For almost 20 years, our team has been guiding students to step into their own unique practice as teachers, healers, and empowered individuals seeking to create impactful change in their community. As a spiritually focused organization, built upon a foundation of love, radical self- acceptance, personal growth, and deep connection- We love what we do and feel grateful to be the team that makes up the foundation of School Yoga Institute.
We invite our students to immerse themselves in understanding through deep spiritual inquiry while being guided in the ancient shamanic teachings of the medicine wheel. For over a decade, we have been dedicated to providing exceptional experiences that leave our facilitators feeling inspired, our potential students and alumni ready to make a change in this world, and our hearts left forever grateful in seeing the impact our trainings are having on people throughout the globe. We are honored to serve you and continue to strive each and every day to make sure you know how important it’s to have you as part of our growing global Family.
With beaming love and light,
Keri is a modern mystical momma who grew up in Roseburg, Oregon. She spent her childhood in the wild, playing outside with her brothers, and becoming a lover of all things athletic. Upon graduating high school, she went on to Oregon State University where she met her beloved husband Jed Pennell and earned her masters degree in Exercise Science and pedagogy. Keri and Jed quickly became well loved Health and Physical Education teachers in Point Arena, California. It was there that their first child Kalani was born. Keri instantly realized that her life passion was to be a mother! Since then, Keri has become a mother to 3 more children Phoenyx, Orion, and Lotus Jewel!! Keri and Jed now travel the world, spreading the love and light of yoga through yoga teacher training courses! When they are not traveling, they make home base in Ashland, Oregon.
Keri is also a vegan chef, where she has cooked for many of School Yoga Institute’s Yoga Teacher Training courses, in Costa Rica, where they resided for many years. She finds her inspiration in home birth, vegan food creations, conscious living, nature walks with her family, and fermentation!!
You can find Keri and her husband Jed corralling their 4 beautiful children on a basketball court in Ashland (haha), making yummy vegan treats together in their kitchen, or at a Yoga Teacher Training in Guatemala, Peru, Costa Rica, or Bali!
E-RYT 500, is a New York native currently living in Oceanside, California. Jeanine was introduced to the healing benefits of Yoga in 2006 & decided to become a teacher in 2013. She studied with School Yoga Institute in Savusavu, Fiji for her 200hr teacher training where she fell in love with both traveling and teaching. Jeanine completed her 500hr advanced professional teacher training at Prana Yoga Center in La Jolla, CA. Jeanine is also a Certified Integrative Life Coach and hopes to create a safe space for her students to transform their inner worlds and outlook on life. Jeanine is also passionate about Embodied Cognition, Trauma Informed Yoga, Yoga for Anxiety & Depression, and Yoga for Teens.
She currently facilitates 200hr & 300hr Teacher Trainings internationally with the intention of spreading the power of Yoga as much as possible. Jeanine’s goal is to encourage her students to have fun, create space for internal reflection and cultivate more balance in their lives. Jeanine considers herself a life long student and is consistently taking workshops and additional certifications. Teaching is an honor and a privilege to Jeanine and she is thrilled to be a part of the SYI team. She currently teaches at Black Sheep Yoga & Vital climbing gym.
What’s your favorite pose?
Trikonasana
What’s your favorite quote?
This is temporary.
What inspires you in your practice?
Neuroplasticity.
Contact Jeanine at Jeanine@schoolyogainstitute.com or on Instagram @jeaninetalento
Brooke is a California-native currently living in Palo Alto, CA. She completed her first 200-hour teacher training with School Yoga Institute in Bali in 2017 and was blessed to return for an additional 200-hour training in Peru in 2019. Her trainings with SYI have transformed her personal practice and she is honored to now be teaching mystical yoga flows to her local communities.
Brooke is also co-founder of the Sacred Sister Collective, where she facilitates healing, transformational women’s retreats and workshops. Brooke feels honored to serve individuals as they uncover the radiant perfection of their true nature and step into their power. She finds medicine in connection, vulnerability, shared tears, seeing and being seen, healing touch, and colorful expression.
Brooke is dedicated to humbly learning from other’s unique life experiences and forever remaining a student of life. She is currently enrolled in a trauma-informed training with The Art of Yoga Project, and is well on her way to becoming a National Board-Certified Health and Well-Being Coach with YogaMedCo. Brooke’s life mission is to remain in service to all beings by holding a space of unconditional love for the entirety of each individual’s unique process.
What’s your favorite pose?
Sleeping Pigeon
What’s your favorite quote?
“What I want to say to you, my dear, is this: Just for today, live the passionate truth of who you are. Stop looking at what is undone, what you haven’t achieved, where you’ve fallen short. Look, instead, into your own full heart. If your journey brings you to a choice between love and fear, choose love. Vulnerability is its own grace and its own gift. Offer it. Be brave enough to be vulnerable. Allow yourself to be seen – dancing, and falling, and failing, and trying again. You are loved, and all that you have to offer is deeply needed. Your own presence is a force for healing. Be present. There is more going on than you know, more guidance and support surrounding you than you can even begin to imagine. Trust it. Your own strong roots are in place – in your own body, in the earth, in the ongoing story of your life, just as it is. Put your faith in those roots and allow yourself to go with the flow. Let go and breathe into the goodness that you already are. Move with the current, not against it. Resist nothing. Let life carry you. You have work to do. Begin it.” – Katrina Kenison
What inspires you in your practice?
My practice is inspired by the power yoga holds to heal on an individual and collective level. A teacher of mine in Peru said that the only path in life is the path of healing ourselves. I agree full-heartedly. The emotions that we struggle with the most, are the ones that are trying the hardest to heal us. And when we heal and deepen our relationship with ourselves through this sacred practice, we heal our families, we heal our friends, we heal our communities, we heal the world.
Contact Brooke at Brooke@schoolyogainstitute.com or on Instagram @bloom.with.me
My experience with School Yoga Institute was much more than just a yoga training. I didn’t expect to be finding myself in an experience where I would be challenged to let go, change, and transform both mentally and spiritually. I left the training feeling like I had unlocked even more questions than when I began,...
My journey towards my shamanic yoga teacher training with SYI started in December 2018, when I just arrived in Peru and had no clue of how my South America travels would go.Funnily I got pretty soon to the inner point that I felt that simple traveling is not what I’m so stoked about anymore after...
Sound, scent, scenery, script – a sensory spectacular evolving within my consciousness as my mind transforms my experience into perception, and converts that into memory – an imprint in my brain. On my heart.Today is a beautiful day to be alive, every moment is a new opportunity for growth, trust your breath, I am enough....
I half-expected myself to back out before the date to depart for my Yoga Teacher Training with School Yoga Institute, but something in me had me buying that plane ticket anyway. I finally decided it was time to go all-in on something that my heart was calling me to do. This journey to Peru to...
My journey in discovering the ultimate healing source has lead up to this moment: The moment I had finally discovered yoga. I wanted to learn more, knowing that every movement and posture such as asanas in this practice were not only beautiful, but also greatly benefit the body, the mind and our chakras. Choosing the...
I really wanted to learn how to teach yoga. I looked into teacher training in Vancouver but the timing didn’t work in my favor. I knew I would be leaving for Police training in July so I decided I wanted to take a long trip to Bali since I have always wanted to visit. As...
To begin, in 2015 I entered my four years at Utica College. I’ve always been curious about yoga but grew up in a small town where yoga wasn’t very known. As I was picking out my classes I noticed they offered a yoga class for a gym credit, so I signed up right away. During...
I discovered yoga when I was 16 years old and I knew immediately that I would be practicing it for the rest of my life. As my practice evolved I began thinking about training as a yoga teacher purely to gain knowledge and learn proper alignment. For many years it sat in the back of...
I started practicing yoga almost 10 years ago, a little bit on and off at first, but when I settled into a regular practice it was due to going through some rough times and without my practice, I’m not sure where I’d be in life. With the impact that yoga had had on my life...
I started practicing yoga 2 years ago and it changed my life! Every time I am in a bad mood or have negative thoughts, I just practice yoga and everything gets better! That is why I took the opportunity to do a Yoga Teacher Training. I did not really know what to expect from it...
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver
