Alex Van Nostrand
(Silicon Valley Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, fridays)
Co-Founder, Lead Guide - Wild Child, Wild projects, wild makers
“Openness of space leads to openness of mind.”
-Alex’s nature journal 2008
Alex is happiest outside! She enjoys nurturing healthy relationships, both with other people and the natural world. Playfully integrating science with children’s interests is her favorite part about teaching (and learning). Favorite topics include respecting the environment, adventure safety, storytelling, hydrology and the strength of diversity in both ecosystems and group dynamics.
As Wild Child’s leader, Alex believes deeply in empowering children to make their own connections with nature. She practices wilderness survival skills including friction fire, animal tracking, wildcrafting and camouflage during hiking days. Alex grew up exploring the countryside of Ithaca, NY and got her degree in Environmental Studies and Global Health from Emory University in 2009 with a focus on freshwater resources. She found her perfect niche as co-founder of Wild Child Freeschool in 2011 and continues to find inspiration as a naturalist from the children she works with.
-Alex’s nature journal 2008
Alex is happiest outside! She enjoys nurturing healthy relationships, both with other people and the natural world. Playfully integrating science with children’s interests is her favorite part about teaching (and learning). Favorite topics include respecting the environment, adventure safety, storytelling, hydrology and the strength of diversity in both ecosystems and group dynamics.
As Wild Child’s leader, Alex believes deeply in empowering children to make their own connections with nature. She practices wilderness survival skills including friction fire, animal tracking, wildcrafting and camouflage during hiking days. Alex grew up exploring the countryside of Ithaca, NY and got her degree in Environmental Studies and Global Health from Emory University in 2009 with a focus on freshwater resources. She found her perfect niche as co-founder of Wild Child Freeschool in 2011 and continues to find inspiration as a naturalist from the children she works with.
Sihaya Meijer
(Silicon Valley Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays)
Guide, ADMINISTRATOR - Wild Imagination, wild Child, Camp Wildcraft
“I recall as a child one of the hardest things for me about homeschooling was the need to connect with other children. Upon my request I was put into various public school situations which I would always come back filled with critiques because I was aware of my educational alternatives and knew how much better learning could be. Homeschooling was lonely. I told my mom the best way she could show she loved me was to take me to the forest. I see Wild Child as an awesome solution to this conundrum.” -Sihaya Meijer
Sihaya developed her love of nature in the redwoods and shorelines of the Santa Cruz mountains and coastlines and at a young age in the jungles of Hawaii. Her learning experiences are rooted in homeschooling, where often times science class was tide pool gazing or spending hours in the library reading about the wild world. She strives to nurture a deep relationship with nature through studying botany, traditional herbal medicine, wild foods, and primitive skills. She is self taught, educated through guides and mentors, and attended The North East School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca, New York where she lived in a cabin in the woods on the edge of the watershed. Among her wide ranges of experience she has lived in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont, homesteaded in Kentucky, fished commercially and for subsistence in South East Alaska, and traveled by land and sea.
She now lives on her 27-foot sail boat with her dog and dreams of sailing to distant lands while doing boat repairs. When she is not guiding WildChild you can find her practicing her sailing skills out on the San Francisco Bay, working at The Watershed Nursery planting native plants, crewing the old time riverboat “The Spirit of Sacramento”, spending times with family and friends in Santa Cruz county or leading wild plant walks in the Bay Area.
She loves being a part of Wild Child as it creates the opportunity to be a part of the cultivation of the children involved, parents, and her own inner child.
Sihaya developed her love of nature in the redwoods and shorelines of the Santa Cruz mountains and coastlines and at a young age in the jungles of Hawaii. Her learning experiences are rooted in homeschooling, where often times science class was tide pool gazing or spending hours in the library reading about the wild world. She strives to nurture a deep relationship with nature through studying botany, traditional herbal medicine, wild foods, and primitive skills. She is self taught, educated through guides and mentors, and attended The North East School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca, New York where she lived in a cabin in the woods on the edge of the watershed. Among her wide ranges of experience she has lived in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont, homesteaded in Kentucky, fished commercially and for subsistence in South East Alaska, and traveled by land and sea.
She now lives on her 27-foot sail boat with her dog and dreams of sailing to distant lands while doing boat repairs. When she is not guiding WildChild you can find her practicing her sailing skills out on the San Francisco Bay, working at The Watershed Nursery planting native plants, crewing the old time riverboat “The Spirit of Sacramento”, spending times with family and friends in Santa Cruz county or leading wild plant walks in the Bay Area.
She loves being a part of Wild Child as it creates the opportunity to be a part of the cultivation of the children involved, parents, and her own inner child.
Sam Sidwell
(SILICON VALLEY TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, FRIDAYS)
GUIDE - WILD CHILD, WILD MAKERS
Sam grew up in Iowa City, Iowa where she spent most of her time outside using her imagination amongst the rolling corn fields of the Midwest. This experience in the outdoors later inspired her to expand her knowledge of climbing and explore many parts of South America. Shortly after she received her Bachelors degree in Music Performance and International studies with emphases in Global Resources and the Environment and Latin American Studies she began working with kids. She immediately discovered a deep-rooted passion in shaping opportunities for youth to feel empowered through new adventures and creative interests in the outdoors. Now with experience teaching Spanish, music and more than 6 years in outdoor education she hopes to spark a shared inspiration by encouraging the undiscovered in the vastness of nature.
Matt Leberknight
(Silicon Valley tuesdays & fridays)
Guide, Administrator
“Man has always assumed that he is more intelligent than dolphins because he has achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all dolphins have ever done is muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins have always believed that they are far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Matt’s love of nature began at an early age, when his family took their first of what would be many camping trips to the Grand Canyon. After hiking down Bright Angel Trail at the age of 8, he was hooked. He enrolled in Cub Scouts soon afterwards, and the next 10 years were filled with a wide variety of activities and trips on land and sea, culminating each year in summer camps which he eventually designed and ran with a few other scouts who remain close friends to this day.
As a young kid he jumped around from school to school and spent a few years homeschooling in the Ahwatukee Foothills just outside of Phoenix, but due to a lack of homeschool communities in the area didn’t find the experience enjoyable and returned to “regular” school through high school. His three younger siblings though began homeschooling in the Bay Area and found a wide variety of communities and activities to participate in, and so spent the majority of their early years in one homeschool group or another, doing things like creating hot air balloons, cloning microscopic organisms, and achieving fluency in French. It was seeing his brother and sisters have such an amazing experience that showed him the virtually unlimited possibilities an unschooled education has to offer, and he hopes that by introducing the wild kids to his passion, he can help them become as awesome and well-rounded as he knows his siblings to be.
When he’s not with the Wild Children, Matt spends his summers working as a backpacking guide for the Boy Scouts in northern New Mexico, and the rest of the year working at his favorite toy store, otherwise known as REI.
Matt’s love of nature began at an early age, when his family took their first of what would be many camping trips to the Grand Canyon. After hiking down Bright Angel Trail at the age of 8, he was hooked. He enrolled in Cub Scouts soon afterwards, and the next 10 years were filled with a wide variety of activities and trips on land and sea, culminating each year in summer camps which he eventually designed and ran with a few other scouts who remain close friends to this day.
As a young kid he jumped around from school to school and spent a few years homeschooling in the Ahwatukee Foothills just outside of Phoenix, but due to a lack of homeschool communities in the area didn’t find the experience enjoyable and returned to “regular” school through high school. His three younger siblings though began homeschooling in the Bay Area and found a wide variety of communities and activities to participate in, and so spent the majority of their early years in one homeschool group or another, doing things like creating hot air balloons, cloning microscopic organisms, and achieving fluency in French. It was seeing his brother and sisters have such an amazing experience that showed him the virtually unlimited possibilities an unschooled education has to offer, and he hopes that by introducing the wild kids to his passion, he can help them become as awesome and well-rounded as he knows his siblings to be.
When he’s not with the Wild Children, Matt spends his summers working as a backpacking guide for the Boy Scouts in northern New Mexico, and the rest of the year working at his favorite toy store, otherwise known as REI.
Lindsay Davis
(Santa Cruz tuesdays, Summer Camps)
Guide, Finance Coordinator, Administrator
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ― Mary Oliver
Lindsay loves nature. She finds peace in the forests, open meadows, deep pools and running streams of water. Where there is stillness, and the world comes alive in new ways. Plants, rocks, and streams speak, have personalities and impact the ecosystem in which they live. She finds herself in her place in nature. Lindsay loves working with children. She loves their enthusiasm and connection to their experience within the moment. When she is not around kids for more than a week, she gets bored.
Lindsay grew up in the suburbs of Southern California. Her family has always instilled an awe of nature, but it was not until she moved to Santa Cruz that she found her life immersed with it. In living with nature, she has built her own home deep in the forest from fallen branches. She has studied many earth based and self-sufficiency skills. She has learned how to mend wounds and treat common ailments through the use of medicinal herbs. In 2011 she earned her EMT license, to be better prepared to handle life's challenges. Lindsay is always learning new skills, which are valuable to her life in a diversity of ways.
Lindsay believes in connecting with the passion you have in life. In her free time, Lindsay hikes the mountains and valleys of the Santa Cruz region. She focuses a lot of her intention on music, environmental and social justice issues, and community. She leads medicinal plant walks in the greater bay area. She is the co-founder and organizer for local Forest walks in the Santa Cruz region, which aims to bring connection and education to local wild spaces in need of preservation.
Lindsay loves nature. She finds peace in the forests, open meadows, deep pools and running streams of water. Where there is stillness, and the world comes alive in new ways. Plants, rocks, and streams speak, have personalities and impact the ecosystem in which they live. She finds herself in her place in nature. Lindsay loves working with children. She loves their enthusiasm and connection to their experience within the moment. When she is not around kids for more than a week, she gets bored.
Lindsay grew up in the suburbs of Southern California. Her family has always instilled an awe of nature, but it was not until she moved to Santa Cruz that she found her life immersed with it. In living with nature, she has built her own home deep in the forest from fallen branches. She has studied many earth based and self-sufficiency skills. She has learned how to mend wounds and treat common ailments through the use of medicinal herbs. In 2011 she earned her EMT license, to be better prepared to handle life's challenges. Lindsay is always learning new skills, which are valuable to her life in a diversity of ways.
Lindsay believes in connecting with the passion you have in life. In her free time, Lindsay hikes the mountains and valleys of the Santa Cruz region. She focuses a lot of her intention on music, environmental and social justice issues, and community. She leads medicinal plant walks in the greater bay area. She is the co-founder and organizer for local Forest walks in the Santa Cruz region, which aims to bring connection and education to local wild spaces in need of preservation.
Maya Elson
(Santa Cruz Wednesdays)
Santa Cruz Program Founder & Coordinator, Guide
Maya is a teacher, naturalist, grassroots organizer and lover of the wild. Maya lives her life seeking to heighten her awareness of the natural world and finding her place within her ecosystem. She’s most comfortable in the forest, and has a solid set of skills to survive in it.. She worked at several outdoor schools, summer camps, and other environmental education programs before deciding that starting a Santa Cruz branch of Wild Child would be the best way for her to support youth in building in a stronger relationship to the natural world.
Over many years of work in environmental education, she has built a large “toolbox” as a nature mentor. She has a strong background in Ecology, and has participated in field studies in Loitokitok, Kenya; Navopatia, Mexico, Eastern Oregon, and Western Washington. She’s been a bird nerd since she was 10 years old, and has been studying bird language on her own for the past 6 years. She feels closely connected to plants, and spends a lot of time learning about them and harvesting them. She’s a pretty serious mushroomer, and has built curriculum on fungal biology, the ecological role of fungi, and how to identify mushrooms. She also has ten years of experience as a grassroots and non-profit organizer, working to protect wilderness and create a sustainable future.
Over many years of work in environmental education, she has built a large “toolbox” as a nature mentor. She has a strong background in Ecology, and has participated in field studies in Loitokitok, Kenya; Navopatia, Mexico, Eastern Oregon, and Western Washington. She’s been a bird nerd since she was 10 years old, and has been studying bird language on her own for the past 6 years. She feels closely connected to plants, and spends a lot of time learning about them and harvesting them. She’s a pretty serious mushroomer, and has built curriculum on fungal biology, the ecological role of fungi, and how to identify mushrooms. She also has ten years of experience as a grassroots and non-profit organizer, working to protect wilderness and create a sustainable future.
Naali Heather Burmeister
(Santa Cruz Fridays)
Guide, Administrator, Parent
Naali is originally from deep rural West Virginia. Her parents hunted and gathered on the edge of the Monongahela NF, using pack horses and living without electricity or running water. This upbringing allowed her to be exposed to survival and homesteading skills from the time she was born, eating rabbit and wild ramps among her first foods. Skinning, butchering, basketry, food preservation and wildcrafting were among the first skills she practiced.
Naali continued to study nature and survival skills across the country. She has studied herbal medicine and plant ID with many well known herbalists as well as healers from traditional cultures. Through her many years of travel, she has become knowledgeable about wild foods in many different bio-regions, wildcrafting constantly in all seasons. She continues to butcher her own animals, tan hides and process acorns regularly. She has lived and studied in the Southeast, Southwest, North and central coasts, in recent years focusing on archery and animal tracking. Naali has been active in environmental justice, especially in supporting the struggles of Indigenous people to regain their land base and preserve traditional lifeways.
She has worked with Trackers Earth, and this year completed their 9 month Wilderness Immersion Program. Now, a mother of 5 year old twins, she resides in Santa Cruz which she considers her true home. Her children, Kai and Mizuki, are homeschoolers. They can be found studying tracks and scat in Upper Campus and Wilder, harvesting nettles and shellfish along the coast, gathering acorns in the hills, and working on hides in their backyard.
Naali continued to study nature and survival skills across the country. She has studied herbal medicine and plant ID with many well known herbalists as well as healers from traditional cultures. Through her many years of travel, she has become knowledgeable about wild foods in many different bio-regions, wildcrafting constantly in all seasons. She continues to butcher her own animals, tan hides and process acorns regularly. She has lived and studied in the Southeast, Southwest, North and central coasts, in recent years focusing on archery and animal tracking. Naali has been active in environmental justice, especially in supporting the struggles of Indigenous people to regain their land base and preserve traditional lifeways.
She has worked with Trackers Earth, and this year completed their 9 month Wilderness Immersion Program. Now, a mother of 5 year old twins, she resides in Santa Cruz which she considers her true home. Her children, Kai and Mizuki, are homeschoolers. They can be found studying tracks and scat in Upper Campus and Wilder, harvesting nettles and shellfish along the coast, gathering acorns in the hills, and working on hides in their backyard.
Wesley Somers
(Santa Cruz)
Guide
Wesley’s journey began in the oaken hills of southern California, walking barefoot through the rough, shrubby, sweet-smelling canyons and asking questions like, “What is that?” and “can I eat this?” Eventually he learned that everything eats something else and does not exist without help from everything around it.
As he grew older, his visits to the canyons and the mountains became more and more frequent. He found himself wanting more and more to procrastinate by existing in this other world outside of the “civilized.” Then he moved to Santa Cruz.
The tall green firs and rich, soft, brown ground covered in lush ferns was a spectacular and amazing change of climate compared to the humble oaks and shrubs of the south. He was charmed by the chaparral, which reminded him of the sage-scented mountains of home. The diversity of this place is what stole his heart.
But his connection to his homeland is unbreakable, intimate and special. He writes,
“I often smell a rosemary bush, or white sage plant and remember the mountains and streams of my home canyons, and I well up inside with a great missing.”
He wants to help the Wild Children to build their own relationships and connections to the land they will grow up on, by walking and asking “What is that?” and “Can I eat this?” He believes the children can develop an unspoken yet unbreakable bond with this land, and even if they leave it, they will always want to come back.
As he grew older, his visits to the canyons and the mountains became more and more frequent. He found himself wanting more and more to procrastinate by existing in this other world outside of the “civilized.” Then he moved to Santa Cruz.
The tall green firs and rich, soft, brown ground covered in lush ferns was a spectacular and amazing change of climate compared to the humble oaks and shrubs of the south. He was charmed by the chaparral, which reminded him of the sage-scented mountains of home. The diversity of this place is what stole his heart.
But his connection to his homeland is unbreakable, intimate and special. He writes,
“I often smell a rosemary bush, or white sage plant and remember the mountains and streams of my home canyons, and I well up inside with a great missing.”
He wants to help the Wild Children to build their own relationships and connections to the land they will grow up on, by walking and asking “What is that?” and “Can I eat this?” He believes the children can develop an unspoken yet unbreakable bond with this land, and even if they leave it, they will always want to come back.
Jason Patten
(SILICON VALLEY THURSDAYS)
GUIDE, ADMINISTRATOR
"I used to know an old man who could walk by any cornfield and hear the corn singing. 'Teach me,' I'd say when we'd passed on by. (I never said a word while he was listening.) 'Just tell me how you learned to hear that corn.' And he'd say, 'It takes a lot of practice. You can't be in a hurry.' And I'd say, 'I have the time.'"
-Byrd Baylor, The Other Way To Listen
Among the list of things that make Jason feel truly ecstatic, nature is one of the most essential. Growing up in the hills of eastern Santa Cruz, Jason was very fortunate to have plentiful access to nature within steps of his home, finding solace and personal space in the grassy hills and redwood forests away from peer conflicts and constant supervision. Jason considers himself a survivor of public school, and knows with great conviction that nature and art were the two forces that provided sanctuary through often tumultuous times. Though homeschooling is relatively new to him, he is very intrigued by the structured and unstructured opportunities of unschooling and the potential it has to allow youth to blossom into play, knowledge, and experience organically, instead of within the confines of assembly line public education.
Jason has worked as a High School English teacher (with mainstream and at-risk youth) and in multiple camps and after school programs, teaching both hard skills like water filtration, knife carving, primitive fire starting, food canning, and ceramic art, in addition to poetry, storytelling, critical thinking, and listening. On paper, he has a BA in English Literature, a Master's Degree in Education, teaching credentials in English and Health, and is a certified Massage Practitioner. In reality, Jason is a life-long learner willing to take on any new project if it sparks his fancy, such as making drums out of propane tanks, or baking a peach galette. He loves working in education and is constantly in awe of how working with kids creates a reciprocal relationship of inspiration and growth.
-Byrd Baylor, The Other Way To Listen
Among the list of things that make Jason feel truly ecstatic, nature is one of the most essential. Growing up in the hills of eastern Santa Cruz, Jason was very fortunate to have plentiful access to nature within steps of his home, finding solace and personal space in the grassy hills and redwood forests away from peer conflicts and constant supervision. Jason considers himself a survivor of public school, and knows with great conviction that nature and art were the two forces that provided sanctuary through often tumultuous times. Though homeschooling is relatively new to him, he is very intrigued by the structured and unstructured opportunities of unschooling and the potential it has to allow youth to blossom into play, knowledge, and experience organically, instead of within the confines of assembly line public education.
Jason has worked as a High School English teacher (with mainstream and at-risk youth) and in multiple camps and after school programs, teaching both hard skills like water filtration, knife carving, primitive fire starting, food canning, and ceramic art, in addition to poetry, storytelling, critical thinking, and listening. On paper, he has a BA in English Literature, a Master's Degree in Education, teaching credentials in English and Health, and is a certified Massage Practitioner. In reality, Jason is a life-long learner willing to take on any new project if it sparks his fancy, such as making drums out of propane tanks, or baking a peach galette. He loves working in education and is constantly in awe of how working with kids creates a reciprocal relationship of inspiration and growth.
Liz Snyder
Co-Founder, parent Admin volunteer
Liz has a weird habit of starting stuff. She also wants everyone to have a childhood where swinging from trees is normal and encouraged and sitting quietly and taking tests is considered odd.
She founded Wild Child with this in mind. What started out as a way to get her super-active kiddo out in the woods for at least one full day a week has morphed into an amazing 5-day a week program with loads of passionate people (parents, guides AND kids) making it all happen.
She founded Wild Child with this in mind. What started out as a way to get her super-active kiddo out in the woods for at least one full day a week has morphed into an amazing 5-day a week program with loads of passionate people (parents, guides AND kids) making it all happen.