​Biography

I was born and raised in Saskatoon and Humboldt. From an early age, I was drawn to environments that combined learning, responsibility, and community. Girl Guides played a significant role in my childhood, not as a pastime but as a formative framework. It was where I learned how to plan, how to lead, how to be prepared, and how to contribute meaningfully to a group. It shaped my understanding that growth happens through participation, accountability, and service rather than competition.

That orientation continued into adulthood. I studied biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan, motivated by curiosity about how systems work, especially bodies, brains, and the natural world. Alongside my studies, I served in student government and remained actively involved in local queer organizations. I have always learned best by engaging fully and placing myself inside the systems I want to understand, rather than observing them from a distance.

On my 25th birthday, I accepted a teaching position in South Korea. The plan was to stay for one year. That year became twenty.

Those two decades were not a detour from my life. They were my life. I taught primarily in international schools in Seoul, working closely with elementary students and spending many years teaching third grade. Over time, my work expanded to include curriculum development, school-wide event planning, and long-term mentoring of students who needed stability, advocacy, or a trusted adult presence. Teaching was never limited to academics. It was relational, contextual, and grounded in the realities of students’ lives.

Living abroad for that long reshaped how I understand culture, community, and identity. I did not assimilate into a single system. Instead, I learned how to observe patterns, translate between expectations, and build frameworks that could hold difference without defaulting to hierarchy or shame. International school communities are constantly in motion. People arrive, leave, adapt, and rely on one another in practical ways. Reciprocity in those environments is not abstract or idealized. It is necessary. You show up because the web only holds if people do.

During those years, I completed a Master’s degree in Education online while continuing to teach full time. That combination reflects how I have always approached learning. I curate experiences that stretch me, integrate theory with practice, and allow learning to emerge through doing. Every experience, including the difficult ones, becomes material for understanding. Nothing is wasted.

When I returned to Canada in 2021, I encountered a familiar landscape that no longer operated according to the same internal logic I carried. The ways I had learned to build relationships and community did not always align with a culture shaped by independence, politeness, and quiet self-management. That tension clarified what I had actually brought back with me. It was not Korean culture, and it was not a return to my earlier Canadian identity. It was a synthesis formed through long-term life between worlds.

I eventually came to understand this as third culture adulthood. People who live for extended periods across cultures often do not choose one framework over another. They build something new. That recognition helped me make sense of my own experiences and also allowed me to see continuity in my work with students navigating cultural, neurological, or social transitions of their own.

That synthesis is the foundation of WebbSprout.

WebbSprout is not a tutoring service and it is not a replication of an international school. It is an intentionally designed ecosystem rooted in the understanding that many essential life skills are not automatically taught. Skills such as self-advocacy, emotional regulation, learning how to learn, and understanding one’s own needs are often assumed rather than supported. The families and young people who find WebbSprout are often those who have not been well served by conventional educational structures. My work focuses on making those skills visible, accessible, and integrated into learning.

The values guiding this work are consent, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. The learning environment is intentionally low-tech for students, emphasizing hands-on materials, conversation, inquiry, and real-world engagement. I do not use reward-and-punishment systems, nor do I work from a framework of compliance. My focus is on helping young people develop strategies that align with who they are while preserving their sense of self and agency.

Across my career, I have seen that inclusive, mixed-ability, relational learning environments are not idealistic concepts. They function when they are built deliberately and held with care. I have lived inside those systems, helped create them, and watched students thrive within them. WebbSprout is the integration of that lived experience with the values that have shaped me over a lifetime of learning. This work is grounded in place, relationships, and responsibility to the communities and land where it unfolds.

My path has never been about accumulating credentials or titles. It has been about curating experiences, reflecting on them honestly, and integrating what I have learned into something coherent. Every place I have lived, every role I have held, and every challenge I have encountered has shaped how I understand learning, community, and responsibility.

At its core, my life’s work has been the ongoing act of building community where it does not automatically exist and of weaving systems that allow people to show up as themselves without being left alone. This work extends beyond teaching children. It is about creating environments, relationships, and structures that make growth possible across ages and roles. It is the work that matters most to me, and it is the work I am doing now.