Alumni Magazine Spring 2008 - Green Meadow Waldorf School

Alumni
Magazine
spring 08

Writing home
Green Meadow
Alumni Magazine
Spring 2008
Director of Development
Vicki Larson
(845) 356-2514 x 311
vlarson@gmws.org
Associate Director of
Development
Chris Delaney
(845) 356-2514 x 304
cdelaney@gmws.org
Alumni Coordinator
Ivy Greenstein
(845) 356-2514 x 330
igreenstein@gmws.org
Alumni Magazine Editor
Candace Stern
(201) 264-8100
cstern@gmws.org
Design/Production Manager
Jan Melchior
jan@janmdesign.com
Photographers
Julia ‘97 and Tristan K. Altes,
Elliot Berkowitz ‘92, Nate Burger ‘94,
Mick Follari ‘90, Ivy Greenstein,
Sherab Kloppenburg ‘92,
Ray Manacas,Thomas McArdle ‘91,
Martha Paradis-Evans
Editorial Offce
Green Meadow Waldorf School
307 Hungry Hollow Road
Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977
Green Meadow Waldorf School
publishes this Alumni
Magazine two times a year in
Fall and Spring.
Editorial Committee
Jennie Abbingsole ‘91
Jennifer Brooks-Quinn
Ivy Greenstein
Jan Melchior
Ann Stahl
Alexis Starkey ’91
Candace Stern
As Jan Melchior, Ivy Greenstein and I finished the Fall 2007 issue of the Alumni Magazine,
we were already discussing editorial and artistic themes for the Spring 2008 issue.
It seemed we all had houses on our minds. Between my many moves, Ivy’s restoration
of her Rockland County farmhouse and Jan’s home-as-perpetual-construction-site, the
subject loomed large in our conversations. We spoke about what makes a house a home. Thinking
about our Waldorf alumni and their holistic approach to living, we wondered what their ideas
about making “home” might be. From reading the Fall 2007 issue, we knew there were many
Green Meadow alumni engaged in the building trades. Wouldn’t it be interesting, we thought,
to invite them to write about their work Great idea! We read carefully through the Magazine’s
Class News columns searching for names, solicited more names from Tony Cirone, and developed
a list of alumni whom we knew worked with houses and homes and set about tracking them
down. Alas, we could not find contact information for everyone on our list, nor did we hear back
from everyone we tried to reach, but each one who responded to our call for articles did so with
wonderful warmth and enthusiasm.
When their articles started piling into my email box in January, I was in for a big surprise.
While we, as editors, had been thinking about hearth and home, our Waldorf alumni had something
far more dynamic and forward-thinking to write about! As I read their articles, I thought
back to a year ago when Peter Almasi ’93 wrote his “Global Climate Change” article for the Magazine.
That single article, like a pebble cast into a pool, has had a remarkable ripple effect. Late
last spring, Kenneth Mankoff ‘96 came to GMWS to make a customized presentation of Al Gore’s
An Inconvenient Truth to the high school students and faculty. Talking with him afterwards,
I learned that after reading the Alumni Magazine, Kenneth had immediately called Peter to
talk about their mutual academic interests. What I had always hoped for had happened: Green
Meadow alumni from different classes were making connections with each other through the
Magazine. Kenneth’s enthusiasm for countering global warming lead him to write “A Simple
Change,” about replacing incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL), for
our Fall ’07 issue.
In this issue, too, you will find the same passionate concerns for earth tending, this time
expressed from the perspective of designing, building and maintaining the built environment.
Here, you will read about strawbale and rammed-earth construction; houses designed, built, restored
or updated using recycled materials; and other eco-friendly techniques. You will also read
about historic preservation, land conservation, and living outdoors. Our authors have taken great
inspiration from nature; their deep and abiding love of mountains runs through many of their
articles. Their innovative, creative spirits breathe light and life into each challenge and opportunity
they meet. At a time when Americans are loosening their connections with nature and when
the construction and housing industries have been seriously depressed, it is heartening to know
that their idea of home is more comprehensive and expansive than the one we had first imagined:
Home is not just a building that shelters us from the elements. Home is also the Planet Earth,
which shelters, nourishes and sustains us all.
It is clear that environmental awareness is not just a matter of academic interest to these
Green Meadow alumni. They are seeking solutions to the many challenges of global warming by
actively leading the way with materials reuse, waste reduction, recycling, and utilizing alternative
energy sources. We can be rightfully proud of their important contributions to the design,
construction and maintenance of homes across the country, and, even more so, for their deep and
abiding love for the home we all share here on Earth. And right behind them, Green Meadow high
school students, the next generation, are developing their skills and gathering knowledge – and
after school, some are building robots. It will not be long before they, too, enter the work world
and when they do, they will bring with them solutions and innovations we can only imagine!
~Candace Stern, Editor
Cover Photograph:The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, California, June 2005, by Thomas McArdle ‘91

Contents
f e a t u r e s
departments
14 A CAll to ACtion, Mick Follari ‘90
18 Evolution oF A BuildEr, Elliot Berkowitz ‘92
20 FroM Anthro to Enviro: thE story
oF ECo hAndyMAn, nate Burger ‘94
22 sMAll hAnds FArM, Julia K. Altes ‘97
24 At hoME in thE WildErnEss,
thomas McArdle ‘91
26 A list oF Four, sherab Kloppenburg ‘92
27 tEAChEr FEAturE: nyquAn’s BooKs,
deborah schaeffer ‘01
CoMMunity nEWs
4 Green Meadow
8 sunbridge College
8 threefold
9 Fellowship Community
1 0 Alumni
30 WhAt Would stEinEr sAy
31 ContriButors

Community News
Poly-Gnomes
Front (l-r):
Nicholas Frei,
Noah Kaplan,
Sung-Ryul Moon
Rear (l-r):
Charles Rudish,
Mr. Madsen,
Alexander Evans,
Sung-Pil Moon,
Gavin Langdon
faculty green meadow waldorf
school sunbridge college
fellowship community threefold
educational foundation pfeiffer
center eurythmy spring valley
Green Meadow news
in the high school...
Green Meadow robotics
team Wins
Championship Alliance
Winslow Eliot
They’re called the Poly-Gnomes.
They are a group of eight
Green Meadow HS students who
design and create robots. And they
made up half of the championship
alliance that won the Snow Day
Showdown tournament in Hightstown,
N.J. on December 15—an
event that is part of FIRST, an international
program designed “to
inspire and recognize excellence
in science and technology through
robotics co-opertitions.” The Poly-
Gnomes robotics team includes
Alexander Evans, Nicholas Frei,
Noah Kaplan, Gavin Langdon, Aidan
Nelson, Charles Rudish, Sung-
Pil Moon, and Sung-Ryul Moon.
Team members gather together
after school every week under the
guidance of Green Meadow High
School robotics coach and physics
and math teacher, James Madsen.
Together they strategize, plan,
program, and build.
The FIRST Robotics Competition
challenges teams to design a robot
that will win against a robotics game
designed by FIRST founder Dean
Kamen and a committee of engineers
and other professionals. Students
are rewarded for excellence
in design, demonstrated team spirit,
gracious professionalism and maturity,
and the ability to overcome
obstacles. Scoring the most points
is a secondary goal. Winning means
building partnerships that last. “On
the playing field there are a bunch of
three-inch rings and different types
of goals,” Madsen describes it. “The
teams are trying to gather rings and
score them on goals. The goals move.
It gets pretty fast and serious.”
The Poly-Gnomes spent a couple
of months thinking about how they
could create a robot that would win
the game. “The students have to
constantly apply all the physics and
math they’ve been learning; weighing
the costs and benefits of using
one design over another,” says Madsen.
“And without a lot of money to
invest in research, they have to be
creative. There’s a maximum of ten
students on any team, which means
that everyone needs to be active and
participate. This is a terrific place
for these students to be. It takes a
lot of physics and programming to
get the robots to do what they want
them to do. They’re computer whizzes;
they are great at playing computer
games, but with this program
that FIRST offers, they can get really
creative.”
FIRST emerged from a strong
personality, a New Hampshire entrepreneur
called Dean Kamen,
with several scientific patents to
his credit. In the late 1980s, he saw
something occurring in the United
States that troubled him: Science
Students are rewarded for excellence in design,
demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and
maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles.
4 | Alumni Magazine

and math heroes were simply not
valued by young people in the same
way rock stars, athletics champions,
and movie idols were. Kamen set
out to create a venue that would inspire
young kids to be scientifically
and technologically challenged—
something so exciting that it would
be as exciting as performing at a
rock concert. In 1989, he founded
FIRST, an acronym meaning: “For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science
and Technology.” By 2007, 37
competitions were held around the
world. Kamen remains the driving
force behind the organization, and
continues to gain support and publicity
from major corporations, universities,
and colleges.
“The way these events occur is
very exciting,” says Madsen. “There’s
loud techno music, it’s all highly animated,
and it’s very exciting for the
kids. It’s nothing like a spelling bee
or a science fair; instead there’s intense
animation, excitement, yelling,
screaming. And what’s really great is
the gracious professionalism that
imbues everything we do in all the
competitions. Dean Kamen’s ideal
of helping your competitors permeates
every aspect. Being a monopoly
and destroying everyone else doesn’t
help anyone. Helping each other
helps everyone. And you see that in
the competitions. The students are
all helping each other, sharing software,
helping with spare parts.”
This article excerpted from an article
by Winslow Eliot that recently
appeared on AWSNA’s new website:
whywaldorfworks.org
high school Week
2008
Jessalyn Traino ‘08
Every year, the high school suspends
its normal classes to let
students explore certain areas of interest
for High School Week. There
is always a theme and different
workshops that relate to it, joined
by field trips, a featured speaker and
a panel of four speakers. The week
culminates in a display of what the
groups have learned. This is a time
to learn something new and have fun
doing it!
This year, the High School Week
Planning Committee consisted of
Fiona Cansino, Dylan Farrell-Bryan,
Aidan Nelson, Sundi Powers-Adler,
Adrienne Sibrizzi and me, and was
headed by the wonderful Green
Meadow high school teacher Mrs.
Christofides Lowenthal. We came up
with the theme of Isolation and Community.
We wanted people to see
the difference between the two, and
how we live our lives based on those
two ideas. The workshops that were
offered were African Drumming,
Jewelry Making, Cooking, Poetry,
Ecological Footprint, Conflict Resolution,
and Aikido. The field trips
were to Liberty Science Center, art
galleries in New York, a Mystery Trip
to New York, People to People assistance,
and caving (spelunking). Our
panel speakers were Assemblywoman
Ellen Jaffee, Vicki Forster, alum
Jemal Gulum ‘03, and Carol Galione,
Director of Programs from People to
People. The week progressed well,
with many adventures on the field
trips, and everyone seemed to have
a great time.
Our featured speaker this year was
Brian Turner, a poet who has served
in Iraq. He read many of his poems
and spoke of his experiences before
leading the poetry workshop. Most
of us were surprised to discover that
someone who had fought in Iraq had
many of the same views on the war
as we had. His poetry had the ability
to turn the horrific things he experienced
into beautiful works of art.
I know I am not speaking only for
myself when I say that he was one
of the most inspirational speakers I
have heard.
Our week ended with a wonderful
presentation from every group. I hope
that all of the students learned and
received a lot throughout the week,
but I also hope they had fun.
high school
Metalworking
Michael Witri
Anew addition to the ninth grade
curriculum is metalworking.
Our ninth graders are not just learning
about blacksmithing and copper
work, they are doing it! When working
with copper the students make
useful objects, such as bowls. Mrs.
Volpe teaches copper work; I teach
blacksmithing. Many people think
of blacksmithing as putting shoes
on horses. That is a specific kind
of blacksmithing done by farriers.
Generally speaking, blacksmithing
is making things that are useful and
ornamental from steel.
To begin, we take a piece of
steel, heat it in a forge until it is
red hot and then bang it with a
hammer until it is the shape needed.
It sounds simple when described,
but I think elemental is more descriptive.
It is a great activity for
anyone, but especially for ninth
graders who hunger for cause
and effect, and tangibility
in their efforts. It is rare
that a student has experience
with hot steel and
so at first they are a bit
intimidated. But as they
experience the activity and
see the results those feelings
dissipate and they bang away
freely. Unlike wood and fabric, if
you make a mistake with metal, usually
all you have to do is heat it up
again and bang it some more. The
pedagogical notion of having a picture
in one’s head and bringing it to
life with one’s hands is in full bloom
at this point. As they trust themselves
more and more, the students
are impressed and even amazed with
what they can make. We start with
basic techniques, such as learning
School News
The S-Hook
Spring 2008 | 5

Community News
Metalworking:
John Robertson,
Grade 9
to make a round rod square and a
square one round. Next we move to
pointing and tapering, and then we
work with moving material around.
At this point the students are ready
to put their skills into practice and
start making actual things.
Our first project is to make hooks
beginning with the S-hook. S-hooks
are used for suspending something,
such as a pot over a fire. Then we
make a drive hook, which is a hook
with a pointed right angle at the top
that can be driven into a tree or a
wall to hold something. Then comes
the J-hook which can be hung on a
shelf or sometimes there is a hole in
it so that it can be hung on a nail.
Each of these projects employs skills
with which the students are already
comfortable and which also adds
something new. Next, we practice
making leaves and when we have
mastered that, we make a letter
opener with a leaf handle. All of
these projects are practical and can
be useful.
As the years go on, these simple
everyday objects will provide our
students with a reminder of who
they once were, as well as how
they got to where they are presently.
It will also remind them
of one of the ways in which they
worked through something they
did not understand at first and
brought it to its conclusion.
taking the initiative
Ivy Greenstein, with reporting by
Melissa Barton ’11, Cate Sandstrom
‘11, and Jessalyn Traino ’08
This past year, more than a dozen
Green Meadow students from
all four high school grades, banding
together and calling themselves
the Student Initiative Group, proved
what can happen when the desire
to give turns into action. With no
faculty advisor directing them (but
with teachers and other adults on
hand to dispense advice and assistance
when called upon), this group
took on a number of service projects
designed to show both their interest
in the world beyond Green Meadow
and their insistence on taking the
lead in carrying out their work.
The teens’ first project was the
sale of Waldorf-inspired Peruvian
dolls made by a collective of poor
women in Lima. Profits sent to Peru
from selling these dolls at venues
such as the Fall Fair, a Green Meadow
kindergarten parents’ evening
(with its appropriate discussion
topic of “Warmth”) and Sunbridge
College’s Waldorf Early Childhood
Conference will serve to better the
lives of the collective’s community.
Next, the students turned their attention
to the children of Africa. Enlisting
the generosity of the Green
Meadow community, the Student
Initiative Group put out a call for
crayons, pencils and other art supplies
which were collected and donated
to orphanages and children’s
hospitals in Rwanda. Joining forces
with GMWS third grade students
and parents, the high schoolers then
created three gingerbread houses
(made with nearly 100% organic ingredients,
including candy decorations,
from our local Hungry Hollow
Co-op!). Raffled off at December’s
Holiday Assembly, the $400+ gingerbread
house profit was forwarded
to children in African hospitals and
orphanages. For Valentine’s Day,
the Student Initiative Group joined
with Green Meadow’s Parent Handwork
group to create Waldorf-style
dolls as another way to benefit those
in need in Africa. A $10 donation
bought a doll-inspired card—also
produced by the teens—to deliver
the message of love and giving to
one’s Valentine here, and a gift of a
doll to the children there. Thus far,
Rwandan hospitals and orphanages
have received over 80 dolls and gifts
totaling several hundred dollars from
this “heartfelt” activity. Projects to
benefit those in need closer to home,
including a food drive for Rockland’s
People to People and other local
hunger organizations, are next up on
this dynamic group’s agenda.
two nights only
Charles Sherwood Rudish ‘10
Yes, The Drama Club continued
after its inaugural year this
year with a production of “Guys and
Dolls.” There are nine of us who
meet on Tuesdays not only to act,
but also to just have a great time
telling jokes, complaining about
teachers—you know, the usual.
When we started “Guys and Dolls,”
we were pumped, but after a while,
we got really scared. There was
so much to do in so little time. To
tell you the truth, there were times
when I thought we’d never pull it
off. But after working like crazy the
two days before, the lights went up
6 | Alumni Magazine

Community News
NEW GMWS WEBSITE IN THE WORKS
We are happy to report that Green Meadow is in the midst of a long-awaited
revision of our school website, including creating a brand-new website for
our alumni. We hope you will use it to share news and happenings with one
another; learn about school news, campus events and upcoming reunions;
and reconnect with former classmates via a brand-new online directory (an
innovation for us, but one which will save printing costs, postage and trees!).
Keep checking in at www.gmws.org to see when the new site will be up and
do let us know what you think!
While on their September trip to Hermit Island, Maine, this year’s 12th graders
stopped off at Merriconeag Waldorf School to visit former GMWS English teacher,
David Sloan, now Chair of Merriconeag’s new high school. Accompanying the class
on this annual rite of passage were senior class advisors John Wulsin and Jennifer
Brooks-Quinn and alumni chaperones Anna Booth ‘99 and Deborah Schaeffer ‘01.
to full houses both nights. We thank
the audience for giving us the opportunity
to perform, and we hope
to see you next year.
Editor’s note: “Guys and Dolls” was
performed in the Arts Building on
February 5th and 6th. If you wish
to be alerted to the schedule of future
Drama Club performances—
as well as other Green Meadow
events—make sure we have your
email address and we’ll be happy to
send you advance notice!
Andy Petersen (left)
and Alex Evans (right)
An invitation from
the GMWs Bulletin
Lisa Kreisel Wolfe ‘77
Editor, The Bulletin
As this Magazine attests, the insights,
perspectives, and experiences of Green
Meadow alumni are inspiring! Bringing
alumni voices more often to our bi-weekly
school newsletter, The Bulletin, offers our
whole school community an opportunity
to learn more about these members of
our Green Meadow family and their lives
today.
If you’ve logged on to our website recently
and followed the links to current
or past issues of The Bulletin, you’ll notice
that we’ve added a new column: Alumni
Corner. Contributors to this column
have ranged from Brendan Oswald, Class
of ’92 (and now a GMWS parent himself),
reflecting on the role his Green Meadow
education has played in his profession as
a teacher, to Elizabeth Volpe ’04, describing
how her decision to enter the world
of investment banking was informed, in
part, by Green Meadow’s emphasis on
curiosity and well-roundedness.
Please help us enhance this alumni col
umn with stories of your experiences and
adventures. Perhaps you would like to of
fer a biographical sketch, or share photos
of your current surroundings, a recent
trip, a special event or an artistic project.
The Bulletin is published 19 times each
school year, from September to June. I
would be happy to receive your submis
sions at any time. Please send them to me
at lwolfe@gmws.org or (845) 356-2514 x
301.
Alumni can read both The Bulletin and
The Alumni Magazine online by going to
www.gmws.org and following the links.
Spring 2008 | 7

Community News
Browsing in the
Sunbridge
College
Bookstore
sunbridge
College news
Julika Stackelberg-Addo
When you are asked about your
education and respond: “I went
to a Waldorf school,” you probably
encounter a myriad of responses,
ranging from interest or familiarity,
to a blank stare. Even though
the Waldorf school movement is one
of the fastest growing independent
school movements globally, with
over 1,000 schools in 64 countries,
Waldorf education is still largely
unknown. As a Waldorf graduate
who has bumped into other Waldorf
graduates in some of the most remote
places on Earth, this phenomenon
stimulates a burning question
for me. How can an education that
is forward thinking and widespread
not be better known
Being active in the field of education
for a number of years now, I have
become aware of the fact that there
is a lack of quantitative and qualitative
research that demonstrates the
benefits and potentials of Waldorf
education. In light of this fact, I am
thrilled that Sunbridge College was
recently re-accredited and will continue
as the only independent degree-granting
anthroposophical college
in the English-speaking world.
Why Because being accredited as
an institution of higher education
in today’s world means that rigorous
standards and requirements have to
be met. It means that the College
will continue to foster research activities
by its faculty and students,
which is a first step to making Waldorf
education better understood
and more accessible to educators,
students of education, and prospective
teachers.
As you can imagine, expanding
the quality and quantity of research
on the value of Waldorf educational
methods will not happen overnight.
However, I am excited to say that
Sunbridge recently hired Christine
Shakespeare, Ph.D., (a Waldorf
graduate herself!) as the first Dean
of Academic Affairs. With four Waldorf
graduates on the team, Sunbridge
College is taking important
steps toward strengthening the rigor
of its teacher preparation master’s
programs for Waldorf educators. For
my part, by working in Sunbridge’s
Development Department, I am hoping
to increase the awareness of and
support for Waldorf education and
its potential to bring new life and renewal
to education and our culture.
If you want to help too, please spread
the word!
Also, did you know that there are
over 400 teaching positions that need
to be filled each year in the Waldorf
schools in North America alone If
you know someone who you think
may have the potential to teach or
who wants to be a teacher: tell them
about your education and where they
can explore the vocation of Waldorf
teaching: www.sunbridge.edu
threefold news
Mimi Satriano
Ispent over an hour reading the
last Alumni Magazine, catching
up with all of you. It was a moving
experience, a little bit like being
in the Twilight Zone, remembering
most of you as teenagers and absolutely
amazed at how you all went on
to such interesting paths.
When many of you were students,
I worked at the school. As far as I
know, I hold the singular distinction
of having worked in all three
sections of Green Meadow. In 1991,
I moved on to work at the Threefold
Educational Foundation, whose mission
is to support and develop educational
work based on the work of
Rudolf Steiner. We try to ensure that
all TEF institutions (Green Meadow,
Sunbridge College, the Eurythmy
School, the Hungry Hollow Co-op)
are in step with requirements imposed
on us by outside authorities,
while fielding requests and ideas to
make new things happen.
Rafael Manacas, Threefold’s Director,
is working on plans to celebrate
the 75th anniversary of the
first international anthroposophical
conference in America, held in
Spring Valley in 1933. The theme of
8 | Alumni Magazine

Community News
the celebration is “Envisioning the
Future” and it will take place here
in late August 2008. At the age of
21, Henry Barnes, a pioneer in this
country’s Waldorf movement, met
anthroposophy and Waldorf education
at the 1933 conference. A resident
of the Fellowship Community,
he turns 96 this summer and looks
forward to participating in the anniversary
conference and meeting
today’s young people. We are trying
to create a program of interest to
young people. We would be happy
to hear from you about topics that
would make you want to participate
in such a conference.
While Rafael is doing that, I am
trying to figure out how to renovate
the Auditorium, without ruining the
near perfect acoustics and the cozy
feeling that is so well loved by all
who enter the building. A new roof
was installed this year, as well as
new stage curtains, so that will buy
us time while we try to figure out
how to air-condition the place and
meet accessibility requirements,
among other challenges. Oh yes,
then there’s always the fund-raising
that goes along with all these
adventures and keeping up with the
new technology. Which reminds me,
soon Threefold will have a nicely designed
website as well as signs along
Hungry Hollow Road so people will
be able to find us more easily.
I have spent most of my adult life
living and working on Hungry Hollow
Road and it has been very gratifying.
Whether at Green Meadow or at
Threefold, there has never been a day
when I didn’t want to go to work. My
tasks have ranged all over the map,
but at the end of each day, they were
in support of an ideal that I value
deeply. How many people have that
satisfaction at the end of every day I
wish the same for all of you.
Fellowship
Community news
from the Fellowship Community
Newsletter
When the Fellowship Community
began its journey over 40 years
ago, we did not realize that we were
paving quite a new road, with care of
the elderly embedded in a community
of all ages, with enough worthwhile
activities to assure that life is
worth living, and with an end that is
but a new beginning. Though we did
not begin trying to be unique, many a
friend tells us that, in fact, we are.
Over the years there have been
many challenges to the birthing of
enriching events and new undertakings.
These events have nourished
our determination to continue our
striving to bring human care with
gentleness, dignity, and productivity.
We are very grateful to have
been pioneers in this direction,
seeking support for the betterment
of long term care. We are grateful
to have the experience of caring for
single individuals in a community,
while working for humankind in the
process.
We have co-workers, elders and
volunteers who are ready to help in
ways that they never knew they could
– in work areas, on the farm and in
human care. They bring a kindness
of heart with their care. Some of our
elders who come here to retire can
become active and busy within the
community.
Those who become more frail
and in need of assistance can bring
their lifetime learning to share
with others. They can bring about
a unique and informal educational
circumstance for youngsters in the
community.
Martin and Luther: Born on Martin
Luther King Day, the two newest
lambs of the Duryea Farm of the
Fellowship Community draw visits
to the community from neighbors
and friends of all ages.
Pictured left,
The Threefold
Auditorium
Spring 2008 | 9

Alumni News
Alumni news
developments
Ivy Greenstein
Alumni Coordinator
This past January marked my first
full year as a member of Green
Meadow’s Development staff. During
this year, significant changes occurred
in the Development Office as
a whole. A major change has been
saying farewell, at least for now, to
Tony Cirone, beloved class teacher
of the classes of ’95 and ’03 and, since
1999, Director of the GMWS Development
program and originator of
the GMWS Alumni program. Tony
had long wanted to exchange the
grey days of Northeast winters for
California sunshine and this January,
he and Gail headed west to San
Diego, where he is now Director of
Development and head of the Capital
Campaign for the Waldorf school
there. We are extremely grateful to
Tony for his many years of service
and inspired leadership and wish
him well in his new endeavors.
We are delighted to introduce
you to Tony’s successor, Vicki Larson,
an experienced development
professional who has worked in
the non-profit sector since 2001.
Vicki comes to us from MADRE,
an international women’s human
rights organization based in NYC.
Prior to 2001, she managed Labyrinth
Books, a scholarly bookstore
in Manhattan, and edited Monthly
Review, an international political
affairs magazine.
In terms of her view of development
work, Vicki has this to say:
“I think it’s really important to remember
that fundraising is always
about relationships—everyone has
something to contribute to the process,
including donors, recipients,
and fundraisers. Money is a loaded
topic in our society, but I believe
that privilege carries responsibility
and wealth is meant to be shared.
I’m interested in making the process
of giving and receiving as natural
and comfortable as possible for
everyone involved, and in erasing
the inequalities—both real and perceived—between
giver and receiver.
I never intended to be a fundraiser:
I have always seen fundraising as a
necessary step in making possible
the work that I believe in. So, for me,
the ideal fundraisers are people who
have professional skills and are totally
committed to the projects they
are fundraising for, who see raising
money as a tool rather than an
end. The goal is to make our dreams
real, and money is simply one of the
things we need for that to happen.”
As you all know, our school has
a long and successful history of development
events: Many of you remember
when the Fall Fair was a
two-day event and how, each spring,
the school was transformed by the
three-day Pottery Show. While the
Fall Fair is still going strong, the Pottery
Show closed its doors after 25
successful years, giving rise, in 1994,
to the Spring Family Music Festival.
Today, our community events are
run by Christine Delaney, now in
her seventh year as GMWS’s Associate
Director of Development. During
her tenure here, Chris has also
added the late winter/early spring
Goods and Services Auction and the
early fall Jack Onderdonk Memorial
Golf Outing to our repertoire of annual
events; her prodigious organizational
and management skills are
key to drawing people from a wide
area to our school and productively
engaging vast numbers of parent
VICKI LARSoN,
DEVELoPMENT DIRECToR
and faculty volunteers. Chris is also
the school’s database guru extraordinaire
and the administrator for
our other fund-raising programs:
SCRIP and online shopping. Both of
these development tools require no
extra out-of-pocket expenditures for
the buyer, yet net wonderful profits
for GMWS.
Rounding out the Green Meadow
Development team is our talented
and dynamic graphic designer, Jan
Melchior, who, in addition to designing
The Bulletin and our school’s
new website, creates posters and
postcards for our events and the layout
for this Magazine. It would be
hard to overstate Jan’s contributions
to the success of our department’s
endeavors. As you know from the
last issue of the Magazine, Candace
Stern, our fearless editor, is now living
in Dallas and Maine, embracing
technology as she conceives each
issue and works via telephone and
email with us all in the editing and
production process.
As for me, getting to know the
workings of the Green Meadow
Alumni Department has been a
wonderful experience, and I have
thoroughly enjoyed the tasks involved:
coordinating my first Fall
Fair All-Alumni Gathering (you
can find my 11/05/07 article on this
topic in The Bulletin archives on
the GMWS website); working with
Class Giving Agents on the Annual
Appeal; assisting in the production
of the Magazine; planning my first
Alumni/Varsity Basketball Game
post-game party; sending GMWSstyle
“care packages” to our newly
minted graduates (now college
freshmen). Even updating the
database and gradually recognizing
alumni names—and successfully
matching them up with year
of graduation!—has been a gratifying
experience. My responsibilities
here are as varied as the community
I serve.
One thing I’ve come to learn in
this department is that while “Green
10 | Alumni Magazine

Alumni News
Tomorrow Within Today
A Campaign for
Green Meadow Waldorf School
Vicki Larson, Director of Development
GMWS’s alumni have joined with the wider Green Meadow community
to show their support for Tomorrow Within Today—Green
Meadow’s capital campaign. The alumni portion of the campaign has
been led by Green Meadow alumni David Bosch ’85 and Jennie (Abbott)
Abbingsole ’91, and alumni parent chairs Ann Stahl and Richard
Hansen. The purpose of the capital campaign is to realize the dreams
of our community: a beautiful addition to the Arts Building and muchneeded
gym and high school renovations.
There is much good news to report. As this issue of the Magazine
goes to press, we have exceeded our original fundraising goal and are
approaching $3 million; two alumni-sponsored challenge matches have
brought alumni giving to $220,000; alumni parents have given generously,
contributing $388,000; the school community has enjoyed several
campaign benefit events—the Jerrahi Mosque Ottoman Feast, an
opera performance by two current Green Meadow parents, staff-led
fitness classes, and several student-organized events. As we wrap up
the campaign, our goal is 100 percent participation: from alumni, faculty/staff,
and parents.
F ACTS & F IG u RES
Amount raised to date:
$2.9M
Fundraising Goal: $3M
Actual costs: $4M
(of construction and renovation)
CONTRIBuTEd By...
CuRREnT PAREnTS:
$1.6M
ALuMnI: $220,000
ALuMnI PAREnTS: $388,000
GMWS BOARD: over $700,000
FACuLTy/STAFF: over $75,000
GyM RENOvATIONS BEGIN
SuMMER 2008
ARTS BuIldING
GROuNdBREAKING
IN 2009
Meadow alumni” is a very easy term
to toss about—and certainly, you
do share a unique and wonderful
commonality—you are, nonetheless,
a very heterogeneous group of
individuals. Our alumni class lists
range from young people still in their
teens to fifty-something adults. Not
only have you alumni had a range of
educational and social experiences
while at Green Meadow—reflective
of both the decades in which
you grew up, as well as the milieu of
the school at the time you attended
—but you have naturally followed a
range of different directions in your
personal and professional lives since
then. My assignment, as your Coordinator,
is to recognize and meet
your current interests and needs as
GMWS alumni. My interest goes far
beyond merely trying to enlist your
financial support on behalf of today’s
students. You should know that the
school considers you very much a
vital part of our community, and we
value your participation and input
in current campus life. Please, get
in touch with me and let me know
if there are any events, activities,
or services you would like us to offer—or
perhaps you have something
you’d like to bring back and offer to
us. Together, we can carry on the
great legacy that Tony has left us!
If you haven’t yet
participated in the
capital campaign,
now is the time to
acknowledge the
important role that
Green Meadow has
played in your life.
It’s not too late and
every gift matters!
Spring 2008 | 11

Alumni News
At the game...
1 Chela Crane
‘97 with
daughter,
2-year-old
Ananda
2 Women’s
team: (left
to right):
Helaine
Schonfeld
‘06, nuranisa
Rae
‘05, Jennifer
Daugherty
‘01, Gabrielle
Stryker
‘04, Chela
Crane ‘97,
Sylke Jackson
‘88
3 Coach
Kotansky
with alumni
women
4 Men’s team
(partial: left
to right:
(Coach)
David Bosch
‘85, Angelos
Kontos ‘07,
Andrew
Shurtleff ‘05,
Max Oscar
‘07, Ismar
Mahmutovic
‘98, Hasan
Oswald
‘07, Robbie
Rindlaub
‘05, Rafi
Cansino ‘06,
Karel Schurman
‘05,
Dominik
Landowne
‘07
5 Brendan
Oswald ‘92
and referee
2008 Alumni Basketball
night
Reported by Stu Kornberg and Ivy
Greenstein
Green Meadow’s gymnasium began
to fill slowly the night of
January 11, but by game time the
“house” was packed. There was a
buzz in the air and all in attendance
knew they were in for a special evening:
the Annual Alumni/Varsity
Basketball Game! Rookie Green
Meadow players realized very
quickly that this was no ordinary
match. Although the alumni women,
coached by faculty member/
alumni parent Stephen Kotansky,
tried their best against their younger
opponents, the varsity women,
directed by alumni parent Skip
Herman, opened up the night’s festivities
with a 40-28 victory. Then,
the alumni men took the court…
twenty plus in number, under the
able coaching of David Bosch ’85.
The game was great. Although the
Warriors, coached by alumni parent
Bill Oswald and aided by Micah
Witri ’05 filling in for side-lined
senior, Beno Stewart, hung tough,
even Witri’s 23-point performance
wasn’t enough to guarantee victory.
In the end, it was the Warriors who
came up short, 48-44. Afterwards,
beer and wine flowed and dozens
of sandwiches were consumed, as
40 alumni and faculty partied into
the wee hours of the morning at a
festive post-game party hosted by
the Alumni Department and Green
Meadow’s new Athletic Director,
Stu Kornberg, and his wife, April. A
grand time was had by all.
WoMen:
Warriors | 40
Alumni | 28
Men:
Alumni | 48
Warriors | 44
2
4
1
3
5
calendar
of events
April 7-11
SenIor ProjectS
. . .
April 11
An evenInG In tuScAny
Goods and Services Auction
and Dinner
. . .
May 2
GrAnDPArentS DAy AnD
MAy PoLe ceLebrAtIon
. . .
May 17
GMWS FAMILy MuSIc
FeStIvAL
Headliners include
tom chapin. For updates
and information,
visit www.gmws.org
. . .
Week of June 2
SenIor cLASS PLAy
. . .
June 14-15
GrADuAtIon WeekenD
. . .
September 25
jAck onDerDonk
MeMorIAL GoLF outInG
. . .
October 18
FALL FAIr & ALL-ALuMnI
GAtHerInG
FoR FuRTHER iNFoRMATioN
ABouT SCHooL EvENTS,
CoNTACT CHRiS DELANEy iN
THE DEvELoPMENT oFFiCE AT
(845) 356-2514 x 304
12 | Alumni Magazine

introducing Happenings!,
a new section of the Alumni
Magazine with announcements
of recent or upcoming
art shows, performances,
publications, and movie and
musical releases. Please
contact ivy Greenstein at
igreenstein@gmws.org if you
wish to include news items
here or on the alumni website.
1 The Chapin Sisters
2 Walker Adams
3 Jesse Kotansky
4 Stefan Schaefer (left)
5, 6, 7 Orly Cogan artwork
8, 9 Zaria Forman artwork
Happenings!
Alumni News
HAPPENINGS!
1 2 3 4
turing bassist Percy Jones
Music
(from Brand X).
The Chapin Sisters (Abigail Jesse Kotansky ‘06’s Middle
Eastern, Balkan jazz en-
’98, lily ’99, and Jessica)
released their first LP album, semble, Which Way East,
Lake Bottom on Plain Recordings,
on March 18. The experimental music club, the
played a gig last fall at nyC’s
album title is an ode to their Knitting Factory, in Tribeca.
family, as Lake Bottom is the
farm in new Jersey that their
Film
great-grandfather, Kenneth
Burke, bought in 1925, and Stefan Schaefer ’89 cowrote
and co-directed Ar-
which the family still owns
today. The Chapin Sisters ranged, an award-winning
will do a residency of Monday
night shows in March at themovie.com) that opened
feature film (www.arranged
The Echo in LA to celebrate at nyC’s Quad Cinema on
the release, with parties and December 14.
tour dates to follow in April,
up and down the East and Publications
West Coasts. Check their
website for details: www.
Goldmacher, Amy ‘92
thechapinsisters.com “Graduate Socialization in
Anthropology: Developing a
Walker Adams ‘00 has Professional Anthropology
released a CD entitled The Identity.” Michigan Discussions
in Anthropology, Vol.
Power Of One under the
pseudonym JoyEngin (www. 18, 2008.
joyengin.com). Available at
(cdbaby.com/cd/enginjoy). Goldmacher, Amy “Located
Mobility: Living and
Walker has recorded his
original compositions with Working in Multiple Places.”
a full band including the Mobile Work, Mobile Lives:
horn section from Digable Cultural Accounts of Lived
Planets. Listen at walkeradams.com.
He is currently warth, Julia C. Gluesing, and
Experiences. Tracy L. Meer-
playing drums with the Brigitte Jordan, eds. nAPA
indie pop act St. Vincent Bulletin 30, 2008.
(ilovestvincent.com), and Miller, Christine Z., Amy
the fusion trio Tunnels fea-
Goldmacher, Julia Gluesing,
and Joerg Siebert “Disjointedness:
The Challenge of
Partnerships in Complex
Cultural Environments.” Briody,
Elizabeth K.and Robert
T. Trotter, II, eds. Partnering
for Organizational Performance:
Collaboration and
Culture in the Global Workplace.
new york: Rowman
and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
2008.
Art Shows
The fiber art of Orly Cogan
’90 was featured this past
winter in “Pricked: Extreme
Embroidery” at nyC’s Museum
of Arts and Design and
was included in “The Heart
is a Lonely Hunter,” a group
exhibit at 31GRAnD on
Ludlow Street in Manhattan’s
Lower East Side.
Zaria Forman ‘01’s chalk
pastel drawings of Greenland
are being shown March
27 - April 26 at the Allen
Sheppard Gallery, 530 West
25th Street, new york, ny.
Her Greenland landscape
explorations figured prominently
in “Zaria Forman and
Catherine Minery” at the
Mikhail Zakin Gallery of the
Old Church Cultural Center
in Demarest, nJ, February 8
- March 7.
5 6 7 8 9
Spring 2008 | 13

A Call to Action
A CALL
TO
ACTION
Mick Follari ‘90
Sometimes the call to action
is one you can answer
on the phone. Mine
was ringing fatefully one
crisp, sunny, late-November Colorado
day. I had just returned from
a far-flung, 3-month, life-changing,
“3rd-world,” high-mountain/deepjungle/cultural-spiritual
adventure
(the first of many). I was sailing under
strong spiritual winds, my gaze
had steadied and calmed that year,
my heart and mind were broad and
fierce. But I was also unemployed,
and despite my inexpensive, Boulder
bohemian-climber lifestyle,
worldly (read: financial) pressures
loomed threatening on the horizon.
So when the caller identified him-
self as being associated with Boulder
Energy Conservation Center, or
BECC (now acronymically leaner,
semantically broader, the Center
for Resource Conservation, or CRC),
and identified me as a “potential
volunteer,” my mind immediately
went elsewhere. I probably would
have started to multi-task had I
not been curly-cord tethered to the
wall (remember those). However,
when he described the project they
were involved in, I snapped back
to attention. He asked if I wanted
to help “de-construct” a house that
was slated for demolition, so that
the materials could be salvaged,
cleaned up and reused. My excitement
was piqued because, as I told
LEFT | used tires packed with dirt make up the rear, “tromb”wall in an Earthship, which
charges up with sunlight and re-radiates heat into the home. They are packed and
stacked, then plastered with 4 coats of adobe to create a warm, welcoming space.
Photograph taken by Joe Callahan, owner/builder of the Earthship where i lived,
and president of SimpleSolar, a photovoltaic installation company. The boy is Caleb
Stonacek, who attended the Shining Mountain Waldorf School here in Boulder, where
i taught science and mathematics.
ABovE | Joe’s 1,200 sq ft Earthship located at 7,500 ft in the mountains outside Boulder.
it features a living roof and stone, stucco, and juniper wood from the site, as well as
recycled wood and other materials inside, and no tie to the city “grid.” Power is entirely
from photovoltaic cells and wind, heat is from passive solar heating, and “plumbing”
includes a composting toilet.
14 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
him, I had some friends who were
already doing that kind of thing on
their own—using an ad-hoc network
of contractors to jump on opportunities
to score free flooring,
lumber or windows, and other materials
for building.
I had come to Boulder, Colorado
after college with my eyes
and climber-hands focused on the
world-famous cliffs of Eldorado
Canyon, mountains of rock and ice
in nearby National Parks, the unnatural
preponderance of slender
blondes (though I don’t discriminate,
I promise), and thoughtful
Buddhists. My Ivy League degree
stayed behind on the wall. I loaded
the car with some carpentry tools,
climbing gear, and a garbage bag of
clothes, to go “start a life of adventure”
(and it turned out, a life of
ever-changing careers!). I was fortunate
to fall in with a large, tight
groupofclimber-friends,who,inthis
case more importantly, were similarly
environmentally conscious,
specifically when it came to sustainable
building design and construction.
I was quickly introduced
to things like Earthships (www.
earthship.net), strawbale homes,
rammed-earth construction and
a whole fascinating world of alternative
building techniques. I
also spent evenings hiking out
to the nearby cliffs and boulders
with guys like Bob, the passionate
dreadlocked Scotsman ex-pat master
of adobe and plaster, talking
intensely about the use of space,
the human footprint, shelter, community
and other factors that enter
into a re-visioning of the Americanbuilt
environment.
After some discussion of my situation
and negotiation, the guy on the
phone agreed to pay me $9/hour to
help pry apart the home. At the site
I found a lone thin figure, a man
in his 40s, tenacious, with thick
glasses. Over the course of the day
I learned he was an engineer, one
of the board members of the BECC,
and a co-founder of ReSource 2000
(now simply ReSource, for obvious
reasons; http://www.resourceyard.
org), a new non-profit construction
materials reuse and recycling
program. He also was engaged in
working out a couple of patents
and inventions that would serve the
growing reuse and deconstruction
industry. We hit it off; imagine a couple
of idealistic, mad-scientist, engineer-types
pulling 2x4s out of the
walls of this fast-diminishing house,
while excitedly talking through
the details of a machine to de-nail
lumber. By the end of the day, he’d
offered me the job of running The
Yard, the unprotected, outdoor pile
of material they had been collecting
and selling on alternate Saturdays.
He also hired me to sketch and
design the inventions we were discussing.
Dressed in leather gloves
and thick carpenter’s pants, that
winter I set about organizing and
cleaning up The Yard, and selling
material to the public. The concept
was simple: we were a 501(c)(3)
non-profit, which means that donations
to us were tax-deductible. So
we would get our material for free,
either through drop-offs or through
major deconstructions of ill-fated
structures, and then re-sell the
material to cover the costs of the
program, while diverting quantities
of solid waste from the landfill. Of
course, the material was sold at a
significant discount, and many happy
homebuilders and homeowners
were served. Three months after
starting, the director quit, leaving
me the sole employee of the growing
operation. With no competition
in my way, I immediately (that
same hour, I believe) stepped up to
run the program. My friends were
excited also to see that my work
ABovE | A view
of “The yard” at
ReSource, where
used building
materials are collected,
processed
as needed, and
resold to customers.
Lumber,
flooring, doors,
windows, and
other materials
arrive from
“deconstructions,”
where homes are
dismantled for
their materials.
often there are
waitlists for materials;
framing
lumber from the
50s is considered
furniture-grade
to woodworkers
now.
Spring 2008 | 15

A Call to Action
ABovE | Selfportrait
while
enjoying the
solitude of the
mountains; solo
ice climbing Mt.
Somus while
alone in the
remote South
island of New
Zealand.
RiGHT | Solar
panels adorn the
roof of a project
in Colorado. With
tax incentives,
high energy
prices, and growing
awareness of
energy conservation,
green
energy companies
are growing
quickly around
the country.
against a culture of
construction waste,
like their fights in
their own small projects,
was becoming
an institutionalized
reality. Over the first
few years, we grew
in leaps and bounds,
consulted with other
communities, attended
conferences, wrote
articles and watched as a whole industry
and new conception of construction
waste grew up nationwide
alongside us.
The ultimate project for me came
up when I was about to leave Re-
Source in 1998… The opportunity
arose to join an incredible journey
through Africa with National Geographic
(see the May 2000 issue).
I had already begun to plan my
exit from running the non-profit I’d
helped build from desperate infancy
to a stable, successful company.
Just then, a strange phone call
came in: it was the executor of the
estate of a man who had suddenly
(inexplicably) died in his sleep.
This man had scored the beams
and decking from a car dealership
being demolished, and had been
storing them at our local airport,
intending to build himself a hangar.
Picture this: there were about
a dozen huge glue-lam beams, each
85’ long, 42” high and 9” wide, and
also about a dozen panels of 3”x6”
tongue-in-groove decking spiked together
and intact, each about 12’ by
30’. The local waste hauler wanted
about $10,000 to chainsaw it up and
landfill it. By calling some of those
same friends (one of whom was
about to build a hybrid strawbale,
Earthship recycled timber-frame
home), we put into motion a massive
project to clean, de-nail and
re-mill all this material for sale
on-site at the airport. Our policy
at ReSource had been that people
could exchange sweat-equity for
material, so in April 1998, an army
of volunteers, including homeowners,
community service workers
and other non-profiteers collected
to get to the task. We built clever
contraptions where, after dismantling
the decking, we could pass
the boards through a kind of assembly-line
with a metal-detector
suspended over them, with people
marking nails with lumber crayons,
and others removing them. We used
a portable gas-powered band-saw
mill (like the type people drop onto
a remote property in Alaska) to remill
the boards to expose the beautiful
clean white wood a fraction of
an inch below the surface. We cut
the huge beams down and used a
variety of methods, including sandblasting,
planing, belt-sanding, or
simply band-sawing off the surface
to expose the clean orange Douglas
Fir wood lying under the paint and
weathered exterior. Some of those
beams we milled up and assembled
to-order into large beam trusses for
a show-home in the Denver Parade
of Homes that year; much of the
material went into the Greenwood
Wildlife Sancutary building (where
many of the volunteers came
from); and we did a spectacular
no-steel Japanese timber-frame job
using those beams on the Earthship/strawbale
home at 9,000 feet
elevation above Nederland, CO that
my friend hired me onto after I left
ReSource later that year, before going
to Africa. All in all, that single
project had diverted literally tons
of beautiful warm wood materials
from filling up a hole in the ground;
gave several other non-profits and
homes inexpensive, high-quality
material to build with; saved the
estate at least $10,000 cash; and
gave them a tax write-off of nearly
$50,000.
During several of the following
years, I continued to work on, and
live in, homes built in alternative,
eco-friendly ways. I spent one year
at 7,500 feet in the mountains outside
Boulder in a home completely
off the grid (no tie to local power,
water or gas). That home was solarpowered
(via photovoltaic panels),
solar water-heated, with a composting
toilet, gray-water planter bed,
built out of truly local material
(rocks, wood and earth from the
site), as well as recycled materials.
While living there, I also worked at
9,000 feet on a large project combining
remilled/recycled timbers
(from the project described above),
rammed-earth walls / foundation,
strawbale walls, and other ecofriendly
techniques.
16 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
The trend toward green building is
a growing imperative also being met
by a growing number of institutions,
cities, builders and consumers—by
necessity, incentive or policy. Last
summer, based in some measure
on my experiences in green building,
I participated in the writing of
the Climate Protection Manual for
Cities (http://www.climatemanual.
org/Cities), produced by Hunter
Lovins’ Natural Capital Solutions.
This document is a best-practices
manual to help cities that have
committed to reducing their carbon
footprints (despite the federal government’s
refusal to sign the Kyoto
treaty). Included are a number of
building and infrastructure-related
suggestions to entice, force or otherwise
coerce the building, rental, and
homeowner communities to participate
in these carbon-reduction
goals. In the broader sense, energy
efficiency (a no-brainer with oil near
$100/barrel and only anticipated to
go up, and climate change concerns
gaining volume), waste reduction
(construction waste makes up 75%
of all landfill space), using alternative
energy sources, and recycling
and reuse (reducing open-pit mining,
forest destruction, and petroleum
extraction) are all practices
that are gaining hold in the psyche
of the building community.
Now, years and several other
careers later (including being a
Waldorf teacher), I have remodeled
and sold off my first home,
and bought another property near
downtown Boulder. It is on a large
lot, with incredible views, neighborhood
cachet, and perfect southern
exposure. It has the potential to be
a highly visible showcase of green
building techniques and technologies
(something already being done
around Boulder): energy efficient,
using natural/local materials, clever
passive solar design, thoughtful
and creative use of space, light and
pattern, and, of course, recycled and
reclaimed materials. Here in Boulder,
the standards for green building
are high, and have just gotten
higher, with new tougher efficiency
and eco-friendly requirements being
placed on all construction. I
see it as a welcome intellectual
challenge for myself, and a future
selling point to a cost- and ecoconscious
buyer. In fact, the call
is coming in again for me: to study
architecture, something I hope will
marry my engineering background
with my creative needs. This time,
I suspect I’ll be able to take the call
free of the curly phone cord!
ToP| Windows
waiting for new
homes at the
ReSource sales
yard.
BoTToM | A view
inside Joe
Callahan’s Earthship.
Much of
the trim work
(including the
bench) was
crafted out of
standing-dead
juniper on site
and the ceiling
from re-milled
used lumber. The
greenhouse at
the front of the
house treats
gray-water (from
shower and sinks)
using plants such
as banana trees.
Spring 2008 | 17

A Call to Action
Evolution
of a
BUILDER
Elliot
Berkowitz ’92
2
1
Inever intended to be a builder.
I graduated from college in
1996, and since I didn’t really
have any plans or know what I
wanted to do, I took a job with the
carpenter who renovated my parents’
home. Initially, I was the guy
who picked up the trash and loaded
the dumpster all day, but it wasn’t
long before I got to participate
in some actual carpentry. I fell in
love with the craft—the precision
and creativity of it, the almost immediate
gratification of seeing my
handiwork at the end of each day.
Shortly afterward I bought a house
of my own.
It wasn’t much of a house. In fact,
it was a gutted, run-down shell of a
place, which was the only reason I
was able to afford it. It’s one of the
old railroad homes in South Nyack
that the railroad company built for
its managers. It was built in 1872,
and when I bought it, it looked like
no one had done anything to it in
the intervening 120 years.
Meanwhile, I got another job, this
one with a general contractor who
specialized in historic restoration. I
was literally spellbound by his ability
to reform battered old homes
into literal masterpieces. He had
enormous amounts to teach me,
and I was a most willing student.
Every morning I was eager to get to
work so that I could hone my craft,
learn something new. As historic
restoration is a field of literally limitless
possibilities, the learning has
never stopped.
In 2001, I decided to start my own
company, Riverside Builders. With
all the renovation going on in our
corner of the world, I knew there
would be no shortage of work. And
by then I had mastered enough of my
craft to be confident in my ability.
My first job was the Estate House in
Sneden’s Landing. The entire time I
worked on that house, there wasn’t
one moment when I wasn’t nervous
about doing it right. Yet I was confident
in what I’d learned about historic
restoration and I had, and still
have, such a passion for the craft
that I knew I wasn’t going to be satisfied
until that house was exactly the
way I, and its owner, wanted it.
Since then, I have established a
successful business, one in which I
now do as many modern homes as I
do historic ones. I work almost exclusively
in Manhattan and one of
the additional benefits about this
job is the people it has allowed me to
work with. For instance, I’ve worked
with architect Charles Rose, a Garden
City Waldorf School graduate. I
have worked on the homes of violinist
Joshua Bell, poet Mark Strand,
and the rapper Kanye West. I no longer
do much of the actual building,
and that’s okay. As much as I once
loved building, I now love working
with clients to form a concept of
18 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
what they want their house to be,
and then orchestrating the process
to achieve that. Oh yeah, and speaking
of houses . . .
I didn’t immediately renovate
my shell in South Nyack. I was too
busy working on other houses. Not
to mention that my house was filled
with fellow Green Meadow alums
looking for cheap rent. At one time
I had an alum in every room! But after
a time, I finally decided to make
it the house I wanted it to be. Part of
my business required me to set up a
workshop where I could mill traditional
moldings, cabinets, windows
and doors that are no longer available.
Thus, for the woodwork in my
house, I was able to replicate moldings
and cabinets that were historically
accurate. In addition, I built
a Rumford fireplace and fabricated
all new doors and double-hung windows.
When I bought the house,
the outside was covered in fake
brick siding; I stripped that off and
restored all the original siding and
detail. For paint, I consulted with
historic architect Jeffrey Hall to
reproduce the original colors. From
the outset, I’d planned to renovate
the house so I could sell it. Hokey
as it sounds, I developed a real bond
with the house in the process of
making it into the home I wanted
it to be. So it’s where I’m living now
and where I intend to live for a long
time to come.
Every morning I was eager to
get to work so that I could hone
my craft, learn something new.
As historic restoration is a field
of literally limitless possibilities,
the learning has never stopped.
1 | Porch detail
2 | Front window
detail
3 | Rebuilding the
façade
4 | House fully
restored
3
4
Spring 2008 | 19

A Call to Action
FROM ANTHRO TO ENVIRO:
The Story ofEco
Handyman
After graduating from GMWS
in 1994, I went straight to
business school. When I
received my degree from
Babson, just outside Boston, I was
intent on someday starting my own
company. Ever since the time when I
mowed neighbors’ lawns and painted
their houses to pay my way through
college, I thought running my own
ship—setting my own goals and
making my own hours—was the way
to go. One of my idols was Sir Richard
Branson, the business mogul and
founder of the Virgin companies. As
far as I know, he didn’t cut lawns,
but he said something that has stuck
with me: “I can have an idea in the
bath in the morning and have it up
and running by tea time.”
Well, I was never much of a tea
drinker and nothing close to a
Knight of the British Empire, like
Sir Richard. But during my first
stint in the work world at Kaplan
in New York City, I started learning
fast. What did I learn For starters,
that selling test-prep programs
to students wasn’t my calling. So I
jumped from the East to Seattle for
a job at Amazon.com. What were
my learnings there That answering
customer inquiries didn’t do it
for me either. And neither did getting
laid off, which is why I landed
another job about 6 weeks before
the layoffs and hopped back East,
where I dabbled at a tech company
and an advertising agency (“Would
Nate
Burger ’94
you like fries with your multi-media
advertising campaign”). Clearly,
things weren’t clicking yet.
In search of my more creative,
Waldorf side, I began studying industrial
design at Mass Art. While
the program was fun and stimulating,
I realized that if I were lucky,
and my “form-drawing” paid off, I
would end up about three rungs
down the corporate ladder stuck in
a cubicle just like Dilbert, designing
$12 toasters for manufacture in
China. I thought, “This is what I was
looking forward to”
Suddenly, none of this seemed
important anymore when, out of
the blue, my mother died from an
asthma attack. I was devastated.
Who knew that this could happen to
someone who was so healthy and active,
who seemed to have her whole
life ahead of her—someone I loved
so dearly I sought comfort in working
as the director of marketing for
a hipster clothing company called
Karma Loop. I thought this would
give me the stability and meaning I
had been looking for. Yes, now I had
a livable salary, but stability was the
last thing I should have been looking
for at that company. After just three
months busting my butt to singlehandedly
get a marketing program
off the ground, I was laid off. (I guess
I’ll just chock it up to bad karma—
how “anthro!”)
My karma was telling me, “It’s time
to get out of the corporate world.”
Was I going to take up Eurythmy
Hmm. Actually, it was time to start
my own company, like Sir Richard.
Maybe my idea wasn’t going to be up
and running immediately after tea
time, but I was going to make it happen
somehow, somewhere.
Now, up to this point, when it came
to starting a company, I’d been full
of ideas but short on clarity. What
was going to be the mission of my
company I knew that the way my
brothers Peter, Tim, and I could best
honor our mother was by upholding
the values that she—not to mention
our GMWS Waldorf education— instilled
in us.
When I was pondering my first career
move during college, Mom would
always say, “You should find a way
of working in solar or wind energy,”
to which I would always laugh and
say, “Yeah, right!” They say mother
knows best and, lo and behold, now
I had clarity. Now I had my idea. I
knew sustainability would have to be
the centerpiece of my company.
THE SEED OF A
BUSINESS
After several years jumping from
one company to the next, I began
to look back at my youthful
painting and maintenance pursuits
and see a handyman business as being
a great way to help people save
time maintaining and remodeling
their homes. Where would my niche
be I wasn’t sure yet, but it began
with the following theory: it’s easy
to find a good general contractor if
you have the money to get a big job
done, but hard if you need a smaller
project completed. While there are
numerous general contractors who
would be happy to build you a new
green dream-home, very few good
contractors are willing to take on
the smaller projects, from to-do
lists around the house, to bathroom
and kitchen updates and energy efficiency
upgrades, and with a knowledge
of green building.
20 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
I wanted to combine this smaller
job niche with an understanding
of how the business affects the
environment—to take a green
building approach—by combining
environmentally sound materials,
techniques, and building science
to make sure each job improves
the home in a way that’s minimally
harmful to nature rather than simply
maintaining the home in the
cheapest manner possible.
A small-job green building business
was my niche, but what was
my market I was sure that any
somewhat liberal town in America
would love this service. So, after
buying a flight to Boulder and
checking the GMWS website to
find out that Mick Follari ‘90 lived
out there, I ended up crashing on
his couch for a week while checking
out the scene (hiking, cycling,
mountaineering, skiing… oh yeah,
and seeing what handyman businesses
were out there already). I
picked up the phone and called all
the handyman businesses I could
find. Masquerading as a prospective
customer, I asked what they
charged, what they did, and what
they knew about green building.
They would say “What building”
(This was back in 2005, and I am
sure they have heard of it now, as
they see my signs around town.) I
had found my market.
INTRODUCING ECO
HANDYMAN
Green building is about building
energy efficiency, comfort, durability,
and sustainability into projects
whenever possible. But most
handymen willing to take on smaller
projects are quite often unreliable
and not experts in all the areas of
home maintenance. Eco Handyman
has a team of handymen with specific
areas of expertise, so we can
provide quality work, whether we’re
designing built-in bookshelves, laying
tile, or doing plumbing repairs.
We are happy to fix a leaky faucet,
adjust a door that doesn’t close
properly, or totally remodel a 1970s
bathroom, and replace it with a
sleek, resource-efficient, modern
masterpiece.
The process starts when a client
calls. We inquire about their goals
for their home. Some people just
want us to take care of their to-do
list, and others have more specific
needs, such as a kitchen remodel
or finishing a basement. They may
even have a family member with
chemical sensitivities to many traditional
building products. Other clients
call wanting to know how they
can reduce their “carbon footprint”
through a more efficient home.
WHAT MAKES IT “ECO”
The eco part comes in when you
use healthier adhesives, paint,
and materials, efficient Energy Star
appliances, low-flow and dual-flush
toilets, and low-flow shower heads
that still give you a great shower. We
also provide air sealing and insulating,
as well as energy-efficient windows
to drastically reduce the heating
and cooling needs of homes.
When we switch out an old light
fixture, we tell clients who don’t
already know about compact fluorescent
bulbs about how much
more energy efficient they are. We
try to purchase products that come
from a closer source. One example
in Colorado is using travertine tile
from Mexico for a shower enclosure
rather than marble from Italy; since
Mexico is closer to Colorado than is
Italy, this reduces fuel consumption
and the so-called carbon footprint.
In general, we don’t push our philosophy
on clients, but we do make
them aware of their options, and
allow them to make sensible decisions
based on their own values.
Sometimes green options are more
expensive—many times they are
not. In addition to the work we do,
we buy wind credits to offset our
office and vehicle energy consumption.
While this does not change the
fact that we are burning fossil fuels,
it does help to get more renewable
energy on-line more quickly, and is a
step in the right direction.
At Eco Handyman, we try to be
as green as possible, but we know
there’s much to be done to optimize
our sustainability. Our clients appreciate
that we inform them of the latest
building options. Of course, the
fact that we pick up the phone right
away, answer questions promptly,
and arrive on time doesn’t hurt, either.
Some clients thank us profusely
when we call them back immediately,
as though they were not expecting a
return call at all. In fact, sometimes
I think good customer service gets us
more business than the knowledge of
green building.
GREEN TEA
Today, just like Sir Richard, I’m
running my own business, even
though it may not involve an airline,
record label or cola brand, and I still
don’t drink tea. His inspiration to me
was that anyone can have an idea
and get it “up and running” as long as
they put in the work. The bottom line
in this business is that I’m now profitable,
I don’t sit in a box, and I’m a
couple hours away from the greatest
skiing in the world. It makes me happy
to know I’m helping to bring the
Boulder community one step forward
towards a greener future. Let’s just
say, at the risk of mixing metaphors,
if I drank tea, it would be green tea.
After all, isn’t being green what it’s
all about for a GMWS graduate
ABovE | Man
about town:
Nate Burger, Eco
Handyman
BELoW | Eco
Handyman
catches a
fat trout
Spring 2008 | 21

A Call to Action
Small Hands
FARM
Julia K. Altes ’97
(right) Cleaning
up the logging:
clearing for our
wedding and
house site
Long before we met, my nowhusband,
Tristan, and I each
had our own intentions of living
sustainably. When we were teenagers,
our respective ideas about
homesteading were grand and vague.
Now, as we clear and manage, design
and build, we find that, in practice,
living near the land means starting
small and thinking specifically.
In the fall of 2005, Tristan purchased
260 acres in Halifax, Vermont,
and immediately began planting
seedlings: apple, chestnut, quince,
lilac, blueberry, cedar, cypress, ash
and oak, as well as cold-hardy persimmon,
pecan, grape, and Asian pear.
At the time, I didn’t grasp Tristan’s
sense of urgency. But I have since
come to understand that, on a farm,
time is arguably the most precious
resource of all. It will take years for
these plants to mature—from five to
one hundred, or more.
And time is not all. Energy is invaluable…In
my years at Green
Meadow, I knew the joy of growing
up in community. As it turns out,
there are practical reasons for sharing
the labors and harvests of life
with other people. Tristan and I find
that we need the support of many
small hands to accomplish our many
large goals.
In our first three years of ownership,
we repaired logging roads,
carved out a driveway, demolished
the old hunting cabin, cleared a
house site, perked for a septic, constructed
a platform and erected a
yurt, built a shed and a new cabin.
We have been blessed with lots of
help. We have named our acreage
Small Hands Farm.
Before we came to Small Hands
Farm, a neighboring family owned it,
having bought the parcel to protect
it from development. Previously, a
logging company, using dubious forestry
practices, stripped the property
of 90 percent of its marketable lumber.
This was forest that had sprung
up after the decline of sheep farming
in Vermont in the 1800s. The rings
on one white pine stump we found
revealed 125 years of life before it
was felled.
Our first order of business was to
clean up the mess the logging company
left behind—small trees scattered
like pick-up sticks, corduroy
roads and compacted ruts that, if ignored,
would lead to further erosion.
We spent the first year clearing,
burning, moving logs around. When
we consulted a professional forester,
he told us that the entity most capable
of restoring the forest is the forest
itself. What we do to aid in that
process is in collaboration with time,
with the trees, with the soil.
We are in love with this place. Two
year-round brooks course through
the woods, and a trout-inhabited
river runs across the road. There are
forested hillsides containing birch,
beech, cherry, sugar maple (great
sugarbush stands capable of maple
syrup production), blackberry bushes
and conifers. We are wealthy in
field stone – there are stone walls
everywhere, edging once-and-future
pastures. There’s a lifetime supply
of heating fuel (wood for the woodstove),
and salvageable felled trees
we mill for lumber. We enjoy close
views of the surrounding hills and,
from up along the ridge, a deep vista
taking in the Green Mountains.
We currently live in the vivacious
southern Vermont town of Brattleboro
(population 12,000), 12 miles
east of Halifax. Tristan has a full-time
job as managing editor of Environ-
22 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
(CLoCKWiSE, ToP To
BoTToM)
1 | one of many
“burn parties”
2 | Demolishing
the old hunting
camp
3 | Erecting the
walls of our new
cabin
4 | The cabin,
sheathed, last
summer
5 | Julia & Tristan
Korthals Altes
6 | The cabin in
winter; exterior
finished, but for
siding
1
2
mental Building News, a national
trade publication. I coordinate a
middle-school enrichment program
and teach music. A plethora of personal
and household endeavors fill
our days.
We used to talk giddily about our
vision: Raising chickens, goats, and
sheep; building barns, workshops,
dwellings, a music studio, a chapel;
creating an orchard, vegetable and
flower gardens, hiking trails, an educational
center and an intentional
neighborhood. Then we began to
build. And suddenly our vision narrowed
to 8x8 timbers and structural
engineering. There are hundreds
of choices to be made about build-
6
ing materials and process. We thoroughly
research and consider each
one, and the result is a concert of
compromises and innovations.
Last summer, with the help of our
community of friends, family and
neighbors, we built a cabin on the
old farmhouse foundation. We also
cleared and landscaped a separate
site where we hope to build a bigger
house, and we got married there
in August, celebrating on the hottest
day of the year. The event was
complete with a dramatic thunderstorm,
and fireworks.
This summer we plan to move
into our cabin, and to begin building
our bigger house—on a dry-laid
stone foundation, with clay-plaster
walls and slate roofing. Recent
developments in our vision include
adding solar power, and founding a
Waldorf-inspired, outdoor-education
elementary school. Practically
speaking, we are focused on interior
finish carpentry and plowing
snow. We hope that the practical
and the visionary will meet—perhaps
five to one hundred years
down the road. If and when that
happens, it will be in no small part
due to the many good people who
lent us a hand.
5
3
4
Spring 2008 | 23

A Call to Action
ATHome in the
1
Thomas
McArdle ’91
Wilderness
The word “home” conjures
up certain images of safety,
comfort, and warmth. For five
months in 2002, my home was the
2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail. Wherever
I stopped walking for the day,
as the trail wound through California,
Oregon, and Washington, was
my home.
When you have to carry the comforts
of home on your back, the
concept of comfort takes on new
meaning. What’s comfortable is to
have the lightest pack possible, and
hope you have everything you need
when you stop walking. The irony
on the trail was that you could tell
how far someone was hiking by how
little they had. Those that were hiking
the entire trail had tiny packs.
The instant giveaway of a weekender
was the extra pair of shoes
dangling from the back of a 60-70
pound pack. People would stare at
my small backpack and say, “Where
are you headed” I’d say, “Canada”
and keep walking with a smirk on
my face leaving them to wonder
whether I was joking or just crazy.
My gear consisted of: sleeping
bag, small tent, backpack, small pot,
canister of butane fuel with attachable
stove, knife, plastic spoon, water
filter, small camera, cell phone,
journal and pen, map, compass,
sunscreen, toothbrush and paste,
sunglasses, light foam bed pad, and
flashlight. My clothes: one pair of
socks, one pair rain pants, rain jacket,
hat, polypropylene shirt, goose
down vest, shorts, T-shirt, gloves,
and one pair trail running shoes. If
it was cold or rainy, I was wearing
every piece of clothing I had. All my
clothes were synthetic fabrics designed
to wick away moisture and
keep you warm, even when wet. My
clothes and gear weighed about 20
pounds.
Depending on when I would be
re-supplying for food (every 75-150
miles or every 3-8 days), I had 5-15
pounds of food on my back. My water
weight depended on how soon I
would reach the next water source.
In the desert, this might mean carrying
ten pounds of water. In snowmelt
mountainscape, it could mean
carrying no water at all. I brought a
2
24 | Alumni Magazine

A Call to Action
hiker water filter that provided safe
water. This meant that my full pack
was between 30-40 pounds when
heading back into the woods.
Other than huckleberries by the
handful in late summer, I procured
all my food from town re-supply
points. Every 3-8 days, the trail would
cross a road that I could take into a
small town with a post office that
held my food package for me until
I arrived. Even though I was scruffy
and smelly, strangers would still respond
to my outstretched thumb and
give me a lift into town. Drivers were
always keenly interested in hearing
about my trek, as they politely rolled
down their window for fresh air.
My food consisted of a freeze-dried
dinner and assorted snacks for all
other meals. After chomping down
25 pounds of dried fruit, sampling
every form of meat and fish man has
seen fit to jerk, and eating bushels
of every edible nut, I finally accepted
that the best source of food to supplement
the 4,000-5,000 daily calories
I strived for was junk food. It
turns out that “flaming hot crunchy
chee-tos” can be a delectable seasoning
for your hundredth serving
of tunafish. A king-size Snickers
bar contains 510 calories, possibly
the highest density of calories per
square inch outside of a tub of lard.
When in town, my routine was the
same: Eat, shower, eat, do laundry,
then eat some more. After a day of
rest on a soft bed in a motel, the
same question would arise: Do I really
want to live in the woods again
But I would go, and an hour into it
my body would re-adjust and my
mind would re-engage into a serene
truth: I was having the time of my
life! I was traveling through a beautiful
landscape reserved for, and
only seen by, those who could walk
there. The sun was my alarm clock,
the moon my lantern, and creatures
large and small my soundtrack. The
fact that I could not see a man-made
3
4
light anywhere on the horizon when
I went to bed gave me an odd feeling
of comfort. I was back in the wilderness
and I wouldn’t trade it for a hotel
room if I could. I recalled fondly
that town was what made me feel
isolated, and I was glad to be back
“home.”
Of course, I was not really alone.
In southern California, lizards and
flowering cacti accompanied me everywhere.
Fat rattlesnakes sunned
themselves on the trail like they
owned it. A dozen bear encounters
in the mountains fortunately played
out as though the bear thought I was
some freak of nature not worthy of
investigation. I encountered so many
elk in Washington in September that,
were it not for the haunting sound of
their bugling at dusk, I might have
found them commonplace. Somehow
the many hunters in camouflage
and face paint I met near trailheads
found these grand beasts elusive.
Mountain goats, foxes, and coyote
were among other furry encounters.
Most of the trip is a blur of seemingly
every different size, shape, and
color of rock that exists on earth, and
enough different versions of the celestial
rooftop to last a lifetime.
Did I learn anything Have any
epiphanies Well, I can’t explain why
I wanted to do it in the first place,
nor why I kept walking month after
month. I do know this: I was never
homesick, and even at the coldest,
wettest, most lost moments I never
regretted placing myself at earth’s
mercy with so little to protect me. I
also know that if current realities of
life permitted it, I would do it all over
again. Trust me when I say that I enjoy
the creature comforts of home
as much as anyone else. And that
hiking the PCT with 20 pounds of
earthly possessions as my home was
the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.
Perhaps that’s epiphany enough.
5
6
1 | Map of the
Pacific Crest Trail,
Source: Pacific
Crest Trail
Association.
2 | valley hollowed
out by glaciers,
Northern
Washington State,
September 2005.
3 | yosemite
National Park, CA,
July 2005.
4 | Trail enters the
Cascade Mountain
Range north of
yosemite, July
2005.
5 | Marmot in the
High Sierra Nevada
Mountain Range,
CA, June 2005.
6 | Thomas
McArdle on the
trail in Southern
California, May
2005.
Spring 2008 | 25

A Call to Action
Sherab
A List of Four Kloppenburg ’92
Idecided to study architecture
in an afternoon. I sat down with
a list of four requirements that
I felt best summarized what I love,
what I am good at, and what my values
are. Architecture bubbled to the
top as the only career that would
meet all four requirements – with a
few modifications to better suit my
ethic and philosophy.
1. Creativity
2. Working with people
3. Building with my hands
4. Doing good for the planet
and all its inhabitants
Sherab
Klopppenburg
I did not fully understand what an
exciting, challenging, and rewarding
adventure I was starting. In true
Sherab fashion, I geared up, dove in,
and buckled down. The next natural
step would be to attend graduate
school and earn a Master’s of Architecture
which would take 3.5 years.
Instead, I decided to quickly get informed
by deferring graduate school
to live in South America for the next
two years. My training there consisted
of building a Permaculture
garden and house in the lush valleys
of Chile between mountain guiding
expeditions on big peaks in the
Andes. As it turns out, this was the
best preparation I could have had
to be the designer and architect I
wanted to be. When I moved back
to the USA, I was ready to learn; to
work in poorly lit basements of large
architecture firms; and was fluent in
Spanish, making me a popular member
of any construction team.
I received my graduate degree
from Colorado University, School of
Planning and Architecture in 2005.
As architects go, I am in the beginning
of my career. Besides the years
it will take to understand the depth
and breadth of the architecture
field, I will also have to complete
two more years of apprenticeship
and then pass nine licensing exams
required to attain my architectural
license in Colorado. Only then will I
be considered an Architect (with a
capital ’A’).
In the meantime I am learning
from as many professional craft masters
as I can. This is a time of discovery.
I am clarifying what type of
architect I want to be and how my
life as a creative person will be, both
on a personal level and as an emissary
for positive change in the green
design culture.
I am fascinated by the puzzle of
design: it is a journey which ends
– or starts – by turning an idea into
sculpture that is used, transformed,
and loved by its users, hopefully for
many lifetimes. The longevity of
good design is a thing of wonder and
will outlive the designer many times
over. In my own work I have had the
honor of restoring older buildings
back to a useful, if not beautiful,
and even longer lasting existence as
members of my community.
Life in the Colorado Mountains,
working as a designer and builder,
is full of beauty, creativity, and
compromise. The quickly growing
Green Architecture field is a good
place for adventure-loving, creative
people like me. There is a youthful
spirit amongst our clients, fellow
designers, and building professionals.
We are all master puzzle solvers,
fascinated and emphatic about
what we are doing. Sometimes I feel
righteous, but mostly - especially
when I am laying out a foundation
in sub zero weather, wearing six layers
of dirty work clothes in a muddy
dirt pit - I feel like we are building a
strong foundation from which people
with great creative minds and strong
hearts will reach up into a clean blue
sky and make something better.
I am fascinated by the puzzle of
design: it is a journey which ends
– or starts – by turning an idea
into sculpture that is used, transformed,
and loved by its users,
hopefully for many lifetimes.
26 | Alumni Magazine

teacherfeat
feature
Nyquan’s
Books
by Deborah
Schaeffer
Class of 2001
Each September, when the High School gathers in its new configuration
of students and faculty, there are several familiar rites of passage to mark
the occasion: the arrival of a new class of ninth graders fresh from the
Lower School, hilarious faculty skits, and an opening address given by a
member of the high school faculty. This year, Deborah Schaeffer ‘01 (who
is standing in for James Henderson, who is on sabbatical), was invited to
speak. This is her address.
Several years ago, I was sitting
in your seats, and I can tell
you that I would never have
imagined that I would ever find
myself standing here. But life often
takes you to the most unexpected
places, and those are sometimes
the best places.
I want to start by giving you a brief
biography. After graduating from
GMWS, I went to Bowdoin College,
where I majored in Biology and Environmental
Studies. After graduating,
I moved to New York City,
where I spent two years working
in inner-city public schools. Then,
by the grace of Mr. Henderson and
the GMWS faculty, I was offered the
chance to teach biology here for a
year, and I very gladly accepted.
What I want to do now is tell you
about my experience working in inner-city
neighborhoods. The story
actually begins back in tenth grade,
when I was doing my community
service. I had chosen to work at
a day care center because I loved
children. We would pile into the
Green Meadow van, and Mr. Crane
would drive us. Back then, all I
knew was that this day care center
was located in a neighborhood
which some people deemed “bad.”
At that time I had no understanding
of poverty or segregation.
I distinctly remember my first day
at the day care center. Four or five
children immediately began piling
on my lap, hugging me, and holding
my hands. This was all very nice,
but I found it strange that these
children became attached to me so
quickly. I was struck by a sense that
these children had needs that were
not being met. The sense that these
children needed me stayed with me
for some time, so that several years
later, as I was finishing my freshman
year in college and looking for
a summer job, the idea crossed my
mind to look for work at that day
care center. So I went there and applied
for a job, and to my surprise,
was put in charge of the 5- and 6-
year-old classroom for the summer.
That summer had a profound impact
on me. It was the time when
I became awakened to the realities
of poverty, segregation, and their
effect on children.
All the children at the day care
center were African-American or
Hispanic. Most came from singleparent
homes, some were homeless,
and most had some kind of
emotional, academic, or behavioral
issues. As I struggled over the summer
to maintain structure and order
with these rambunctious, rowdy
children, something changed in me.
First of all, I found a strength that
I never knew I had. Secondly, I discovered
a deep sense of caring for
these children, so that when the
summer came to a close and it was
time to return to college, I found it
difficult to leave. I felt that while
I had bonded with those children
and been a positive person in their
lives for a short period, this wasn’t
going to make any lasting impact
on them. However, that experience
certainly had made a lasting impact
on me. I starting seeing pockets of
segregation and poverty wherever
I went, and felt driven to return to
those neighborhoods. And so, when
I graduated from college, I found
jobs where I could work in innercity
public schools and after-school
programs.
Deborah
Schaeffer and
Nyquan English
Spring 2008 | 27

teacherfeat
feature
What I want to do now is to describe
to you one of the communities
that I worked in. This community
is located in Queens, and
it includes the largest public housing
development in New York City,
called Queensbridge. For those who
don’t know, public housing is housing
owned by the city, where residents
normally pay whatever rent
they can afford, which for many is
nothing. Queensbridge houses more
than 7,000 residents in six-story,
brown, box-like buildings. There
are six buildings on each block, and
six blocks altogether. All the blocks
look almost identical to an outsider.
Besides a few small stores and a
little community center, there’s not
much there for the residents. The
area is almost entirely industrial.
Across the street from the development
is a park overlooking the East
River. In the park is a playground,
and right next to the playground
rises up an enormous grey, steel
fortress. This is the Keyspan power
plant. Out of the plant rise three
enormous red and white-striped
smoke stacks, which tower over the
entire neighborhood.
As I’m describing this neighborhood,
I’m sure that the contrasts between
Queensbridge and this community
here are obvious to you. I
was thinking about it, though, and I
realized that there are some significant
similarities. Here, most of us
experience a sense of closeness with
each other, and of being protected
from the outside world. In Queensbridge,
there is also this sense of being
in a safe “bubble” where everyone
knows each other and everything is
familiar. Part of what I love about
Queensbridge is that, like here, it
feels like a real community, where
I can walk down the street and run
into people I know.
Yet there are, of course, some
important differences between
Queensbridge and the Green Meadow
community. One is in the relationship
between people and nature.
Here, we look out the window,
and are surrounded by trees, grass,
and flowers. We feel a real connection
to nature. In Queensbridge,
there is no connection to nature because
children grow up completely
removed from anything natural.
They never play in the woods or
grass. Even the playgrounds at
school are built on concrete or asphalt.
As a result of this and other
environmental influences, many
children develop severe allergies so
that they can’t even stand to be in
nature at all.
Another key difference is in the
school environment. Green Meadow
was born out of a philosophy of love
for the developing human being,
and this love is what motivates the
teachers. In the public schools that
children from Queensbridge attend,
the focus is on one thing: passing the
state tests, which are very difficult
for most of the students. So, whereas
here, typical questions that you ask
each other might be, “where are you
going on exchange” or “what are
you doing for your senior project”,
typical questions that young people
in Queensbridge ask each other are
“did you pass the reading test” or
“are you going to get left back”. And
many do get left back and have to
repeat at least one grade, which is
always a source of shame and discouragement.
In Waldorf education, we often
talk in terms of forms and gestures.
I was thinking about it, and
it occurred to me that the gesture
for students going through Green
Meadow is an inverted triangle. As
students go through this education,
they gain a fuller understanding of
themselves and world around them,
so that more and more possibilities
open up over for who they can be
and what they can do in the world.
This certainly was my experience:
I came here in ninth grade, and as
I went through the high school, I
experienced this broadening of the
possibilities of who I could become
in this life. Unfortunately, I feel
that young people in Queensbridge
often experience the opposite gesture.
As young children, they start
open-minded and yearning to learn
new things. But over time, their
possibilities become more and
more narrow, as they get locked
into a cycle of failure in school, and
lose their open-mindedness as they
conform to pop-culture and street
culture. For the girls, this process
often ends in early pregnancy, and
for the boys, in street violence or
incarceration.
I spent a year working in a 5th
grade classroom with children
from the Queensbridge neighborhood,
and I saw this happening,
and wanted to do something about
it. As the year was drawing to a
close, I realized that I was about
to repeat my experience in Spring
Valley. I had bonded with the kids
and been a positive person in their
lives during that year, but then I
would leave and have no lasting impact
on them. Then I had an idea:
what if I could take a few students
and really get involved in their
lives; take them out of Queensbridge
and expose them to all the
great things my parents had exposed
me to as a child—museums,
performances, culture, etc Maybe
this would open up more possibilities
for them. There was one child
in particular that I wished to get
involved. His name was Nyquan,
and I took notice of him right away
because he was always asking lots
of questions (many of which had
28 | Alumni Magazine

ureteacher
feature
nothing to do with the lesson) and
he always seemed bored. I would
look over and see Nyquan fidgeting
at his desk, so I would go ask him,
“What are you doing Why aren’t
you doing your work” He would
respond, “Oh, I finished that a long
time ago.” I started asking him
about his interests, and discovered
that he wanted to be an “Egyptologist
and an archeologist,” and that
he was interested in Greek mythology.
So I started bringing in books
that I thought would interest him,
which he genuinely seemed to appreciate.
But I felt that this wasn’t
making a real difference for him.
He was still bored in school, and I
wished that I could do something
more. The problem was that I didn’t
see a way forward. I had always
gotten involved in projects and
organizations, but I never started
something myself. I didn’t see any
way that I could change anything
for the Queensbridge kids, and so
I gave up on the idea.
Finally, the last day of school
rolled around. I had said goodbye
to all the kids, and was just about
to leave, when I bumped into Nyquan
and his mother. I introduced
myself, and Nyquan’s mother said,
“So you’re Ms. S. You’re the one
who’s been sending books home
for Nyquan.” (Uh-oh, I thought.)
“Ms. S.,” she continued, “Nyquan
talks about you all the time. I really
appreciate you giving him
those books. He really needs that.”
I decided to take advantage of this
opportunity. “I know Nyquan’s interested
in ancient Egypt,” I said.
“Could I take him to a museum
sometime to look at the Egypt exhibits”
Nyquan’s mother said that
would be fine. We exchanged information,
and I walked away with this
amazing feeling that fate had given
me the chance to follow through on
my idea. But then it dawned on me
that it wasn’t fate. That small action
of giving Nyquan the books had
made more of an impact than I had
thought, and had put something in
motion.
From that point on, I was able
to assemble a small group of children
who I took out on various
educational outings in the city. We
went to museums, parks, gardens,
and had a wonderful time. No one
could understand why I would
want to spend my weekends hanging
out with these kids, but I felt
great, because I had finally found a
way to make a lasting impact on a
group of children and stay involved
in their lives. Now, it’s a funny
thing, but if you’re like me, and
more on the passive side, then you
might find that once you take action,
it becomes easier and easier
to do so. Later on, when I heard
that Nyquan was having trouble at
school, I decided to bring him and
his mother to Green Meadow to visit.
As it turned out, they loved the
school, and Nyquan was enrolled. I
arranged to have him stay with me
during the week so that he could
attend the school. So he’s starting
7th grade here tomorrow. He’s very
excited to be here, and I’m very
happy that he’s going to experience
the inverted triangle gesture
for himself. I think that it will have
a profound impact on his life.
So, that’s the story of how what
started with 10th grade community
service ended with me being able
to make a real, significant change
in one child’s life. Now what do I
want you to take from this Well,
going into the year, I hope that you
will move more in the direction of
wakefulness and action in your own
lives. My wish is that each time you
speak the Morning Verse, you will
be reminded to actually “look into
the world,” and to really see what’s
going on around you, with your fellow
students, in this community,
in this country, and in the whole
world. If you do so, I suspect that
you will feel called to act to change
something. It may be in several
years, or right after this speech. It
may be finding a way to feed 1000
starving children, or simply comforting
a fellow student. Gandhi
said, “Whatever you do may seem
insignificant to you, but it is most
important that you do it.” To me,
this means that this is how things
change in the world, because small
actions can often turn into something
greater. As Waldorf students
and as individuals, each one of you
has unique gifts. Each one of you
has something to offer that can help
someone else, and I believe that if
you live a wakeful life, you will find
that opportunity to give of yourself.
Because to me, this is what being a
human being is all about.
Edward Everett Hale was an
American writer, pastor, and
abolitionist. He said the following,
and I’ll leave you with this
thought:
I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything I will not
refuse to do the something I can do.
Spring 2008 | 29

what would steiner say
The History of
Architecture
GREEN MEADoW-STYLE
Architecture is the art of creating an enveloping, enclosed space,
with the help of a variety of materials and by the means of various
shapes and forms, either for ordinary activities and dwellings or for
religious purposes. Therefore it is connected with the soul life of human
beings. It originates from the soul, and it can be comprehended
to the extent that the soul can be comprehended. ~Rudolf Steiner
Green Meadow’s Grade 12
architecture block, taught
by Alix Christofides Lowenthal,
provides an overview
of the architectural forms and styles
associated with primary historical periods
both in terms of their respective
characteristics and innovations, and as
they express the various and evolving
perspectives of architecture as an
art. The architectural philosophy of
John Ruskin serves as the philosophical
foundation of this course. This past
fall, the class took several field trips,
visiting recently restored Grand Central
Station, Warren & Wetmore’s 1913
Beaux Arts design; the 2006 Hearst
Tower designed by Norman Foster,
the first Manhattan skyscraper built
after 9/11 and NYC’s first green building
(winner of the gold designation
from the LEED certification program);
the architectural firm of Urbahn Associates;
prominent artist Frederick
Church’s 1872 Hudson River estate,
olana, designed by Calvert Vaux in the
Persian/Victorian style; Frank Gehry’s
Performing Arts Center at Bard College;
and the local Jerrahi Mosque.
Students compiled notebooks
containing daily class notes, sketches,
and nightly homework drawings of
significant buildings and styles. Each
Illustrations taken from Alice Shi’s Main Lesson book
student independently studied a loour
thanks to Jon Wolfe ’97 who graciously providcal
architectural icon and wrote a reed
us with this quotation by Rudolf Steiner from a
search paper on it. The class formed
teams, each team designing and constructing
models for a final project
cerpted from Architecture as a Synthesis of the Arts,
lecture given in Berlin on 5 February 1913 and ex-
demonstrating their understanding of
by Rudolf Steiner (translated by Johanna Collis,Dorarchitectural
principles. othy osmond, Rex Raab and Jean Schmid-Bailey) .
30 | Alumni Magazine

Contributors
Julia Korthals Altes ‘97 (you knew her
as Julia Slone) majored in performance
studies at Marlboro College. She has
since worked as a music teacher, voice
coach, and choral director. She has traveled
abroad, lived in a yurt, and moved to
Brattleboro, VT, where she now lives with
her husband, Tristan Korthals Altes. Julia is
in the process of recording an indie rock
album; she performs as a singer with several
groups, and is studying the Québécois
fiddle. Although at times she hears the call
of Montréal,Austin,New York,and L.A.,Julia
chooses to launch her music career from
New England, in the context of community,
and the land she so loves.
elliot Berkowitz ’92 says: “My first job
was working with Chris onderdonk ’91 for
Michael Miller at Green Meadow. I credit
Mr. Miller for teaching me about work
ethic; he really inspired me to appreciate
something well made. I worked at GMWS
for 3 summers before turning to lifeguarding
at the Pond through my first summer
back from college. In the summer of 1996,
I got my first job in construction working
with a local contractor who had finished
my parents’ house the prior year. I then
worked for several other contractors and
woodworkers and cabinet makers before
starting my own business. When I’m not
working, I am working—we now have 20
employees (including Kevin Masback,who
was hired as employee #2 in 2001).I am an
avid golfer, I hang with friends and travel. I
try to get out to Napa Valley at least once
a year to visit Micah Flynn‘94 and I just got
back from Costa Rica. I will be going to
India this year to visit my brother, Michael
‘88, and his family, who moved to Mumbai
last fall.”
Nathaniel Burger ’94 lives with his girlfriend,
Suzy, in Boulder, Co. During the
winter, they can be found telemark skiing
in the backcountry or at one of the many
local resorts. In the summer, they can
be found eating appetizers or sipping a
latte downtown on Pearl Street; mountain
and road cycling; running, backpacking or
working on their houses. “It’s a rough life
out here, I tell you!”
winslow eliot is a Waldorf graduate of
Michael Hall School in Sussex, England. Her
novels have been translated into eleven
languages and published in twenty countries.
After graduating from Scripps College
in California and the Publishing Procedures
Course at Radcliffe, Eliot received
her Waldorf High School Teacher Certification
from the Center for Anthroposophy
in Wilton, NH, and is currently working as
outreach associate for AWSNA. She lives in
Massachusetts with her husband and two
children.
Mick Follari ‘90 continues to pursue a
bit of a renaissance life. He has taught science
and math blocks in Waldorf schools
around the country, is a design/build entrepreneur,
and a web design/developer.
He’s working on a Descriptive/Projective
Geometry book, and says hopefully someday
he’ll finish the novel he’s begun writing.
For fun, he casts himself around the
globe in search of remote cliffs to ascend:
cold, icy walls of granite that scratch at the
belly of heaven (read: are high-altitude) or
remote jungles / deserts / tundra / beaches;
wonderfully different cultures to photograph
(www.follari.com);and people,experiences,
and ideas that will help him make
sense of it all. To those ends, he’s managed
to stumble through about 30 countries,
never had the same career for more than 4
years (or girlfriend for 2, though hopefully
that’ll change), and hasn’t yet managed to
go back to school.But then,people tell him
“30s are the new 20s.” He says,“I’m just trying
to keep the misty zeitgeist from turning
my work quixotic”.
sherab Kloppenburg ‘92 lives in Carbondale,
Co, where she divides her time
between building and designing residential
and commercial buildings. She is the
design department for Jacober Brothers
Construction (www.JacoberBrothers.
com). Her most recent project is ELLA, a
bistro in a re-used / refurbished / restored
turn-of-the-century building in downtown
Carbondale, where all interior and exterior
finishes are recycled, re-used, low VoC, and,
when possible, locally manufactured materials.
Besides her work in Carbondale, Sherab
is also working for a new educational
project called“The other 90%.” Along with
designers and educators from around the
world, she is developing design curricula
for universities in the US and overseas to
encourage young designers to design for
the 90% of people who live without the
basics of food, water, and shelter.
Thomas McArdle ‘91, a graduate of the
University of Chicago, worked in insurance
for 9 years in the Chicago area, leaving his
position as a VP of Sales in 2005 to hike the
Pacific Crest Trail and then move to Helena,
MT. His brother, Daniel McArdle ’88, also
lives there, as does their mom, Ruth (“we’re
still trying to talk my Dad into joining us”).
His sister, Laura ’86, works in Alaska during
the summer and spends winters in Brazil.
Thomas works as Staff Director of AAA
MountainWest in Montana, Wyoming and
Alaska, and has participated in the past 11
Chicago Marathons and in Montana’s “Grizzly
Marathon” last summer. He and his girlfriend,
Angela Albers, are expecting their
first child in June.
Mimi satriano worked in the GMWS high
school office for seven years. She is the
mother of two GMWS graduates,Maureen
’88 and Nicholas ’90, and grandmother of
one new Waldorf student (in the nursery
program) and three more potential candidates,
ranging in age from 3 to 1.
Deborah schaeffer ’01 grew up in Bergen
County, in northern New Jersey. She
attended Green Meadow High School,
graduating in 2001, and went on to earn
her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Biology
at Bowdoin College. After graduation,
she moved to New York City, where
she spent two years working with innercity
children in schools and after-school
programs. She is currently teaching high
school life sciences and math at Green
Meadow.
Julika stackelberg-Addo grew up in
Heidelberg, Germany, where she attended
the freie Waldorf Schule. After high school,
she moved to South Africa, where she assisted
in several Waldorf kindergartens.
She enrolled in Sunbridge’s orientation
Year before moving to the University of
London, where she earned a B.A. in African
and Development Studies. After a
year working with an international development
organization, she returned to
Sunbridge as Development Director.
Spring 2008 | 31

Green Meadow
waldorf School
welcoMeS
the 2008
r eunion
c l a SS e S
307 Hungry Hollow Road
Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977
NON prOfit Org
US postage
Paid
permit # 4
HaNOver, pa
Threefold Educational Foundation & School
FoRwaRdiNg
SERviCE
REquESTEd
2 | Alumni Magazine