Crow Collective

Ages 15 - 18 | TBA Fall 2024 | Return to Youth Programs

“Traditional societies know what we are rediscovering – marking the significant passages of our life brings focus to the journey…and a realization that life is not one continuum but a series of meaningful steps.” - Founder, Stan Crow

Designated grant funds available.
Please ask for what you need financially!

Program Details | Sample Itinerary | Skills Introduced | Program Staff | Other Programs

Crow Collective is a once a month gathering and weekend journey for youth to enhance their understanding of our Pacific Northwest bioregion, immerse themselves in nature, be tuned into their inner world, and aware of their outer. This extended school year immersion program is designed to support youth in deepening their connection with the natural world and create opportunities for self-discovery as they begin to transition into young adulthood.

Youth will be engaged in learning experiences focusing on a range of topics such as: naturalist knowledge, backcountry & bushcraft skills, community leadership, wildlife tracking, interpersonal development, natural and cultural heritage, self-awareness practices, and communication skills.

Participants will engage in many of our core practices, such as daily sharing circles, self-discovery activities, solo time, gratitude, community building, games, and of course cooking together! Guides will offer a safe and supportive space and provide individual & group mentorship, in hopes that youth will be able to participate all four weekends to build their relationships with guides and fellow crow companions.

TBA fall 2024

We welcome young people with any range of outdoor, backpacking, and nature skills experience to join us on this journey. Participants are expected to be able to hike up to 6-7 miles in a day with a pack through various terrains, including snow. Being divided into shorter weekends, this is a great introductory experience into nature while also potentially being rigorous at times, as a familiar style for Journeys’ youth alumni seeking kindred community and nature-connected adventures outside of the summer. During these weekends we will traverse and engage with the Salish sea, Cascade mountains, Eastern Washington shrub-steppe, and visit cultural sites.

We are excited to welcome the new journeyers for Crow Collective this fall for this extensive experience together! The name Crow Collective is inspired by and in honor of Journey’s founder Stan Crow, a life-long lover of nature who provided hundreds of young people the opportunity to get outside and connect with nature.

It takes conscious parenting to support wholeness and healthy edge walking in teens. Seasonally, Jenny Macke, Rite of Passage Journeys Executive Director, will engage with parents of Crow Collective to offer support, contemplations and resources. Teens need community support and so do parents!

PROGRAM DETAILS

Ages 15-18
All Genders

TBA Fall 2024

Local and Regional Area Parks, Campgrounds, Trails
Program starts/ends in Bothell, WA

$275 per weekend
Financial Aid is currently available

tba fall 2024

Questions? Check out our FAQ page or send us a message!

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Sample Weekend

local weekend

Friday Evening | Participants arrive at Journeys Basecamp at Songaia CoHousing Community at 6pm having had dinner. We settle in to our camp, then light the campfire for an evening circle.

Saturday | We wake up, enjoy a good breakfast, then we’re off to a local hike, park, campground for a day of activities, games, and nature exploration, learning about the local area and about ourselves. We stay at a front country basecamp or backcountry site for dinner and our campfire circle and Council.

Sunday | We’ll wake up with the sun to do a sunrise activity, then gather for breakfast to share stories of the morning. Then a day at either basecamp or a local park, exploring or learning a new skill like firemaking, herbal medicinals or animal tracking. We’ll wrap up and be done by 5pm.

Skills Introduced

program team

Tarek kutay

(Program Director)
Tarek started working with Rite of Passage Journeys in 2018 as a guide before stepping forward into the role of Assistant Program Director in 2021. He continues to love having the opportunity to make a difference in young people’s lives…

Duncan endava

(Guide Team)
Duncan started guiding rite of passage programs for youth with Journeymen in 2017 and with Rite of Passage Journeys in 2021. Most recently he lived in a converted shuttle bus with his fiance and their 2 cats. He loves adventure sports, long wanders, deep conversations and singing around campfires.

Anna Constance

Program Guide

Anna (she/her) grew up on Wahpekute Dakota land in what is today called Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although she grew up in a highly urban area, Anna felt the call of wild nature in her heart, soul, and bones from an early age. She spent time at her grandparents’ house on a lake in Northern Minnesota, participated in classes at a local nature center, and thoroughly enjoyed periodic overnights at residential environmental education centers. Anna is grateful to her 6th grade teacher, an environmental educator and farmer, for planting seeds in her at an early age that would eventually sprout into a career as a naturalist, environmental educator, nature connection mentor, and aspiring wilderness rites of passage guide. Anna moved to Washington State to finish college. After earning a B.A. in botany and natural history from The Evergreen State College, Anna attended The Immersion program at Wilderness Awareness School (WAS). She went on to complete the Nature Instructor Training at WAS and work for the school before she got a job as an environmental educator for the City of Seattle. A transformation started unfolding in Anna’s life at the beginning of 2021. She felt a strong pull to return to deep nature connection. Now she listens intently to what her heart and soul are calling her to bring to the world. This transformation is birthing a steadfast commitment to a mission she adopted a long time ago: fostering relationships between nature, community, and self. Anna loves working with young people because they are honest, authentic, and fun. She also believes they are the key to healing humanity and the planet. Anna is thrilled to be guiding with Journeys and reconnecting to Wilderness Awareness School, it feels like a true homecoming. And she can’t wait to explore the natural world with you!

Emma noroian

(Guide Team)
Emma recently attend the Wilderness Awareness School and completed The Immersion program in June of 2022 and then the Adult Nature Instructor Training in June 2023. There, they picked up many newfound skills including making fire from scratch, building shelter with the materials found around them, and how to live as part of a place and with, as opposed to against, the beings around them.

New Form

Program Guide

Emma, or Beaver (They/She), as many of their students and friends know them, grew up in Vancouver, B.C. where they learned to love biking, exploring, building and playing in the rain. They grew to love the great western redcedars, bog blueberries, and spring cottonwood snows in the forest near their school and home and spent many an afternoon playing in their mother's garden, rescuing the snails from her mother's wrath. At 13 they moved down to Palo Alto, CA and started getting to know the manzanita, california poppies, eucalyptus and palms that they now found surrounding them. After graduating from high school, they found their heart longed to return to the wetter climate of the Pacific Northwest and so they returned to Vancouver to complete a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. While there, they found the UBC Pottery club and started a small pottery business, spending much of their time when they were supposed to be studying in the Pottery Studio, or at the sustainable food collective down the hall where they helped to distribute local produce to their peers in the form of weekly CSA boxes and delicious prepared meals. Much of their nature connection journey is fueled by getting to know where their daily meals come from and slowly learning to grow, gather and raise/hunt their own nourishment. They are on a life-long journey of learning to feed themself and their community completely from what they can grow and gather within 100 miles of their dwelling. Along the way, they found a calling to go and study at the Wilderness Awareness School and completed The Immersion program in June of 2022 and then the Adult Nature Instructor Training in June 2023. There, they picked up many newfound skills including making fire from scratch, building shelter with the materials found around them, and how to live as part of a place and with, as opposed to against, the beings around them. They also spent the year slowly learning what it feels like to be in community with other like-minded, nature-loving folx and how to be a better caretaker and protector of the earth and beings that make it possible for them to live and breathe. They owe so much of their current sense of confidence, awareness, naturalist knowledge and feeling of hope and aliveness to the people, trees, animals, plants and waters that run and play on the land that is known as Linne Doran. Similarly, they owe a lot of gratitude and acknowledgement to the Snoqualmie people who have tended to and continue to tend to the lands on which they live and play in Western Washington. You can find Emma off in the woods or in their kitchen, singing, making things out of clay, wood, food, trash or words, and eager to connect with anyone who happens to walk by, be they human or more-than-human. They are often ready with a story to share and always eager to hear what is on your heart and mind, especially if you are contemplating existence at 7am ;)