Meet Cameron Sprague, one of our new Certified Nesting Ambassadors and a part of the elite group of international beta-testers for the Nesting Ambassador Program this summer. If you are interest in learning more about becoming a Certified Nesting Ambassador, go to our sister initiatives website, the Evolved Nest, for more information and to sign up for the waiting list for 2026. You can also join the live lecture series this fall with Darcia Narvaez, who is recording material for the NAP 2026 program. Find out more about the lectures here.

“Daring ventures can only happen from a secure base” – John Bowlby

My life like many others was a version of history repeating itself. My Mother met my father in high school, much like my grandmother had met her first husband. Both had children young and were married just before, but ultimately these marriages weren’t successful and left them as single mothers in their early 20’s. My Mom often talks about how my grandmother would often not allow her and her siblings to go places or do things.  My Mom said part of it was a reflection of her being a single mother who worked several jobs at a time to take care of my mom and her siblings and that she was just exhausted. Inherently she also had a fear that something could happen to them if they were away from her.

Fear was an overriding principle for my Mom when it came to my brother and I when she first divorced my father. If she had had her way my life would have been lived between the boundaries of the neighbors on either side of our house. Ultimately with a core group of friends from the neighborhood I found refuge and escape in the small woodland diagonally across from my house. My mother had the safety of proximity, I had the safety of the woods, and also the privacy of foliage to hide my antics.  My friends and I built forts, the occasional booby traps, and also laid amongst the trees for hours communicating, supporting each other and also just being with each other. The loss I felt at a vacant father was slowly filled through the bonds of friendship. Those initial adventures spread farther and wider where we lived and at the same time deepened the relationships we had with each other.

As we progressed into our teenage years and moved to high school separation naturally occurred not that we weren’t ever friends. Some of us got into organized sports, or became more involved in their family church, all of our friend circles widened and changed which just meant we had more options to fill our time.  I can see now that at home I felt that loss of change and maybe because of my own experiences with my father I felt it a bit more sharply than my friends.

My Mother made a decision that changed my life and ultimately a step that I can see led me to being interested in the Evolved Nest.  She sent me to summer camp, which for many American children is a normal part of growing up, my experience there felt monumental. I instantly felt a connection to this community of people who were at camp with me when I went. I wasn’t just mixing with my peer group, but having conversations and building relationships with people older than me, younger than me, of a different sex, and from different parts of the world all at the same time. To me the world felt alive and I could recognize in myself how alive I felt spending my time with 200 diverse people in a 30-acre woodland. Time indoors was minimal and even if it was indoors, it was communal and only until we were able to get outdoors again.

I came away from that first week recognizing the spark that had lit inside me just by the nature of being there, being amongst people who were taking me at face value, and how even after a week I felt like the relationship I had with them would be lifelong-which time has proven.  I knew at the tender age of 13 that there was something important about this and that I wanted to help support people to feel the same way that I did.  That determination then led me to pursue my degree in outdoor education, that further led to me working at a child development center, that led me to studying my early years qualifications, which ultimately led to Stramash and the community I’ve tried to build there.

The power and impact those relationships had on me has led to a personal and professional reflection on why this was so important to me, but also why it is important to all people. I see now that I was searching for pieces of the Evolved Nest in my own life and working towards supporting it not only in other people, but in the others that we share this world with.

Now I’m working to understand all elements of the nest so that I can better embody it in my own life, because only then will I be better able to support others to support the Evolved Nest in their own lives and work.

A Conversation with Cameron Sprague: Exploring Outdoor Learning in the Early Years