Support Synergia Nature School & Students
Donazione protetta
Dear friends,
Thank you for supporting Synergia Nature School through this GoFundMe campaign.
We started Nature School in October 2020, as a response to the closure of schools in our local community due to the pandemic. Families have adjusted to homeschool their children and maintain contact with teachers via virtual lessons, but it has not been easy, and for many, it has been anything but fun. For some, it’s been a real struggle.
From October through December, our little school thrived. The students adjusted to mask wearing and distancing, and they spent their days here with their peers and three extraordinary teachers. They learned, and played, and worked hard, and grew.
So much so that we all decided that this was what we want to be doing, pandemic or no pandemic. We are offering a winter term, and then a spring/summer term, and hopefully on into the future, as long as there is support and interest.
We have launched this GoFundMe campaign for two main reasons:
One, we want to offer this unique opportunity to families who may not be able to afford the tuition, therefore, the funds raised here will make it possible to offer reduced tuition to eligible families. We are committed to making Nature School available to local families, regardless of their ability to pay, and we are committed to equity and inclusion, particularly in outdoor spaces.
Two, we have a vision to make this kind of school available to children everywhere by developing this model and then sharing our ideas, plans, curriculum, struggles, challenges, and successes. In some ways, Synergia Nature School is a pilot program to benefit communities everywhere.
The foundation for Synergia Nature School actually began in 1985. We called it Friday Class back then (we met on Fridays) and then it became Nature Class. The curriculum was simple: how to be friends. Simple, yes, but not necessarily easy. It was here we developed cooperative activities that would become our hallmark. It was here that we learned the power of council, and sharing circles, and how to resolve conflicts so that everyone walked away feeling heard, supported, and connected to the whole.
From a once-a-week Nature Class we grew to include a myriad of Challenge Ropes Course programs, weeks-long canoe trips, backpacking trips, rock climbing, and international travel to Baja California. Over 1,000 youth per year attended our programs, coming from all over the country, and even the world. We led camps and trips for the whole family, and for five years we operated Finding the Good, a high school and gap year boarding semester program. We taught documentary film making based on social and environmental justice, putting young people’s skills and interest in technology to use for the greater good. We were going strong.
And then the pandemic hit.
Our 2020 programming – a full schedule of wilderness trips and ropes course programs – evaporated overnight. Children were not in school in the normal sense and all field trips were cancelled. Even if field trips hadn’t been cancelled outright, keeping a class of 20-30 students safe while distanced 6’ apart on a ropes course or a wilderness trip is simply not feasible.
We had long talked about opening a Forest School (known in Europe as “Forest Kindergarten”) so we came full circle and finally started Nature School. This is the direction we feel we must go to meet the needs of children and families, and through this educational approach, to make a positive impact on society. This will not be an easy path financially, however, as our regular programs kept Synergia in the black through fees for services and very little outside funding such as grants or donations. The reality is that a community nature school can never pay for itself in the same way, even if we charged only full tuitions and gave no scholarships.
As we research additional funding sources, your contributions to this campaign are essential.
Details such as Covid protocols, cohort size, and answers regarding enrollment and tuition can be found on our website at www.synergia.org/programs
There you will find the beginnings of an explanation of our underlying philosophy and educational approach that will be elaborated over time.
Your support of Nature School goes far beyond one little program. Nature School is part of an international movement to educate children differently – holistically -- taking into account their individual ways of learning and developmental capacities. This project is so much bigger than any of us can imagine. Thank you for helping in bringing about a healthy and sane world, through education.
For the children,
Debra and Tom Weistar, Directors
Melanya Gonshorowski, Alex Nopola, and Sara Dykman, teachers
Synergia Learning Center is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Check with your tax consultant to see if your contribution qualifies.
Thank you for supporting Synergia Nature School through this GoFundMe campaign.
We started Nature School in October 2020, as a response to the closure of schools in our local community due to the pandemic. Families have adjusted to homeschool their children and maintain contact with teachers via virtual lessons, but it has not been easy, and for many, it has been anything but fun. For some, it’s been a real struggle.
From October through December, our little school thrived. The students adjusted to mask wearing and distancing, and they spent their days here with their peers and three extraordinary teachers. They learned, and played, and worked hard, and grew.
So much so that we all decided that this was what we want to be doing, pandemic or no pandemic. We are offering a winter term, and then a spring/summer term, and hopefully on into the future, as long as there is support and interest.
We have launched this GoFundMe campaign for two main reasons:
One, we want to offer this unique opportunity to families who may not be able to afford the tuition, therefore, the funds raised here will make it possible to offer reduced tuition to eligible families. We are committed to making Nature School available to local families, regardless of their ability to pay, and we are committed to equity and inclusion, particularly in outdoor spaces.
Two, we have a vision to make this kind of school available to children everywhere by developing this model and then sharing our ideas, plans, curriculum, struggles, challenges, and successes. In some ways, Synergia Nature School is a pilot program to benefit communities everywhere.
The foundation for Synergia Nature School actually began in 1985. We called it Friday Class back then (we met on Fridays) and then it became Nature Class. The curriculum was simple: how to be friends. Simple, yes, but not necessarily easy. It was here we developed cooperative activities that would become our hallmark. It was here that we learned the power of council, and sharing circles, and how to resolve conflicts so that everyone walked away feeling heard, supported, and connected to the whole.
From a once-a-week Nature Class we grew to include a myriad of Challenge Ropes Course programs, weeks-long canoe trips, backpacking trips, rock climbing, and international travel to Baja California. Over 1,000 youth per year attended our programs, coming from all over the country, and even the world. We led camps and trips for the whole family, and for five years we operated Finding the Good, a high school and gap year boarding semester program. We taught documentary film making based on social and environmental justice, putting young people’s skills and interest in technology to use for the greater good. We were going strong.
And then the pandemic hit.
Our 2020 programming – a full schedule of wilderness trips and ropes course programs – evaporated overnight. Children were not in school in the normal sense and all field trips were cancelled. Even if field trips hadn’t been cancelled outright, keeping a class of 20-30 students safe while distanced 6’ apart on a ropes course or a wilderness trip is simply not feasible.
We had long talked about opening a Forest School (known in Europe as “Forest Kindergarten”) so we came full circle and finally started Nature School. This is the direction we feel we must go to meet the needs of children and families, and through this educational approach, to make a positive impact on society. This will not be an easy path financially, however, as our regular programs kept Synergia in the black through fees for services and very little outside funding such as grants or donations. The reality is that a community nature school can never pay for itself in the same way, even if we charged only full tuitions and gave no scholarships.
As we research additional funding sources, your contributions to this campaign are essential.
Details such as Covid protocols, cohort size, and answers regarding enrollment and tuition can be found on our website at www.synergia.org/programs
There you will find the beginnings of an explanation of our underlying philosophy and educational approach that will be elaborated over time.
Your support of Nature School goes far beyond one little program. Nature School is part of an international movement to educate children differently – holistically -- taking into account their individual ways of learning and developmental capacities. This project is so much bigger than any of us can imagine. Thank you for helping in bringing about a healthy and sane world, through education.
For the children,
Debra and Tom Weistar, Directors
Melanya Gonshorowski, Alex Nopola, and Sara Dykman, teachers
Synergia Learning Center is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Check with your tax consultant to see if your contribution qualifies.
Organizzatore
Debra Weistar
Organizzatore
Nevada City, CA