EAST HARDWICK – Jonathan Shapiro has received a Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation Adventure Scholarship award to travel to the Kalahari desert in Namibia and go tracking with indigenous San Bushmen elders.
In making the award, the foundation said, “This will be an epic adventure for him, as well as a chance to bring back skills to share with his tracking students in the Northeast.”
“I first learned about the trip because the San bushmen we will be visiting and tracking with in the Kalahari are some of the founding members of CyberTracker (cybertracker.org), the international certifying agency for professional trackers,” said Shapiro.
“Cyber in the name refers to the handheld GPS units that bushmen trackers used to log research data out in the desert when the organization first started — none of it takes place online.
“I have been getting increasing levels of CyberTracker certification over the last seven years, and as I move up in the system, I wanted to meet some of the people who were instrumental in its creation.
Shapiro is a lifelong student and teacher of the natural world. For the last decade, he has been deeply engaged in wildlife tracking as a way to learn about the lives of animals around him, and build a connection to the forests and fields where he lives.
He spends much of his time in wild places, observing carefully and piecing together the stories on the land.
Shapiro runs the Fox Paw School in Hardwick, where he teaches other passionate adults about the natural world in an effort to promote ecological literacy and create a sense of place. He also teaches natural history at Sterling College in Craftsbury.
“The San bushmen are some of the most skilled trackers on the planet and I’ll use the skills I gain on this trip both in my teaching in the states, and in the conservation work I’m now doing in Southeast Asia,” said Shapiro.
He’s now in Laos, working for a conservation organization for a few months and said, “I was really happy and grateful when the grant came through — it will pay for a substantial part of the trip [to Namibia], which is a pretty big expense to me.”
Flyin Ryan asked Shapiro about his core values and learned he aims to “engage in deep examination of reality and our cultural and epistemological frameworks around our experience of the world; cultivate an authentic and meaningful relationship with wild nature and wild animals; be in reciprocity with the natural world — harvesting plants and animals, and offering gratitude, education and conservation efforts; be a lifelong learner, with endless curiosity and incessant questions; teach others as a community builder and culture changer; think about the seventh Generation; find time for quiet contemplation; make my mind and body strong; engage in difficult personal work and work towards forgiveness; and be generous, even when it’s hard.”
When not tracking or teaching, you’ll find him running, hunting, canoeing, or watching the weather.
The Flyin Ryan Adventure Scholarship Program exists to provide monetary awards to assist adventurers of all kinds, from all around the world, in pursuing their passions. Applicants must come up with their own set of Core Values and demonstrate character, passion for their goal and financial need. To date over 200 awards have been given out. Learn more and apply at FlyinRyanHawks.org/Adventure-Scholarship-Program/.
The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation was formed in 2011 to extend the impact of the life of Ryan Hawks who, at the age of 25, tragically died while competing on the freeride world ski tour. Before he died, Ryan composed his 14 Principles for Living. The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation has focused its mission around the concept that “core values matter.” Over the last three years, the Foundation has developed a five step program called Flyin Ryan Decisions. The program was pioneered at South Burlington High School, Vermont, where over 1,200 students have deliberately taken ownership of their lives by composing and communicating the core values which reside within, and using their core values as a basis for increased self-respect and future decision making. The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation is currently introducing this same program to other schools around the state.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
