About Me

My name is Jen Kappelhof. I have a passion for nature, care deeply for the environment and spend a lot of time outdoors with my family. I have been an early childhood educator for 10 years mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. My family and I moved to South Lake Tahoe in the Fall of 2023. I am constantly reflecting, growing and changing to improve my practice as an educator. I completed my certification as a California Environmental Educator and a California Naturalist with the goal to provide ALL students with equitable, inclusive and culturally-relevant environmental education experiences. 

 

As part of my final project for both certification programs, I wanted to share my knowledge and create a resource to help other teachers get started. During my training, I became aware of the process of land acknowledgement. “Territory acknowledgement is above all, an opportunity to be in better relation with one another. It is a chance to acknowledge our pasts and commit to a better shared future (Dr. Meredith L. McCoy).” 

 

I want to acknowledge that I live on the ancestral and unceded traditional land of the Washoe people.

  

I honor with gratitude the Washoe people who have stewarded this land throughout the generations and their ongoing contributions to this region. I acknowledge the ongoing injustices of colonialism that we have committed against the Washoe people, and I wish to interrupt this legacy through my continued education and commitment to build this resource guide. 

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Please click on the get started section of this guide to begin building your knowledge of indigenous people past, present and future in your community and designing environmental education opportunities that embed indigenous knowledge, land and water based teaching and learning.