Kenzie Wass

Kenzie’s environmental education journey began in grade 10, when, as a Black, queer student, they felt seen for the first time in an outdoor education program. This was the start of a lifelong commitment to understanding land, ecology and equity as intertwined truths. Kenzie strives to create spaces that affirm students’ relationships to both the land and each other. Through their teaching, students are encouraged to explore, ask questions about sustainability and responsibility, and see themselves as active participants in a just and sustainable future, while integrating Indigenous knowledge in a relational and responsible way. 

Kenzie is a 2025 Co-Grand Prize Winner of the 2025 David Suzuki Fellowship.

Kenzie completed their undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Geography, which helped them develop an understanding of ecological processes and intersections within human geography. This shaped their view of environmental education, looking at it as a living relational practice rather than just knowledge transmission. Before their education degree, Kenzie worked for the school board’s outdoor education program. At the school board, they facilitated professional learning on space, place, and identity, encouraging educators to consider how their positionalities influence what is possible in outdoor spaces, especially for students marginalized in environmental narratives.

Kenzie chose to complete their practicum placement at alternative schools with social justice focuses, where they developed and led lessons that connected environmental education to issues of equity and community, centering students and inquiry. In a grade 8 health class, they developed a lesson exploring Indigenous food systems through the lens of community access and cultural continuity. In the lesson, students learned about food insecurity in Kakisa, NWT and compared the Inuit Food Guide to the mainstream guide. They also explored the cultural significance of hunting, the role of traditional tools,  like the ulu, and colonial disruptions to food sovereignty. Kenzie also developed a session exploring water systems, pollution and the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on racialized communities. As part of this lesson, students mapped local watersheds, examined who lives downstream and discussed environmental racism in places like Grassy Narrows and Flint, Michigan. This learning helped students see systems rather than just symptoms, prompting critical questions about access, sustainability, and justice.

Indigenous knowledge systems are central to Kenzie’s vision for teaching, and they are committed to learning from Indigenous communities in ways that are relational not extractive. Their work is influenced by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action, and they view incorporating Indigenous perspectives as a necessary part of their practice, which aims to build a just and sustainable world. This commitment is also grounded in their belief that every child deserves the opportunity to learn from and with the land in ways that honour care, context, and continuity.

Kenzie believes everyone has a right to feel at home in nature, and that students are wise observers and future stewards. This is why Kenzie wants to reshape what environmental education, and education more broadly, can look like, specifically designing welcoming programs where Black and queer students, and those with different body types, can hike, question, lead, and belong. Kenzie is eager to keep growing as an educator, wanting to learn alongside educators who share in their view that environmental education must be rooted in love, community, and justice. Kenzie is excited to bring their knowledge about environmental inquiry, student engagement and the role of Indigenous knowledge into future classrooms, school boards and community spaces. 

Kenzie at an Algonquin winter camp in February 2013 — an early moment in their journey with outdoor education.

Kenzie believes everyone has a right to feel at home in nature, and that students are wise observers and future stewards. This is why Kenzie wants to reshape what environmental education, and education more broadly, can look like, specifically designing welcoming programs where Black and queer students, and those with different body types, can hike, question, lead, and belong. Kenzie is eager to keep growing as an educator, wanting to learn alongside educators who share in their view that environmental education must be rooted in love, community, and justice. Kenzie is excited to bring their knowledge about environmental inquiry, student engagement and the role of Indigenous knowledge into future classrooms, school boards and community spaces. 

“I believe environmental education is not only about saving the planet, it is about saving each other. It's about listening, resisting, imagining, and growing. And it's about making sure that everyone, every student, every educator, feels like they belong in the story of the land.”

By Andreas Gross, Natural Curiosity Program Assistant