Hello

There is so much I can say here but I will try to stick to the juicy stuff that brought me to create this company. Back when I first found myself instructing in the outdoors, in the climbing industry, I noticed one big thing: I was almost always the only female around. There were very few women coming to participate in these outdoor adventures unless they were with a boyfriend - who of course loved to tell them exactly how to do everything (despite it often being wrong - I can remember seeing them teach belaying someone wrong, knot tying wrong, seeing how much men loved to tell their girlfriend or wife how to move their bodies while climbing and etc).  This not only annoyed me but also brought up the question of, "Why do so few women participate in these activities?" They are super fun. They are challenging. And, they require a lot of grit (which I personally believe ALL WOMEN HAVE).  A few of the reasons I came up with were: intimidation, being scared and not having enough knowledge on the activity. After having this "Ah-Ha" moment during my 3rd year working in the climbing industry - I decided to continue this path of getting more and more women into the wilderness as part of my life's mission. 

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 I first fell in love with outdoor adventures as an adult, via rock climbing. Initially, I thought it was just a fun hobby that I very quickly became obsessed with while living in New York City during an internship I got in college while attending Ball State University. Little did I know that falling in love with rock climbing would change EVERYTHING about me (for the better). I began noticing how no one cared what I looked like or what I wore or what exactly I did for a living  - they were just excited to know me and be a part of the end of my day where we all came to unwind at the climbing gym (MPHC Climbing Gym in Manhattan). I quickly was hired on to work at this climbing gym (I already worked reception downstairs at the main gym, so it was an easy hire) to hopefully help bring in more women to climb,. At the time, there were only 4 of us women working there in a group of about 15 people total.  I soon found myself scaling the cliffs of Shawangunks Nature Preserve, The Adirondacks and the White Mountains at the age of 23. All this while living and working in NYC as a Health Inspector for the NYC Department of Health (that's a whole other story on how I learned to be resilient!) Before I knew it, I had been invited on the trip that would truly change my life forever. I had been invited by a few people from my climbing crew (all men), to come on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park and Red Rocks Conservation Area - both of which are climbing meccas. This would be the first time I EVER crossed the Mississippi River in my whole life. I had never even been out West prior to this. Once I arrived and experienced the most magical week I had ever had, I realized that I was in the wrong profession. I came back to NYC, put in my notice with my jobs and found a summer job in Sandy, Oregon working as the Climbing Tower Coordinator at Camp Namanu. This is where I started my outdoor adventure and love for everything that comes along with it and never looked back!

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Along the way of course, I have had my hardships - while I will always believe that outdoor educators are some of the most magical people in the world and do some of the most important work in the world - none of us will ever be paid fairly. Living the life of an outdoor educator can be extremely hard. You are often living out of your car or van (not because you necessarily want to, but because you have to in order to save money) and hopping from one job to the next. Your community is always moving and never in one place, but that is also the beauty of it. We do this job because we know it is our calling - we know it is where we are meant to be no matter how hard things can get. We always have a fellow outdoor educator just a phone call or facebook video call away (lots of phone calls to friends in England, Australia, France and Scotland over the years). This work takes you to the most beautiful places in the world and allows you to experience some of the most powerful moments a person will ever have every single time you work a new contract. Not every trip is glamorous of course, because Mother Nature does not care if we are leading a group of first timers into the wilderness. She does what she wants and constantly shows us how powerful she is. 

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Throughout all the hardships - I always learned to just 'let it be and work with what I had.'  I could always be grateful that I was alive waking up in the middle of the desert to see a million stars at night despite not knowing where my meals will come from the following week. 

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The one thing that always shook me no matter how long I worked in this industry, was the feeling (and sometimes knowing) that I was viewed as never enough. To many different men in this industry I was viewed as "the cute girl who works at the climbing gym" (yes I had a manager say that to me many times); or the woman who is learning advanced rock skills for the 'diversity numbers,' or the woman who is told "you can handle anything! You're a woman!" and then consistently given the most challenging students to work with in some of the hardest wilderness areas - then told that she didn't do as well as her male counterparts who did not have a single student with behavior issues or mental health problems. The list goes on and on and on. So, I decided that enough was enough. I was tired of working for "the Man" (literally and figuratively) and decided to build a company of my own. One that allows women to thrive and be vulnerable and show up authentically and compassionately for themselves and for each other.  That's wy Project Reteach exists, to help reteach women how to live their best life in order to find and harness the power that exists within themselves. 

 

You will always be welcome on my trips and on my hikes and in my yoga classes to show up authentically and exactly as you are. You will always feel warmth, kindness and love each time you come into a class, workshop or trip. We will always find a way for you to truly connect with yourself and those in the beautiful world around you on any Project Reteach Outdoors program.