Apr 21-23, 2006
“Dream it; then do it” sums up Jan Reynolds’ worldview. She has circumnavigated Mt. Everest, and skied down Mt. Mustagata, setting a world altitude skiing record. Jan accomplishes her dreams one simple step at a time and knows how to share her process with other people, especially girls and women. As a woman in a man’s world, Jan realized she needed to drop traditional and family limitations. “Embrace that we are women. Don’t emulate men. We have our own senses, our own ways.” Jan will share her extraordinary experiences, including the thrills of high-altitude mountaineering and skiing at the World Cup level. She will share how she found the “feminine side” of competition and how she traveled solo over the Himalaya, across the Sahara, and through the Amazon Territory to find and learn from indigenous cultures. A woman’s place is anywhere she wants to be. Come away with the knowledge that women are absolutely capable, because they are women.
There are many approaches to the creative process. Many of us feel trapped by imagined confines, but these presupposed inadequacies can be dissolved. First, free your imagination. Let go of all limitation. If you can dream it, you can do it. Jan’s workshop will renew the sense that anything is possible. Your capabilities are way beyond your fears. Free yourself. Push through long-term barriers to positive solutions.
This program is for women who aren’t sure they can achieve their goals and for those who believe they can but aren’t sure how to begin. Girls thirteen and older are welcome. Bring your daughter, your niece, or your granddaughter. All you need is an open mind and your sense of inner and outer adventure.
Jan Reynolds is a prizewinning photojournalist whose intrepid adventures have taken her to every continent, photographing and recording vanishing cultures to preserve their unique heritage for future generations. An accomplished athlete, she is a medal-winner in World Cup biathlon, holds several high-altitude skiing and mountain-climbing records, and ballooned over the Himalayas. She has lectured at the National Geographic Society, and her accomplishments have appeared in its magazine. Her work has also been featured in Esquire, Adventure Travel, Ski, and Walking Magazine, and she has appeared on the covers of Outside and Ultrasport. She is the author/photographer of the Vanishing Cultures series of children’s books, which won the prestigious Parents’ Choice Award, and she has written three books for adults, including Mother and Child: Visions of Parenting from Indigenous Cultures. She has also produced a video Cultural Adventure with Jan Reynolds. We welcome her on her first visit to Rowe.