Unschool Adventures Trip Leaders
Blake Boles
Founder, Director and Trip Leader
Age 29
Blake first adventured abroad as age 14 during a month-long homestay in Chile. Since then he has traveled across North America, South America, Europe, and India.
Blake got involved in the world of alternative education in 2003, when half-way through an astrophysics major he read a John Taylor Gatto book. He is the author of College Without High School, an advisor at Not Back to School Camp, and the former acting Director of Deer Crossing Wilderness Camp (from which he brings five years of experience running an intensive teen leadership program). Blake is a current Wilderness First Responder and former Wilderness EMT, Red Cross CPR Instructor, Red Cross Lifeguard, and AAOS Wilderness First Aid Instructor. He is a UC Berkeley graduate.
Visit Blake's personal site at blakeboles.com.
Previous trips: Argentina 2008, NaNoWriMo 2009, Australia 2010, Spring Retreat 2010, Fall Retreat 2010, South America 2011, ZTC Camp 2011
Julie McPherson
Trip Leader
Age 23
A longtime outdoors and teaching enthusiast, Julie's interest in global culture and travel bloomed after she organized a solo trip to Bulgaria to volunteer at a children's orphanage. Julie has worked for five years as a backpacking, winter, and rock climbing guide and program coordinator for Outdoor Adventures at UC Davis, where guiding college students, professors, and foreign exchange students across Northern California's wildernesses constituted a normal weekend.
Julie holds a B.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology and is currently a freelance outdoors guide. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder, American Heart Association CPR Instructor, and Lifeguard.
Previous trips: South America 2011
Dev Carey
Trip Leader
Age 48
Dev came late to thinking out of the box about education. He went to public high school, college and graduate school and enjoyed most of it, but then moved to a small town and found himself being an advocate for students and families outside of "the system." That advocacy turned into The Vision Program, which utilizes public funds to support over 600 students in learning however and wherever they want while still earning a diploma.
Dev has a background in ecology, outdoor education and adventure. He has worked for Sterling College, with inner city youth as a VISTA Volunteer, as a counselor at NBTSC, and as a river guide. He lives simply and off the grid, shares land with various folks and his daughter, frequently chainsaws juniper, and is currently working to start a college-level sustainability program that supports young people in developing a balanced and satisfying lifestyle. Learn more about Dev's programs at The High Desert Center for Sustainable Studies.
Previous trips: Writing Retreat 2011
Cameron Lovejoy
Trip Leader
Age 23
Cameron is an on-the-road traveler who enjoys writing, organic farming, live music, drumming, cooking, partner dancing, and backpacking. He's a former Not Back to School Camp staffer, NOLS graduate, and Wilderness First Responder. As a grown unschooler, Cameron presents at international unschooling and alternative education conferences about his experiences as a self-directed learner.
In March 2010 Cameron organized his own conference for teenage unschoolers and their families, The Autodidact Symposium. He's currently writing a book about his travels.
Previous trips: Spring Retreat 2010, Fall Retreat 2010, Writing Retreat 2011
Brenna McBroom
Trip Leader
Age 22
Brenna McBroom lives, eats (off of), and breathes wheel-thrown pots. She is a long-time unschooler and former Not-Back-To-School-Camper, and she's been working in clay for three years. When not at the pottery wheel, glazing table, or kiln, Brenna loves traveling, taking photographs, reading quirky novels, writing speeches, and making books. She left New College of Florida in order to become an 'Artodidact' in 2009, and she's in the midst of writing a book about self-education as an artist. She recently returned from a self-designed internship with a ceramic artist in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
While her medium of choice and area of expertise is clay (specifically: functional, wheel thrown, mid-range stoneware), Brenna is passionate about all manner of visual art.
Previous trips: ZTC Camp 2011, Writing Retreat 2011
Ingmar Nilsen
Trip Leader
Age 20
Traveling the rocky crust of planet earth since he was old enough to breathe, Ingmar has been taking over the world by understanding its ancient secrets.
With a home base in beautiful historic New England, "Iggy" teaches rock climbing in New York and ecology to unschoolers of western Connecticut. He interests include the culinary arts, world history, geology, herbology, zoology, rock and roll, Jay-Z, Ti-Chi and, of course, care for the wounded. Certified in CPR and Wilderness First Aid, Ingmar is ready for whatever world travel has to offer.
Previous trips: Australia 2010 (student), South America 2011
Matt Sanderson
Trip Leader
Age 23
Matt Sanderson has been loving alternative education since he ditched prep school for free school as a sophomore in high school.
After graduating, he put off college to gut houses in post-Katrina New Orleans, then founded and co-directed a free week-long camp called the Young People's Empowerment convergence.
A year out of school, he decided to skip college altogether. Since then, he's worked as the logistics coordinator for Not Back to School Camp, taught art in Ecuador, and led courses in psychology and juggling at his local alternative school. He's currently the assistant coordinator of the Middle School Friends program (hosting retreats for Middle School aged Quakers in the Philadelphia area) and the president of the board of Upattinas School and resource center.
Emma Kirkham
Trip Assistant
Age 20
Kia Ora! I'm currently studying Outdoor Recreation on the South Island of New Zealand. After another year in college I plan to travel to Nepal and India and work in the outdoor industry. I'm certified in multiple levels of first aid and lifeguarding, and while studying this year I have picked up a passion for kayaking and become a keen climber.
Jessica Barker
Trip Assistant
Age 21
A lifelong autodidact from North Carolina, Jessica spends her time writing, reading, playing various instruments, songwriting, working with animals, and traveling around the US to see new places and meet interesting people. She fuels her travels by "taking humble jobs in not-so-humble places." Jessica has discovered that creating stories is basically her favorite thing to do. She has participated multiple times in the story creation and script writing for the 48 Hour Film Project, and she's done NaNoWriMo two years in a row.
Previous trips: Novel-Writing Retreat 2009 (student), Spring Retreat 2010 (volunteer), ZTC Camp 2011 (volunteer), Writing Retreat 2011
Cooper Westerkamp
Trip Assistant
Age 20
In his senior year of K-12 public schooling, Cooper convinced his teachers to let him join the Unschool Adventures Argentina trip. He was the only non-unschooler on the trip, but having read The Teenage Liberation Handbook and College Without High School, he fit right in!
Cooper enjoys cooking while traveling and learning to prepare local specialities. He is lifeguard certified as well as a former emergency medical technician. He's currently pursuing a nursing degree at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
Previous trips: Argentina 2008 (student)