by Mireille Evans Immersion Student 2015-2016 This week we had the honor to be blessed by deer. It was the week where we got to dive into the magical transformational process of working with the hide of deer to make buckskin. The deer were purchased from a woman who has a relationship with hunters in her area. The hunters bring […]
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 […]
Our Immersion class has done some amazing things this past month, but I wanted to specifically share with you about two exciting areas we’ve recently been learning and practicing. Tracking and Trailing We learned about different aspects of tracking and trailing over a few days these past couple of weeks. Each day focused on different […]
This past week I had the opportunity to join a small group of my Immersion classmates on a voluntary, 3-day survival trek. This practice is meant to prepare for a survival situation in which the group is traveling, hopefully towards rescue. The other type of survival trip we practice is “basecamp” survival. This is where […]
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. […]
The past 9 months at The Immersion has been quite a plethora of new experiences, adventures, crafting, external and internal explorations, and the fortification of our connections with the earth, the natural world around us, ourselves, and each other. This Immersion year has been nothing at all of what I expected, and at the same […]
Village Week – October 27-29 2015 What a week full of fun! We gathered with our class this week for our first of three Village Weeks we will have throughout the year. We all headed into the week with a sense of mystery and unknown as there was not much telling of what we would […]
The year at The Immersion is coming to a close. We gathered for our last week of “normal” class time before embarking on the final three weeks of class; also known as the ‘The Gauntlet’. The Gauntlet is the time where we are put to the test to see how ingrained our skills are that we learned this year. But before […]
During Guild Weeks at The Immersion students can choose from a variety of passion-based skills, such as entering the mind of a Scout. This past week I had the awesome opportunity to participate in three amazing days of training in “the ways of the scout”. The scout is a member of any tribe who acts […]
For my professional career, I travel the country and count birds for a living. In my personal life, I am a recovering addict and active participant in my 12-step program, guiding others on their own journey toward addiction recovery. My time at The Immersion has not only deepened my connection with nature and improved my […]