Community School, our teen wilderness course for homeschoolers, is to reawaken this deep awareness of nature in our students.

What happens when young people expand their awareness of the world around them and pay attention to their inner voice, their intuition, and their heart is truly remarkable.

These students gain an understanding of the natural flow of things that puts them in better balance with themselves and the world around them. As their confidence grows, they find themselves firmly on the path towards developing into physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually centered people.

Our Educational Philosophy

At the core of our approach to educating young people is our concept of "Passion-based learning." This is the idea that every one of us has special gifts to bring to the world, things that spark our passions in life.

Our school's fundamental goal is to awaken this spirit in our students, and to help them identify and pursue their gifts. We believe that the most effective learning happens when young people are pursuing what they love, and so truly desire to learn.

Equally important is our philosophy that the most effective learning happens when students figure things out "on their own."

In their efforts to do this, they are individually guided by mentors who strive to create experiences and opportunities for students to discover their own answers.

We call this method Coyote Mentoring, a technique that encourages creative thinking rather than providing answers, and results in much deeper learning. It also stimulates the growth of problem-solving skills, and stretches the students into greater self-sufficiency in their living and learning.

Teaching through Mentoring

Staff at the Wilderness Awareness Community School consider themselves Mentors rather than Teachers. Thus their role shies away from lecturing students about facts they should know, and instead emphasizes helping students to find their interests and gain the skills to question, investigate and explore the world around them.

The art of mentoring is a delicate dance, and every student presents unique gifts and challenges to our staff. As a result, close personal attention is crucial for successful mentoring.

The school is also supported by a larger community made up of amateur and professional naturalists, artists, crafts people, teachers, elders, and young people.

These people volunteer time to teach classes and mentor our students. In this way, the entire community of people, plants and animals serve as the real teachers of our students.

In the past, we have had herbalists work with us to harvest and prepare medicinal plants, crafts people teach us to prepare fleece and make felt blankets, and carvers teach us some of the traditional carving and basketry techniques of the Northwest Coast Native Peoples.

Our Curriculum

Our approach to studying nature combines modern scientific understanding with the more first-hand connections that ancient cultures had with the natural world. Over the course of a year, our teen wilderness course focuses on many topics, including:

• Wilderness Living Skills
• Mammals and Tracking
• Birds and their Languages
• Plants and their Uses
• Aidless Navigation
• Native Cultures
• Trees and Survival
• Ecology and Community

At Wilderness Awareness Community School, we explore these topics using a powerful, comprehensive curriculum. We begin our inquiries experientially, taking students into the natural world where they can see, smell, hear, and feel the subject matter.

To this experiential understanding we add a cognitive component as our students research the current topic through books, field guides, videos, lectures and other resources.

Students may become skilled naturalists and master trackers by the end of their time with Wilderness Awareness School (our curriculum is designed for it!), yet ultimately our goal as a school is something far simpler, yet much more elusive.

What we aim to create are not naturalists or trackers, but centered, healthy, self-motivated young adults, able to think critically for themselves, with the confidence and inspiration to dream a vivid vision of their own future, and the skills and enthusiasm to pursue that vision.

Our Instructors

Laura Gunion, Community School Coordinator, has been a lead instructor at Community School since 2002. She began her work for Wilderness Awareness School after completing our Residential Program, and came to that course with a wealth of experience working with people in the outdoors--as an instructor at Teton Science School, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, and the Four Corners School of Outdoor Education, among other courses.

Laura received her B.A. in Child Studies from Tufts University in 1995, completed the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Semester in the Rockies in 1996, and finished a year-long Professional Residency in Environmental Education through Utah State University and Teton Science School in 2001. In her spare time you may find Laura splashing in the stream at her house, doing yoga, painting, dancing, learning how to make local plant medicines, or making cookies.

Dan Corcoran, lead instructor, joined the Wilderness Awareness School staff upon completion of the Residential Program in 2003. In addition to serving as an instructor at Community School, he directs the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. After receiving his B.S. in Biology from Indiana University in June of 2000, Dan moved to the Pacific Northwest to pursue his love of nature with Wilderness Awareness School and teach with a teen wilderness course.

As a Kamana graduate, he aspires to inspire more people to finish the course. He continues to push his edges with attempts to touch a deer, flintknap a clovis point, and hear a cougar bird-alarm sequence. Dan is also a Wilderness First Responder.

Mike Prince: Mike is a core instructor with Community School. He is also the coordinator of the Earth Mentor Program, and Facility Manager for Wilderness Awareness School. Mike graduated from the Wilderness Awareness Residential Program in 2004, and followed that with a second year as a Apprentice Instructor with Community School. Mike's previous experience as an educator includes teaching High School, directing a Boy Scout Camp, and working for the YMCA.

2009-10 Calendar and Enrollment

Community School is an intensive mentoring course for homeschooled teens ages 13-18. Class size is limited to 9 students per instructor in order to ensure individual attention and mentoring.

Community School has two scheduling options to accomodate teens' busy lives.

One option meets each Tuesday from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m,
and one option meets each Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.; both from September 8/9 2009 until the first week of June, 2010 at our outdoor classroom in Duvall, WA.

As part of the year, students experience three week-long overnight expeditions that allow for field learning in diverse ecosystems throughout the West, as well as offering opportunities for personal growth and leadership development.

Visit Day: Tues. Apr. 7

Call our office to apply, or schedule a visit to the course: 425-788-1301.

Tuition & Scholarships

One-day option: Annual Tuition is $3160
Non-refundable Deposit: $790, due upon registration (includes $25 place-holder deposit). Remainder payable in three payments due Sept 1, January 1, and April 1.

Two-day option: Annual Tuition is $4980
Non-refundable Deposit: $1245, due upon registration (includes $25 place-holder deposit). Remainder payable in three payments due Sept 1, January 1, and April 1.

Scholarships:
If you require tuition assistance, we invite you to download a Scholarship Application in PDF format, complete it and mail it in.

The non-refundable registration deposit is required to hold the place of all registrants, regardless of scholarship status. If, within two weeks of scholarship notification, scholarship applicants decide not to commit to the course, we will refund your deposit in full. (This is the only situation where the deposit is refundable.)

NEW - Tuition Assistance for Community School!
Thanks to our new partnership with Columbia Virtual Academy, your homeschooled child (age 5+) can receive up to $1,200 that can be applied toward costs at Wilderness Awareness School! More details

To Apply:

Please call our office to apply:  425-788-1301.