About Northwaters and Langskib Summer Camps

Leadership Team

Our organization is managed by a team of directors:

C.G. Stephens, Administrator/Director

Jodi Browning, Administrator/Director

Michael Jarvis, Program Director

Christine McKenna, Program Director

Cena Shaw, Program Administrator

Jen Zahorchak, Program Administrator

To learn more about their shared commitments as directors and the paths that brought them to Langskib and Northwaters, please visit the Program Directors page.

Trip Staff

These are the people who make our canoe trips extraordinary. Occasionally we hire a professional from outside our community but the vast majority of our trip leaders start out as participants. After working their way up through the ranks, earning a spot on a James Bay Trip and then completing our Leadership Program, they begin a multi-year apprenticeship to become a Northwaters/Langskib leader. All in all, it takes from 5 to 8 years for a young person to become a trip leader.

Leaders are chosen because they have earned our respect and trust, because they have demonstrated a strong ability to relate to young people and because they share our commitment to providing outstanding wilderness experiences for young people coming of age.

Once they sign on, our camp leaders tend to stay—many for 10 or more years. Low turnover insures consistent program quality and the capacity to train new leaders. During the off season, we encourage our staff to pursue endeavors which stretch them as individuals and develop them as leaders. This makes for a diverse group of adventuresome staff with an ability to relate to young people from all walks of life.

*Not all Staff Listed*

  

Taia Harlos and Jeff Fetterman, Trip Leaders

Taia Harlos and Jeff Fetterman are long-time educators at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where they make their home for three seasons out of the year. Jeff teaches 6th Grade, coaches wrestling and is head of the Outings Club, and Taia teaches music and plays violin and viola with the Fairmount String Quartet and numerous performing groups. In their capacity as educators, they have also taught outdoor education, rock climbing, high ropes and Taia led the Leadership Program at Abington Friends School. Taia and Jeff have traveled extensively throughout the United States and eastern Canada camping, rock climbing and canoeing. They spend their free time with their dog Otter exploring around their cabin in Jim Thorpe,Pennsylvania. Jeff and Taia have been leading and guiding canoe trips for more than a decade. Both are certified Wilderness First Responders and Jeff is presently finishing his ACA whitewater canoe instructor certification. Taia and Jeff are committed to the great benefit of wilderness challenge and rites of passage into adulthood in the lives of young people. 

Raurie O'Brien, Trip Leader

 "I came to Northwaters/Langskib originally in 1995 as a participant, and I immediately fell in love with the woods and waters of the north. A few years later I started leading trips, and I have been working with the organization in varying capacities since that time. Northwaters/Langskib is a place where I have watched myself and others learn enormous perseverance, compassion, and self-awareness -- all within the context of a remarkable community and amazing wilderness. Over the past six years, my sister and I have headed up the “Burke Trip” program, which works to make scholarship opportunities available for young leaders in order to provide them with a meaningful and powerful wilderness experience. I am currently finishing my doctoral residency in Clinical Psychology at a therapeutic high school in Chicago, Illinois. In my free time, I love getting outside, adventuring, traveling, being involved in the arts, community, and efforts towards various social justice causes."

Robert Jussup, Trip Leader

 "I've been with Langskib/Northwaters as camper, and eventually became a senior tripping staff over the past 14 years. I've traversed the waters of local Temagami and have ventured to remote Northern areas of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. The Canadian Wilderness is an undiscovered adventure to me, and I am always up for the challenges nature and life put forth. NWL gave me strength and heart, and a strong community of which I am proud to be a part of. I hold an honors degree in Classical Studies from Queen's University and am currently pursuing opportunities with Youth at Risk and Social Services in Ontario. When I am not paddling I am in the gym training for upcoming matches in Muay Thai Kickboxing or working on my next oil painting. My other hobbies include backcountry skiing, portaging, musical theater, and writing."

Greer Krembs, Trip Leader

 "I must have known on some level that I was going to feel a strong connection with Northwaters & Langskib and Lake Temagami when I was 13 and day-dreaming about cutting my hair short and sporting a baseball hat in order to attend the all-boys canoeing camp my brother went to on the lake. That summer of 1995 I went on the first Northern Lights trip, and on our trip to Blueberry Island I took the first steps on my journey that has continued through to this day. It has been a journey through the waters and woods of Temagami, Ontario, as well as Quebec, Manitoba, and the James and Hudson Bays, and it has brought me to as many lessons and discoveries about myself as it has places on the map. For the past two summers I have co-led the Leadership Expedition down the Hayes River to the Hudson Bay. After graduating from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a degree in Biology I have spent time as an Outdoor Education Instructor at the Hulbert Outdoor Center, and as a full time volunteer in New Orleans organizing and implementing an after-school program for middle school students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I plan to pursue a teaching career in a fusion of environmental and outdoor experiential education to foster a sense of land stewardship and empower today’s youth to grow into their full potential."

Gabe Krenza, Trip Leader

 Gabe's love and fascination for the outdoors started at a very early age. His father had him backpacking when he was just 4 years old. Then, 10 years later at 14, Gabe arrived at Langskib thinking he was going to be prepared for what was to come. "That first three-week canoe trip to the Lost Lakes was one of the most valuable experiences I have had to date. The trip had as much to do with the physical journey, as it did the personal journey. Taking that experience at Langskib fueled my passion for the outdoors and environment and helped me to gain the strength of character and make the decision to go to school on the other side of the country at the University of Montana. It was there where I received two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology." While attending The University of Montana, Gabe was captain of the lacrosse team for three years, finishing second in the nation the last two. In addition, he helped coach the men's lacrosse team to a national championship in 2007. "Since graduating, I have further broadened my enthusiasm for wild places by exploring the country via bicycle. Most recently, I just completed a four-month circumnavigation of the Hawaiian Islands. Now, I am currently working in Missoula, Montana bringing local food awareness into community designs.” Gabe also enjoys cooking in the woods."

Jake Merkin, Trip Leader

 "I first came to Langskib when I was eleven. I started off as the smallest kid and grew from summer to summer traveling through the wilderness of Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. Northwaters/Langskib taught me the immense, empowering possibility of life by enabling me to overcome the adversities of trail and letting me explore the metaphors in nature. NWL is not just a camp to me, but a part of my being, and has helped me develop into who I am now. Right now I'm taking some extended time off from studies at the University of Michigan School of Music. I hope to someday become a professional composer and have spent my current wealt of time traveling, educating myself, and writing and recording music in my home in New York. I also love film, skiing, and photography."

Sam Obetz, Trip Leader

 "For the first time in 18 years I read my journals from summers in Temagami both as a participant and guide. The dozen narratives of our expeditions all ended in a warm closure and noting that this had been the best summer of my life. I returned to work for Northwaters this summer after seven years of forging my own path and running a successful carpentry business. This past year’s journal ended in, "This has been the best summer of my life since the last year I worked in this organization". In short, there is no teacher like the wilderness. Though the faces have almost all changed, the community remains one of people who thrive on challenge, ask the tough questions of themselves and to others have a positive outlook on life, and are very adept to spontaneous play and laughter. And very adapt to sharing that energy. I feel honored to be a part of that experience once again. To sleep with the lull of moving water, and awake to the call of loons. When not in a canoe, I've been using my tool belt for gainful employment from Idaho to Florida. My boss and best friend is a little tail-wagging mutt who rides shotgun."

Liv Pedersen, Trip Leader

 "I was 14 years old when I first came to Northwaters and have returned every year since then. I have completed expeditions to the James Bay and the Great Whale River, a trip that is part of the camp’s extraordinary leadership program. Working for Northwaters has brought great joy to me, enabling me to work and lead young people through the beautiful Canadian wilderness. Northwaters is a place that has taught me a lot about who I am as a woman, as well as a leader, through each incredible journey I have taken. One of the key aspects I have learned from my time spent at Northwaters is to be authentic and true in every aspect of my life from the things I do to the places and people I meet. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University with concentrations in Art History and Printmaking. I relish in traveling and have explored much of Europe and North America. In my free time, I find creative inspiration through vast types of artistic fields, and enjoy skiing and the sheer bliss of being outside."

Brad Sablosky, Trip Leader

Brad first landed on the dock at Langskib at the age of fifteen having been sent under protest. He hasn't looked back since. As a trip leader for 12 years he led groups throughout the Temagami region before heading out to lead our Leadership Program in Northern Quebec and Manitoba. As a Senior Field Instructor for Aspen Achievement Academy he worked with youth at risk for three years in the Utah desert. Brad has a B.S. from Colorado College, is certified as an A.C.A canoe and kayak instructor, and Emergency Medical Technician. When the lakes are frozen he calls Durango, Colorado home where he spends his day's ski patrolling at Durango Mountain Resort, and his nights staring at maps of rivers in northern Canada.

Augusta Schaffer, Trip Leader

 "Not quite eleven at the time, not quite sure of who I was or wanted to be, my parents sent me to join the Northern Lights program here at Northwaters. I don't think they knew at the time that they were also sending me to join the part of myself that I continue to find piece by piece every summer that I return. Now twelve years later, after weeks at a time of wet socks and long days I am honored to find myself a staff member. A leader. The people and the land here have taught me that if your mind will let it, then your body will take you anywhere you want to go. I have been to rivers, lakes and woods where if I stop, listen and live in the moment around me I can honestly feel at home no matter what the coordinates. Temagami and the people it brings together are the teachers that helped me be able to guide not only the trips I lead but the life I lead. I honor this land, on which the footprints of the leaders I grew with are left. As those tracks fade, I am inspired again and again to go North and leave my own. The chances I take in life are often inspired by the chances I see participants take in trusting each other and themselves to meet the challenges they face living outdoors and living in the world. The work and the play that happens here is a real experience. Having been immersed in and then guiding these experiences has allowed me to resolve that these two things should always coexist in my life and on my trips. Having recently moved from small town Mississippi to Burlington, VT I am re-exploring my opportunities as a college student and playing outside whenever I can."
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