Media Contact: Robyn Coe c: 818.287.1237 marketing@gbrss.org

(Berkshires, MA) May 1, 2013—Great Barrington Waldorf High School (GBWHS) and Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (GBRSS) jointly announce that as of April 2013, the U.S. government has certified both schools to establish exchange and visiting student programs. The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security approved the schools’ application to issue forms I-20 to international students admitted in grades 1-12, so that they may apply for student visas to study at either school.

Tracy Fernbacher, Admissions Coordinator at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, who shepherded the schools through the certification process, commented, “This certification makes it possible to attract and enroll motivated students from other countries. This is the beginning of a valuable process of cultural exchange.” Stephen Sagarin, Great Barrington Waldorf High School Faculty Chair added, “We anticipate that this international certification will strengthen our relationships with Waldorf and Steiner schools in Germany and South America.” In the past, the Great Barrington Waldorf High School has hosted visitors from Munich, Germany, Lima, Peru and Cali, Colombia, but foreign students could only stay for 90 days on visitors’ visas, and could not officially enroll in school. With this certification, GBWHS and GBRSS can now enroll students from all parts of the globe as full-time students.

Great Barrington resident Lelia Bruun, coordinator for international student exchange programs such as PAX (Program for Academic Exchange) and USAI (USAImmersion, in programs with camps such as Hi-Rock, and Academic Year) which hosts students from Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as primarily Muslim countries and the former Soviet bloc, commented on the impact of the schools’ new status as international student visa providers: “Any time there is an exchange, there is understanding; out of that comes compassion and a sense of commonality. While all Great Barrington Waldorf High School students have the opportunity to study internationally as part of their curriculum, with this new certification, the reverse is also true: the world can come to both GBWHS and GBRSS. Now every experience for these students will be bigger. When an international peer talks to them about sports or academics in their home country, it puts it in their perspective. All of a sudden, students in the Berkshires start to understand a world different from theirs. It’s like traveling the world without a passport.”

Authentic Learning in the Berkshires—Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School and Great Barrington Waldorf High School are independent, coeducational day schools, part of the movement of more than 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide based on the educational principles of Austrian educator, scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner. GBRSS, founded in 1971, educates students from preschool through 8th grade, and GBWHS, which grew out of the lower school in 2002, educates students grades 9 through 12. Both schools operate from the core understanding that engaging all aspects of the human being—intellectual, spiritual and physical—provides a truly well-rounded education.

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Interviews and high resolution images are available. To schedule an interview with GBRSS Admissions Coordinator Tracy Fernbacher or GBWHS Faculty Chair Stephen Sagarin, please contact Robyn Coe at (818) 287-1237, or marketing@gbrss.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Trice Atchison (413) 528-4779. triceatchison@verizon.net

February 12, 2013

Helping adolescents find meaning, connection, and the will to make a difference

“Young people are longing for inspiration, for affirmation of their ideas,” says Waldorf high school teacher, author and poet David Sloan, who has worked with adolescents for more than thirty years. On Wednesday, March 6, at 7 p.m., he will talk with parents about ways to foster the natural idealism of youth as an antidote to apathy, self-absorption and criticalness, and how a Waldorf high school education meets the adolescent’s search for self. The talk—which will take place in the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (GBRSS) auditorium, 35 West Plain Road, Great Barrington—is open to the community and sponsored by the Great Barrington Waldorf High School, with support from GBRSS and the Christopher Reynolds Foundation.

Adolescents are at the precipice between childhood and adulthood, a tremendous life change, says Mr. Sloan, who sees himself as both a midwife and grief counselor. But in the midst of these often traumatic life changes, ideals are welling up. Fundamental to preserving them are helping adolescents to:

• find meaning in their lives;
• find human relationships and a sense of connectedness to the world; and
• feel that they can make a difference in the world.

“The quest for a sense of selfhood is what underlies so much of what young people are searching for,” says Mr. Sloan. “We can support that quest not by telling them what is meaningful, but by providing opportunities for them to discover meaning within themselves. We can’t make the connections for them, but we can encourage them to see connections.” The Waldorf high school curriculum is designed to help students become keen observers, make connections, and discover their own sense of meaning and purpose. When meaning, connectedness and insight are fostered, he affirms, empowerment—the will to act with resolve to make a contribution to the world—arises naturally.
“Young people in the modern world need ideals to arm themselves against the onslaught of cynicism, materialism and empty amusements,” says Mr. Sloan. “With guidance and support, young people can direct the heat and passion of adolescence toward forging their identities, fashioning their own values, and awakening to the world.”

David Sloan, a Waldorf high school teacher for nearly three decades, helped to found the Shining Mountain Waldorf High School in Boulder, CO and the Merriconeag Waldorf High School in New Gloucester, ME. He is a graduate of Harvard University and was a longtime faculty member of the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, NY. He is on the faculty of the Center for Anthroposophy, which offers summer sequence high school teacher training. Mr. Sloan is the author of Stages of Imagination: Working Dramatically with Adolescents, and Life Lessons: Reaching Teenagers through Literature, and he recently completed an MFA program in poetry. His book of poetry, The Irresistible In-Between, will be published in 2013.

The Great Barrington Waldorf High School provides an education that seeks truth, develops imagination, nurtures growth, fosters responsibility and honors inner freedom in an atmosphere of academic excellence, artistic fulfillment, openness, and mutual respect. For more information, visit www.waldorfhigh.org or call (413) 528-8833.

For directions to the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, visit www.rudolfsteinerschool.org.