Directory

The Mentor Directory
California

Blake Boles
Blake is the 26-year-old co-founder of Unschool Adventures, an international trip leading company for unschooling teens. He's also the author of College Without High School, a guidebook that shows teens how to leave school, pursue adventurous dreams, and still get into a top-choice college. When not writing or traveling, Blake enjoys backpacking, trail running, swimming, ultimate frisbee, and slackline. He joined the EEP mentor network primarily to help guide teens looking for advice on the college-without-high school path. The best way to get to know him is to meet him at Not Back to School Camp or go traveling with him through Unschool Adventures!
Self-Directed Résumé: Traditionally schooled in big suburban public schools, Blake discovered unschooling half-way through an astrophysics major at UC Berkeley when a friend handed him a John Taylor Gatto book. He immediately rearranged his major to study education history, psychology, and philosophy full-time, leading him to write an honors thesis and teach classes on critical education theory to other Berkeley students. After college Blake joined the staff of Not Back to School Camp and never looked back.
Jobs Worked: Blake has worked in many camp environments, including outdoor science camps, an extensive stint in a wilderness summer camp, and Not Back to School Camp for unschooling teens. He has cooked for 90 in a student co-op, done marketing research as a snowboarding surveyor, and designed websites.
Current Goals: World domination through Unschool Adventures. Also, finding a publishing house for my book.
Mentor Strengths: Getting into college without high school; Finding fun and enlightening seasonal work; Outdoor and international adventures; Teaching and public presentation.

Washington

Evan Wright
Seattle
One of Evan’s defining characteristics isn’t obvious at first, although it has a long history. When he was ten years old, he decided he wanted to “stay underwater” and built a diving bell out of an upside-down garbage can, a length of rope, and 75 pounds of weight; he is a creative problem solver. After a decade developing experience as an autodidact, he is very much at home using the tools of stubborn curiosity, independence, and unconventional approaches to arrive at surprising and innovative solutions to problems.
Self-Directed Résumé: Evan began his practice of self-education after reading The Teenage Liberation Handbook at 15. His curriculum included unlearning many of the unspoken lessons from school and re-establishing his own direct personal relationship to learning. He explored the British Museum, worked at a London soup kitchen run by nuns, raised harbor seal pups, disentangled sea lions from fishermen's nets in Mexico, and assisted in research of 5 ft. long green sea turtles in Costa Rica. Without school he studied the life of Albert Einstein, assisted with research on whales, and explored the writing of educational visionaries and critics. In response to his own struggles and uncertainty, Evan sought out philosophical works dealing with themes of despair, suffering, freedom, choice, responsibility, the absurdity of existence, and the art of carving out “meaning in life.”
Jobs Worked: As an adult, Evan has specialized in creating projects that bring people together. He enjoys facilitating connection among challengingly diverse groups of people and fostering community among those who may not fully appreciate what they have in common. He is the founder and director of The Education Empowerment Project and for five years was the founding director of a week-long adult unschoolers gathering called Quo Vadis. Evan has many years of experience working with self-directed teenagers in his everyday life as well as in his role as a Senior Staff member of Grace Llewellyn’s Not Back to School Camp.
Current Goals: Create the National Support Network for Self-Directed Teens! Learn how to bake a knock-you-on-your-ass-its-sooo-good pie.
Mentor Strengths: Evan’s strength lies in his willingness to listen, his ability to come up with solutions when it seems like there aren’t any, and his years of personal experience in the trenches of self-directed learning.

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