MISSION DRIVEN NATURE EDUCATION
Primitive Pursuits of Ithaca NY offers skills and experiences that create life-long connections with nature. Our staff works in the field year-round, using time-honored mentoring techniques and cutting edge curriculum.We have studied with the country's leading naturalist educators and survival skills programs, and have honed our outdoor skills around the world, from Thailand to Tanzania and Alaska to Central America.We share experience teaching in primary schools and universities as well as other wilderness education programs. Our curriculum has helped to shape college degree programs and is available in print.Our unique interests include birding, tree lore and cultivation, bow-making, primitive technology, winter survival, permaculture and animal tracking, and what's more is that we all share a passion for teaching skills that strengthen our relationship withwild nature.With over 40.000 hours of combined outdoor education experience, you will not find a more competent staff anywhere in the Finger Lakes.
MISSION
Our mission is to steward the health of our community by fostering life-long relationships with the natural world through exceptional mentoring and nature education.
VISION
Through our mission, we work daily to achieve a cultural intervention that will bring back into our modern lives a necessary and healthy relationship with the natural world and within our human communities. We envision a world where each child may once again grow up with the freedom to explore undeveloped nature andaccess to the knowledge which allows them to care for themselves, their communities and the environment.
VALUES
Passion - In each activity that we lead, story we share, or skill that we teach we draw from a place of personal inspiration. In doing so we create a learning atmosphere that motivates participants to explore nature, to practice skills and to share their experiences with others outside of the program.
Gratitude - We role model in all that we do a sense of appreciation and reverence for the abundance that the natural world provides for us. Through this act of thanksgiving we begin to "see" our direct impacts and the great potential we each have to nurture the health of our environment as well as our human family.
Belonging - We create a space where each participant may feel at home - with respect to their peers and mentors and with respect to all the elements of nature. Experiencing the non-judgmental simplicity and expansiveness of nature within a supportive group creates a powerful space for healthy personal growth.
Balance - We support individual growth by encouraging each participant to see and move beyond their perceived limits while experiencing and exploring our roles in a supportive community. We believe that by achieving the balance of individual & group mind we are fostering a generation of courageous, innovative and caring human beings.
