Company Profile
Wilderness Awareness School
Company Overview
Wilderness Awareness School, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1983, is an internationally-recognized leader in outdoor education. We are committed to providing transformational and educational experiences that deepen students' connections with nature and the people with whom they interact, and allow them to more fully reach their potential in life. Our community of students includes people of all ages who understand and thrive on their connection to the natural world around us.
Founded by Ingwe and Jon Young, Wilderness Awareness School is recognized internationally as one of the primary inspirations for the contemporary nature connection movement. Our founders, Ingwe and Jon Young, have long been acknowledged for their thought leadership, and their philosophy is our guide as we continue to provide opportunities for children to discover the natural world around them, and for adults to explore, gain confidence in, and reconnect with the environment.
We continue to serve our community, in the Puget Sound, across the United States and around the world, by providing:
-- Fun, adventuresome, educational opportunities for children to explore the world around them, discover their passions, and build skills that will last them a lifetime
-- Transformational experiences for adults looking to reconnect with the natural world and re-discover their purpose in life
-- Naturalist, survival and primitive skills classes, in both self-study and physical class formats, designed to teach skills mastered by our ancestors and relevant enough not to be forgotten
-- Training for educators interested in mastering Coyote Mentoring, the widely-respected educational philosophy developed at -- Wilderness Awareness School, which encourages creative thinking rather than providing answers, helps students develop problem-solving skills and self-sufficiency, and encourages a much deeper level of learning
-- The community gathering place for people who share a passion for connecting with nature, providing forums, classes and facilitated gatherings that allow us to learn from one another, teach others and grow stronger in our efforts to connect more deeply to the world around us
Company History
Our History
Wilderness Awareness School was founded by Jon Young, a celebrated naturalist who trained with and was mentored by renowned tracker Tom Brown, Jr., and Ingwe, an elder of British descent who had grown up roaming the wilds of Kenya.
Jon met Tom Brown, Jr., as a young boy, and Tom became his mentor. Influenced heavily by his work with Tom over almost 10 years, and by Tom's training by Apache elder Stalking Wolf, Jon became fascinated with the ways people effectively integrate ancient traditions into modern existence. He pursued his interest through his five years at Rutgers, where he graduated with a degree in Environmental Awareness. It was this passion for integrating ancient skills and his deep connection with nature that led him to found Wilderness Awareness School as a high school nature club in New Jersey in 1983.
A year later, he met Ingwe, an elder of British descent who grew up with the ancient traditions with which Jon was so fascinated. Born M. Norman Powell in South Africa in 1914, Ingwe's family moved to a farm in Kenya when he was young. He spent his childhood running barefoot through the plains of Kenya with the young warriors of the neighboring Akamba tribe. Adopted into their tribe and given the name Ingwe, he learned how to live close to the Earth.
Discovering their shared passion for mentoring and nature connection, Jon refounded Wilderness Awareness School in 1984 with the broader mission of combining ancient and modern ecological wisdom to connect people with the natural environment and empower people of all ages to become stewards, mentors and leaders. In 1995, they moved the organization to its current home in Duvall, Washington.
Over the next three decades, Wilderness Awareness School grew from a small group of visionary individuals to a leading international organization, impacting the course of nature education and inspiring many schools and individuals across the country and the world to share our teachings and curriculum. At the same time, Wilderness Awareness School has evolved under the influence of several other naturalist and native elders.
Because of the involvement of Tekaronieneken Jake Swamp, a sub-chief of the Wolf Clan of the Iroquois Confederacy, and his wife Judy, Wilderness Awareness School's curriculum was greatly influenced by the Peacemaker Principles and Thanksgiving Address. Over the years, these teachings have also grown to form the backbone of our community at Wilderness Awareness School, and have helped us learn to reconnect people with each other as they reconnect with the natural world.
Inspired by the Thanksgiving Address, gratitude is one of our school's most important core values and core routines. We start meetings with a chance for everyone to express something for which they are thankful. Out in the wild with students, we continually find opportunities to pause and express gratitude. Recent research reveals that a daily dose of gratitude encourages health, happiness and vibrancy. Research also shows that time outside is essential to balance our high-tech lives, and to foster health, growth and wellbeing. Nature connection combined with gratitude is a powerful health tonic for our youth and adult students.
From Gilbert Walking Bull, the grandson of Moves Camp, a Sioux Sacred Man and the great-grandson of Sitting Bull, Wilderness Awareness School adopted the mentoring approach to teaching that has become its hallmark. Gilbert had been selected at a young age to help carry on the spiritual teachings of his people, and was raised largely by his grandparent's generation and educated in the traditional healing ceremonies, songs and culture of the Lakota. He was kept out of government schools and did not even begin to learn about the ways of modern American society and the English language until he was 16 years old.
Gilbert's knowledge of the traditional aspects of the Lakota was pure and true, and represented an unbroken cultural lineage possessed by very few others. Gilbert was the author of four definitive books on authentic traditional Lakota culture. From 1999 until his passing in 2007, Gilbert shared the intact traditional ways of his upbringing with Wilderness Awareness School, which has greatly enhanced the forming of our own mentoring culture.
Now, more than 30 years after Ingwe and Jon Young founded the organization, Wilderness Awareness School is internationally recognized for its mentoring teaching style, its naturalist training expertise, and its focus on connecting students with nature, their community and themselves. Our wilderness education courses draw on traditions from indigenous cultures world-wide, emphasizing nature as teacher, routines to enhance awareness, storytelling, self-motivated learning, and tracking as an interpretive tool. Our approach trains youth and adults to blend the awareness of a native tracker with the knowledge of a wildlife biologist.
Wilderness Awareness School's adult education programs, Anake Outdoor School and Anake Leadership Program, are the gold standard for nature mentor training. Graduates of the two year nature connection program have founded schools around the world, become thought leaders and writers within the field, and are respected scientists and naturalists.
Our summer camp program is award-winning, having received Parent Map's best outdoor camp award four years in a row. The Kamana Naturalist Training program, a self-study program you can do at your own pace and place, was written in large part by Jon Young, and is well-recognized for its thoughtful approach to connecting students with nature. And our educational philosophy, Coyote Mentoring, developed over the past 25 years and incorporated into educational environments around the world, was codified in the Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, co-authored by Ellen Haas, Evan McGown, and Jon Young.
Notable Products / Brands
Anake, Kamana, Wilderness Awareness
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Parent Map Best Nature Camp for past 5 years
Benefits
Our salaried employees receive a stipend for medical insurance and start at 5 week of paid time off.