January 23, 2022

Finding ‘healing and peace’ in the wilderness

Alumna and her family create outdoor experience company for African American individuals

Shequeita Orr Frazier, a 2004 management and marketing graduate, launched Camp Yoshi in 2020 with her husband and brother-in-law.

Camp Yoshi is an adventure tour company focused on getting African American people and their allies outside. The idea came from a family camping trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.

The camping trip “was everything I didn’t know I needed,” Frazier said. “I truly understood on day one what my husband and his brother had tapped into — a true sense of healing and peace in such a time of unrest and chaos all around us.”

Their family and friends voiced safety concerns on posts from the trip.

“We knew what our family and friends were referring to… the generations of trauma and fear associated with the ‘woods’ in the Black community, the chaos happening in real time all around us with the police killings of Black people. However, we found our rhythm, our healing, our place of release, and we wanted to help others discover theirs. So, Camp Yoshi was born.”

Shequeita orr fraizer

“Our goal is to encourage Black people to get outside, off the grid and feel a sense of belonging and comfort with getting out to remote places,” Frazier said. “We want to equip them with the tools to make this a lifelong endeavor for themselves and their families.”

Read the full story on the Darla Moore School of Business website.