Follow the inner compass
A love of learning isn’t a trait some children are born with — it’s built. Through genuine questioning, doing, and reflecting — instead of memorizing and rushing — curiosity becomes a way of moving through the world.
About us
When the compass points, you follow it — together.
The Wayfinders story, what we believe, and the people building it.
Our story
How Wayfinders found its way.
Long before GPS, before maps, before any technology that could tell you where you were or where to go, human beings navigated by reading the world. They watched the stars, felt the currents, read the wind, and trusted what they knew in their bones. Wayfinding took deep awareness, honest reflection, and absolute trust in an inner compass.
It’s also, we believe, the most accurate description of how children learn — and how education improves. Wayfinders Academy was born from our own wayfinding journey: years of watching, reflecting, studying, and trusting what we knew to be true about children, learning, and community — until the path we were meant to build became impossible to ignore.
Our why
To protect children’s love of learning and their sense of self — so school becomes the place where they discover their own greatness, how to grow, and how to serve others.
What we believe
Our three core values.
We chose these carefully — and we hold ourselves to them with real, measurable indicators, not just words on a page.
Chart your own course
Children learn more and grow more fully when they have real say in their learning. Not the absence of structure, but calibrated freedom: enough choice to spark ownership, enough scaffold to keep it purposeful.
Travel together
Real partnership among students, teachers, and families. Teachers guide, parents extend learning into home days, students bring their voice — and all three reflect together on what’s working. That shared investment builds belonging and competence.
Values posted on a website mean little on their own. What matters is whether they show up in the room — so each connects to specific indicators we use to honestly measure whether we’re living them. See our key indicators →
The people building it
Meet the founders.
Dr. Bonni Jones
Founder · Science of learning
Bonni knows why children give up — and she built a school so they don’t have to. A certified teacher of mathematics, computer programming, and financial literacy, she’s spent years in district, charter, and online classrooms studying what optimizes learning and what quietly undermines it.
Her Ph.D. research goes deep into the science of learning — the conditions that produce helplessness, anxiety, and passivity, the role of play- and challenge-based learning, and the gamification that most effectively builds motivation and mastery. Wayfinders was designed with all of that in hand: a school where the conditions that produce anxiety have been deliberately removed, and the conditions that produce flourishing deliberately built in.
Julie Johnson
Founder · Community & experience
Julie knows what it looks like when a child discovers they’re capable of more than they thought — because creating that moment is where she spends her energy. With a background in communications and English and years as an education specialist, performing arts director, Vanguard mentor, and community organizer, she brings people together and helps them grow.
She has supported students and families in curriculum and planning, trained and coached educators, and — through the nonprofit performing arts organization she leads — coordinated productions involving more than 150 youth, written original scripts, and built experiences that ask young people to stretch, risk, and shine. Julie charts the course, brings the community along, and never loses sight of the people the journey is for.
Terynn Rosenvall
Founder · Inquiry & project-based learning
Terynn holds a degree in psychology from Weber State University and years of experience teaching inquiry- and project-based curriculum to children across a wide range of ages, needs, and learning styles. She brings something a credential program can’t teach — a bone-deep understanding of what it feels like to need a different path, and the empathy to spot that need in every child.
She finished her first chapter book in 10th grade. For most people that comes years earlier; for Terynn it came after years of frustration and the particular discouragement of being bright and hardworking in a system that kept signaling something was wrong. Nothing was. She has dyslexia — and the resilience, creativity, and problem-solving she built navigating a world not made for her mind became the foundation of everything she does as an educator.
Where we are
Our campus in West Haven.
Finding the right home for Wayfinders was something we took seriously, because where we land matters to your family. We chose our campus with one priority in mind: making the commute as manageable as possible for families across Weber and Davis Counties.
You’ll find us at 1890 S 1350 W, West Haven, UT 84401. We let enrollment lead and location follow, and we’re glad we waited for a space that actually fits our students and our vision.
Come see it for yourself — we’d love to walk you through the space in person and answer any questions along the way.
Find your way to a better fit
Wondering if Wayfinders is right for your child?
Get in touch to meet the team, ask the questions that matter, and hear how the Wayfinders day will work — no pressure, no pitch, just a real conversation.
Now enrolling K–8 · West Haven, UT · Utah Fits All scholarship accepted