White Pine Wilderness Academy
White Pine is a primitive skills and nature connection school located in Indianapolis, IN that offers Forest School, Summer Camp, and Adult Progams. Their mission is “To address the effects of nature deficit disorder through reconnection to place, community, ancestry, traditional cultures, and skills.”
“Rachel overhauled branding for our school as she helped us distinguish course offerings, streamline our website, and develop a deeper curriculum through designing critical visual components. We are a dynamic and fast growing organization that seeks to convey a unique balance of edgy professionalism. Rachel was able to stay true to this branding mission throughout hundreds of projects.”
– Matt Shull, Founder
Brand Glimpse
Curriculum Handbook
I designed the layout, illustrated graphics, and edited all written content for White Pine’s 500-page Curriculum Handbook. The Handbook teaches students how to interact with the natural world based on traditional practices and provides instructor training throughout an annual calendar year. It is hung around an outdoor classroom, implemented into daily classes, and referenced daily by instructors. Below is a quick look into the material.
Community Connection: Responding to Crisis
In June of 2020 between Black Lives Matter sit-ins and COVID lockdown protocols, I was strategizing with a White Pine instructor who just returned from competing on the show, ALONE. A team of three and I would soon create a timeless summer event series that not only retained the school’s enrollment numbers, but increased demand exponentially.
Traditional Meets Digital
While White Pine courses were compromised due to COVID, a small team and I hosted an outdoor, social distanced gathering every Thursday of the summer at the school. The community came to watch the season six premiere of ALONE with White Pine’s instructor, Amos Rodriguez, who competed in the series and would go on to compete in several more seasons. I co-organized and managed the events as we would schedule activities leading up to the show’s premiere, projected on a bison hide we suspended. Afterward, Amos would engage in a live Q&A with the audience that I would film live on social media platforms.
I managed both Amos’ and White Pine’s social media platforms the entire summer, forming an organic partnership that resulted in increased enrollment for the school and further professional opportunities for Amos.
“Meeting Rachel and consulting with her on how to benefit from my social media platforms as my network TV journey launched was key to kickstart new growth. All summer long, we were able to hold fires and community gatherings before and after each ALONE episode – attracting an untapped global audience. Rachel funneled them to the school’s offerings that she was also defining and marketing, casting a net that benefitted me, White Pine, and the community all together. This boosted my visibility and engagement when launching my platforms to a vast audience.
Rachel had a tremendous impact on my personal growth as a professional TV personality and primitive skills practitioner. Her process and confidence in the plan was a breath of fresh air and it transformed into quick and substantial gains towards our goals. I highly recommend her as a communications specialist. This whole process would have been really intimidating and difficult without her timely and substantial knowledge.”
– Amos Rodriguez, ALONE Contestant & Primitive Skills Practitioner
During the months and years following the pandemic, I harnessed the primitive roots of White Pine’s mission by creating a communal, offline space at the front of the school with a board I kept updated with the latest marketing info (laminated – rain or shine!) In addition to website maintenance and management, sharing this physical space through the school’s social media offered a personal and authentic opportunity for volunteer, student, and parent engagement.
Print Informed
Course Promotion & Materials
I managed two nine-month courses through promotions, course material design, and communication strategy. Each course included a similar cadence of content strategy and creation. Included in the following is highlighted material utilized for the Inner Tracking course.
