Why Take the the RDNA Program?
- Watch this video!
- Browse the RDNA Video Journal

Want to learn more about the Journey?
Join us for an Introduction to RDNA

    Saturday, July 27, 2-4pm
    Click here for information & registration

RDNA Q & A sessions are offered following our monthly Commonweal Garden tours. More info...

RDNA Programs

The RDNA learning community is a village experience made up of two programs: RDNA Immersion Program and RDNA Integration Program. The two programs are interwoven and support each other to create a dynamic learning environment, rich in the curiosities and creative nature of each participant. 

The RDNA Immersion Program is the first step in the RDNA learning journey. This program will help you to restore your authentic connection to nature and re-invigorate a holistic understanding of what it means to tend and regenerate the landscapes for the future generations. The RDNA Integration Program is a journey that supports you to grow into community leadership and personal empowerment.

The links below lead to course curriculum, schedules, applications and fees.

RDNA Immersion Program

RDNA Integration Program

Creating Resilient Leaders and Community

Are you ready to build a more meaningful relationship with the earth, your community and yourself? Are you ready to discover your role as a community member and an integral part of the natural world? The Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness (RDNA) program is an advanced 9-month program that extends hands-on, skill-based training to help you develop the leadership skills you need to bring sustainability and regenerative practices into your personal and professional life. Through RDNA, you can learn to design powerful communities, regenerate ecosystems and facilitate positive community change.

Our instructors are fully engaged visionaries working in regenerative design, nature awareness, cultural mentoring and leadership. They bring the tools they have gathered through years of experience, working locally and around the world, to create resilient leaders, cultural systems and landscapes. They weave these tools together into the dynamic lifestyle that makes up the RDNA program.

Using the teachings of Regenerative Design, Nature Awareness, Core Routines and the Ecology of Leadership, RDNA offers a comprehensive exploration of where we came from, where we are now and where we are going.

Highlights and collaborations for the 2013-14 Programs  

2-week Permaculture Design Intensive: lead by Penny Livingston, master permaculture teacher and designer, also featuring Toby Hemmenway, Brock Dolman, and other special guests. More info.

Native Seed Search’s Seed School: lead by Bill McDorman, internationally recognized seed master. Seed School is a 5-day program that teaches everything you need to know about seeds – including seed saving, selection, storage, germination techniques and pollination. More info...

Bioneers Conference: 3-day conference featuring visionaries from around the world speaking on various topics from biomimicry to social justice. More info...

Buckeye Gathering: 5-day primitive skills gathering on Native American Inter-tribal land. More info...

Desert Trip: 5-day Desert Trip exploring desert ecology, bird language and Solo Time with Brock Dolman, Kerry Brady, James Stark, Penny Livingston and Spencer Neilsen

Somatic Trauma Training Program: 2-day workshop learning the skills to help people who are experiencing severe trauma. More info...

Musical Support with Harmony Grisman, Jennifer Berezan, Tim Weed, Debbie Daly
- Learn to write a medicine song with Harmony
  - Explore the connection between music, the landscape and the human heart with Jennifer Berezan.
  - Learn to sing in multiple harmonies with Tim Weed and Debbie Daly
  - Free yourself through musical and rhythmic journey into improvisation with Timothy Regan

Survival Skills with Buckskin Jay and Charles Williams. Learn to tan hides, craft utilitarian objects from the natural world and make fire with friction with people who are living this lifestyle personally and professionally. 

Gardening the Inner Landscape & The Ecology of Leadership with James Stark

Hands on Permaculture Practices with Penny Livingston, Spencer Nielsen and a host of other renowned Permaculture practitioners

The RDNA Site

The Regenerative Design Institute is in collaboration with Commonweal, a health and environment research institute and retreat center in Bolinas. Our site is located along the beautiful and rugged California coast, at the Commonweal Garden, a 17-acre farm located in the midst of the Point Reyes National Seashore. The park is a 71,028-acre park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California, USA. 

Commonweal Garden is a permaculture model of human beings living in harmony with the earth. Nestled into its own quiet valley on the ocean, the site features organic gardens, budding food forests, multiple grey water systems, production green house, ponds, seasonal stream, springs, a yurt classroom, and aquaponcis system, goats, chickens, bees and several natural building features such as cob benches, straw bale and cordwood buildings, light straw clay walls, and earthen plasters.

RDNA participants will interact deeply with this site through observation, bird language, working with the plants and water on the site, in addition to embellishing the existing natural buildings and sculptures on the farm. 

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General Information

Who Teaches the Program?
Where Will the Learning Take Place?
Who Should Take This Program?
What Do Your Grads Say?
More Frequently Asked Questions

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Are you interested in getting to know the natural world around you? Do you want to take a deeper look into what makes us human? Do you believe the world needs hopeful and powerful leaders? Do you want to strengthen your ability to heal and design ecosystems and communities? Do you want to experience what life is like in a village-style mentoring and learning community? If so, then RDNA is for you!

To date, the RDNA Program has served individuals from 18 to 65 years old. They have come from urban, suburban and rural backgrounds. They have come with varied levels of life experience, from web designers to environmental educators. They have traveled from around the corner or from across the globe to be here. All have come willing to spend three days of their week in community, in an outdoor setting, with a deep commitment to healing the earth, themselves, and their communities.

“I've grown more fully into myself, and have felt a major shift in my own passion for learning and zest for life. Looking into the eyes of my peers, I see this same inspiration reflected in them.” 

– RDNA '05 graduate

What Do Your Grads Have To Say?

“RDNA offered me the opportunity to deepen my relationship with the natural world and myself. Using sustainable living practices and native technologies, I began to sense a way of being in the world that, previous to RDNA, I did not know existed.”

–  Bethany, RDNA 2005-06

“RDNA has been such a great experience. I can't thank everyone enough. I feel so blessed and so gifted to have been in this program." 

– Graduate, RDNA 2007-08

"Sometimes I flip through my notebook from class and I am just blown away all over again by all the wisdom and deep teachings we were exposed to in that program. Definitely the best thing I've done in my life up to this point."

–  Lydia, RDNA 2005-06

“Trust the program and trust that in every moment there is an opportunity to learn...You are the one who makes it happen. If you take one little step, your teachers – human, nature and spirits – take big steps toward you. Take this opportunity for yourself and for this planet.”

– Greet, RDNA 2007-08

“It is awesome to truly feel how my awareness has grown over the past years, and how I can use it where ever I go and whatever I am doing.”

– Graduate, RDNA 2007-08

“I have learned a lot about mentoring and put skills or methods into my body that I could not have imagined. I also felt changes in my body that I could not have imagined. I grew in ways I did not know I could."

– Graduate, RDNA 2007-08

"I'd hate to meet the person who wouldn't benefit from this program. When there's a better school out there you'll be too old to care...If a better program ever manifests, it will be founded by a graduate of this one. It's a good thing you make so many friends here 'cause you may lose some to jealousy. 

At the end of every week your friends will bug you to tell them all you've learned. It works better than therapy and it's cheaper too."

– Julian, RDNA 2005-06

"I walked into this program as part of a culture that is increasingly disconnected from nature, one that views nature and humanity as separate entities, pitted against one another. We’re inundated with information and distractions in our modern world that magnify this void, and the cost not only effects our environment, but also our opportunity to truly be a human being and live a full, balanced existence in harmony with all around us. This program has provided me the tools to not only be a better steward of the environment, but to realize my potential as a person."

– Zach, RDNA 2005-06

"This year’s program was the transition I needed to go from having a sense of interest in permaculture and nature, to being grounded in the experience. I now have a strong conviction to follow this path."

– Isaac, RDNA 2005-06

"I have always considered myself an outdoorsy person, a nature lover. After one year of RDNA I have a whole new relationship with nature. Now when I walk outside I feel a part of the outdoors, and not only am I still a sincere nature lover, I am able to love everything! P.S. RDNA rocks!"

– Dave, RDNA 2005-06

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More Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Where do people live while they are taking the program?
At this time, we do not have any on-site housing available. Participants have chosen to live in various locations throughout the Bay Area. When housing opportunities arise among our friends and collaborators, we share that information with new and returning students.

Are there any scholarships or work trade option available?
There are none available at this time. We are pursuing funding and donations to offer scholarships in the future.

Can I pay my tuition via a payment plan?
RDI offers payment plans for participants unable to pay in full before the start of the course.  Our payment plan for the 2013-14 course is as follows:

$5000 paid by July 29, 2013
First half of remaining tuition paid by November 1, 2013 (plus $25 admin fee)
Final half of remaining tuition paid by February 1, 2014 (plus $25 admin fee)

RDNA participants agreeing to a payment plan submit post dated checks for all payments. RDI keeps the checks on file until the payment date.

Please contact our office to arrange a payment plan.

Will I need to study outside of class time? Is there time to work outside of the program?
Participants engage in weekly assignments (home fun), designed to enhance the richness of the RDNA curriculum. The quantity and focus areas are co-created between each participant and RDNA staff. Participants are also encouraged to do home reading in relation to the weekly curriculum topics.

Some participants choose to work during the program, and others focus soley on their RDNA studies. The kinds of jobs that various participants have held include work in NGOs, restaurants, education, landscaping, self-employment, or any part-time work that is flexible to the RDNA schedule. Local work opportunities are passed through the RDNA list serves.

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