Forming relationships for youth and local ecosystems since 2020
About
Hearty Girl
Hearty Girl is a summer unstructured nature-based play program for girls ages 5-13 based in Duluth, MN.
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Mission: Dedicated to support and strengthen the leadership, power, and voices of girls through unstructured nature-based play. To promote connections with nature. To foster free flow discussion of emotions, fears, and dreams. To ignite the belief in their ability to be unstoppable and for friendships to form. To create a space where we can transform into the present and turn on our hearts.
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Core Values: Respect, Integrity, Compassion, Curiosity, Trust, Inclusion, Dignity.
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Hearty Girl= one who is robust, capable of enduring difficult conditions. One who brings their voice forward in the face of adversity and spread exuberance towards all who meet them. She is a warrior for this earth.
About Me
Hello! My name is Alyssa Nelson
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I am a small town native of southeast Minnesota with a journey heavy in outdoor experiential education. I have my masters in Experiential Education and Sports Psychology and I am a Cedarsong Way Certified teacher. I am and have been an NCAA D-ll volleyball player, kayak guide on Lake Superior and the Mississippi watershed, a baker, dog handler/musher, commercial fly tyer, fishing skills educator, youth program coordinator, and adventure facilitator. More recently, I taught preschool at Hartley Nature Center for four years and after leaving Hartley launched my own program in 2020, Hearty Girls, which focuses on supporting and strengthening the leadership, power, and voices of girls through unstructured nature-based play.
Outside of Hearty Girl I teach kindergarten full time at Marshall Forest School in Duluth, MN.
I am a keen observer of nature one who appreciates the simple profundity of leaf and flower. I enjoy sharing the art form of storytelling and reconnecting our learning to the seasonal round .
When I am not educating youth, I can be found riding bikes, hiking/exploring, gardening, and swimming in rivers/lakes, foraging wild edibles, and reading.
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