High Country Forest Wild
Current Staff
Meet the High Country Forest Wild counselors who teach your children in the woods.
Rémi Wingo (she/her)
Director/Owner/Facilitator
Hometown: Ocean Springs, MS & West Jefferson, NC
As founder and director of High Country Forest Wild, Rémi has 30 years' experience in outdoor education, from being Head of Mountain Biking at Green Cove summer camp in Tuxedo, NC, to Program Director at NC Outward Bound School's Table Rock basecamp. She worked for five years in wilderness therapy at Eckerd Youth Alternatives in central FL, then as an instructor, course director, and program director for NCOBS for 12 years.
From 2010-2015, she was a stay-at-home mom and organizer of Sprouts School, a loose gathering of parents and toddlers who spent a lot of time outdoors. She has worked at Mary's School and Mountain Pathways Montessori in Boone, as well as Atkins High School in Winston-Salem (teaching Algebra and Geometry) and Exploris public charter school in Raleigh (teaching 8th grade math & science).
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With High Country Forest Wild, Rémi has brought her passion, skills, past experiences, and expertise together to realize a long-term dream of creating an all-outdoors program based on the principles and philosophy of forest schools in Scandinavia, embracing outdoor experiential education, child-centered learning, supported risk-taking, and social-emotional development.
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"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
– Annie Dillard –
Rachel DeRienzo
Facilitator/Instructor
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Hi, my name is Rachel and I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m currently studying Recreation Management in Outdoor Experiential Education at App State. After graduation, I would love to work for an outdoor school to inspire and educate kids about the wonders of the natural world.
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I’m a big fan of anything that’s outside, whether it’s hiking, climbing, or tubing down the Watauga River. Apart from my outdoor endeavors, I have a passion for traveling and reading. I currently own over 400 books and fill a lot of my downtime reading outside. For the past two summers, I’ve caravanned around the US, and this summer I’ll be taking my travels to Spain to explore along the coast.
I am thrilled to work for my second summer at HCFW! It's an honor to be part of an organization dedicated to nurturing curiosity and fostering a deep appreciation for the outdoors in young minds. This summer is going to be a lot of fun!
“Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
– Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass –
Maddy Ryan
Facilitator/Instructor
Hometown: Charleston, SC
Maddy is excitedly entering her third year at Forest Wild! She is a graduate of Appalachian State University in May 2024, with a degree in Sustainable Development and a minor in Religious Studies.
Maddy enjoys making art and reading books whenever time permits. Maddy spends most days outdoors gardening, thinking about nature and relaxing with friends. Maddy's a bit of a world traveler, always seeking another nugget of truth about the space around her.
Recently she visited Nepal to learn about yoga and its relationship to farming. She completed her yoga teacher certification in May 2024. She hopes to share her love of the natural world with the folks of Forest WIld.
“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold –
Malcolm Vaughn
Facilitator/Instructor
Hometown: Apex, NC
Malcolm is currently a senior in the Sustainable Development department at App State University. He has spent the last five summers working with kids of different ages, whether abroad as an au pair in Italy, assisting at a preschool, or working summer camps.
An avid lover of the outdoors, Malcolm enjoys hiking, climbing, and backpacking in his free time. He is also a lover of reading, yoga, meditating, and climbing trees with friends. Education, mindfulness, and the outdoors are his deepest passions, and he seeks opportunities to combine these as often as he can.
Malcolm spends time working at the ASU Roots Garden as a Garden Ambassador where he enjoys the work of growing food for the community. He also works with Mountain Alliance in Avery and Watauga counties, where he takes high schoolers on outdoor adventures based around experiential education. He is excited to work outside with the wonderful staff and students at Forest Wild and can't wait for all the adventures to come!