Long before GPS, before maps, before any technology that could tell you where you were or where to go, human beings navigated the world by reading it. They watched the stars, felt the currents, read the wind, and trusted what they knew in their bones. That wayfinding practice required deep awareness, honest reflection, and absolute trust in an inner compass.
It is 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.
To protect children’s love of learning and their sense of self, so that school becomes the place where they discover their own greatness, discover how to grow, and discover how to serve others.
Bonni knows why children give up and she built a school to make sure they do not have to. A certified teacher of mathematics, computer programming, and financial literacy, Bonni has spent years in district, charter, and online classrooms studying what optimizes the learning experience and what quietly undermines it. Her Ph.D research has taken her deep into the science of learning, exploring the conditions that produce helplessness, anxiety, and passivity in students, the role of play-based and challenge-based learning in building genuine alignment with how students learn, and the gamification elements that most effectively enhance motivation and produce mastery.
She has also developed accessible playbooks for innovative inquiry-based learning and studied what it takes for educational systems to embrace meaningful change. Wayfinders Academy was designed with all of that knowledge in hand to create a learning environment built not on tradition or assumption, but on evidence. A school where the conditions that produce anxiety and poor behaviors have been deliberately eliminated and the conditions that produce flourishing have been just as deliberately built in.
Julie knows what it looks like when a child discovers they are capable of more than they thought because this is where she spends most of her time and energy creating the conditions for exactly that moment. With a background in communications and English, including years of experience as an education specialist, performing arts director, Vanguard mentor, and community organizer, Julie brings to Wayfinders Academy a breadth of experience that brings people together and helps them grow. She has supported students and families in curriculum and educational planning, trained and supported educators, and gets excited to solve complex challenges in learning environments. Through the nonprofit performing arts organization she leads, she has coordinated theatrical productions involving more than 150 youth, written original scripts, and created experiences that ask young people to stretch, risk, and shine. She has created curriculum, experiences, and leadership opportunities that encourage thinking, creativity, and personal growth. Julie is a wayfinder, someone who charts the course, brings the community along, and never loses sight of the people the journey is for.
Terynn Rosenvall has a degree in psychology from Weber State University and years of experience teaching inquiry-based and project-based curriculum to children across a wide range of ages, needs, and learning styles. Terynn brings to Wayfinders Academy something that cannot be taught in a credential program — a bone-deep understanding of what it feels like to need a different path, and empathy to see that need in every child who walks through the door. She has the ability to see strengths in every child, and help them discover ways to use their weaknesses to accomplish great things. Terynn finished her first chapter book in 10th grade. For most people, that milestone comes years earlier. For Terynn, it came after years of frustration, doubt, and the particular kind of discouragement that comes from being intelligent and hardworking in a system that keeps telling you — not in words, but in red marks and confused looks — that something is wrong with you. There was not. She had dyslexia. And dyslexia, as it turned out, was not the obstacle to her story. It was the beginning of it. The resilience, creativity, and problem-solving instincts she developed navigating a world not built for her learner’s mind became the foundation of everything she does as an educator.
Finding the right home for Wayfinders Academy is something we are taking seriously, because where we land matters to your family. Our initial location will be selected with one priority in mind — making the commute as manageable as possible for families throughout Weber and Davis Counties. We are actively searching for a lease option that meets the building requirements for a school of our size, and our timeline for committing to a space is tied directly to enrollment. The more families who confirm their interest early, the sooner we can secure and announce a location. What we can tell you is that we are focused, we are close, and we will share updates as soon as a location is confirmed. If you are wondering whether your enrollment decision matters — it does, and not just for your child.
