Announcing McKenna Maulden as Elementary Apprentice Guide!
The Forest School is thrilled to announce that McKenna Maulden will be our Elementary Apprentice Guide beginning December 2023.
A native of Cartersville, GA, and a lover of all things involving creativity, the outdoors, creative movement, and holistic wellness. Her dreams before entering college were originally to become a professional athlete in the small world of competitive power tumbling (think gymnastics, but with trampolines like Cir de Soleil) as well as a coach. She tumbled for around 10 years on a competitive team and eventually did go on to win a couple of Junior Olympic and National titles, as well as become an assistant coach. These dreams came to a close in her teenage years due to a career-ending ACL injury, but the desire to pursue excellence in all things and create growth-filled, nurturing environments that propel others toward success only strengthened.
McKenna has always had a passion for education and enabling others to be successful but has never formally taught in a classroom. For her undergraduate degree, she studied the creative testing used in schools through an interdisciplinary lens, earning a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies: Creative Education focus and a minor in business and public policy from Young Harris College in 2019. After college, she went on to serve as a team and leadership development program facilitator at WinShape Teams leading activities and high ropes course experiences. She has invested in children through being on staff at camps such as SPLASH Bartow (formerly), WinShape Camps, and Camp Pinnacle, as well as volunteering for Read2Grow in the Bartow County School System.
After completing WinShape foundation’s Emerging Leader’s program in 2021 she went on to serve the staff through designing in-person and digital learning experiences. She has had the honor of designing and facilitating transformative experiences for many adults, children, and organizations stateside and globally. She has a love of learning, international travel, and outdoor adventures and is currently finding her way back into creative movement through acro yoga.
She is excited to move to Fayetteville with her two cats Nala and Smudge, and serve this learning community through cultivating a sense of unity, supportiveness, and continual improvement alongside you!