Tina Schmidt, KWS German Teacher

Tell us a little about your background. How did you get to KWS?

I grew up in Munich, Germany, and studied Business and Education at the University of Nuremberg to become a teacher for high-school-age students who are already working part-time. I always enjoyed working with young adults, and the only reason to take a break from teaching has always been having my own children. Marie and Maximilian were born in Germany, and Louis was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. We moved to the United States in 2023. The school was recommended to us by a family from Kimberton. Our daughter, Marie, started with a full summer at summer camp, and we all fell in love with the school.

What draws you to the Waldorf approach to education? And in particular, teaching German in a Waldorf School?

Through my own children, I have experienced how much the individual child is truly seen and supported in becoming who they are through Waldorf education, especially here at KWS. It is so important to create an environment for the children where they feel valued for who they are, where they are respected, where they are happy, and where they feel safe. This environment gives the children the opportunity to learn, explore, and solve new challenges.

With a foreign language, students always face new challenges that at first make them feel insecure. In the first years, you don’t know all the words and grammar. In this insecurity, we can be together. I can support them, motivate them, cheer for them. They discover how to have their own conversations, and they explore German music, history, food, and rhymes, and hopefully at some point they feel more and more confident in these insecure moments. They know they can handle the situation.

I think there is nothing more beautiful in the world than accompanying a young person through these moments. 

What are you most looking forward to this coming year?

Meeting the 6th graders and getting to know who they are. Teaching them German and having lots of fun. And hopefully accompanying them for a very long time.

You also have students enrolled at the school. In your opinion, what makes our school unique and special for our students?

For me, it’s the community that makes this school so special: the incredible teachers, staff, and other parents I have met here. The families are truly connected, especially in the grades where you can really feel that we’ll all be together for so many years to come. We help each other, show up for each other, and it genuinely feels like a second family. 

And the campus! It’s surrounded by the woods and the organic farm. It’s simply magical. 

But what matters most to me is that my children feel safe here, and they’re learning so much while having so much fun.

Full article by Britt Starghill II at NYOTA Magazine.

For Kimberton Waldorf School, the impact of a Waldorf education can often be seen years after a student leaves campus—in the way alumni approach their work, their communities, and the world around them.

We’re delighted to celebrate alum Azaria Van Der Stok-Smallwood (KWS ’22), whose work as an emerging fashion designer was recently featured in NYOTA Magazine.

Azaria’s journey into fashion began long before she entered the world of design. Growing up in a multigenerational Waldorf family, she experienced an education deeply rooted in creativity, handwork, and the natural world. Her grandmother Raymonde van der Stok, a longtime KWS Eurythmy teacher, helped make that Waldorf tradition part of her family’s story.

“[I]t wasn’t even a choice,” Azaria shared with NYOTA. “My grandmother taught there, my mom went, and so did my sister.”

From kindergarten onward, handwork was simply part of everyday life. Azaria learned to knit, crochet, and spin yarn, while time spent outdoors connected those skills to the natural world. She recalls collecting wildflowers from campus, boiling them down to create natural dyes, and using those dyes on yarn.

“It was such a normal thing in the education I grew up in to take from the natural world and create art with what was around you,” she said.

That early experience continues to resonate throughout Azaria’s work today.

From Waldorf Handwork to Fashion as a Visual Language

After graduating from KWS in 2022, Azaria pursued her passion for fashion and design, carrying with her the creative foundation she developed as a Waldorf student.

For Azaria, clothing became much more than an artistic medium. Growing up navigating very different communities and environments, she came to understand the power of clothing to shape perception and communicate identity.

Today, she describes fashion as her way of communicating—a “visual language of dress.” Her work draws on her personal experiences, her community, cultural history, and questions of identity and social justice.

That combination of personal storytelling and social commentary is particularly evident in her recent collection.

Turning Waste Into Beauty

One of Azaria’s favorite pieces from the collection began with something most people would simply throw away: scraps of muslin.

While working in her studio, she collected discarded muslin scraps from pattern-making throughout the year and from other students’ work. She then painstakingly tore the material into strips, transforming the waste into a material resembling raffia.

The finished garment combines a crocheted halter-neck bodice with a dramatic, voluminous skirt made from the repurposed material. The design also incorporates individually hand-collected mussel shells from the shores of Rhode Island.

For Azaria, the piece represents far more than sustainability in fashion. It connects environmental responsibility with Black cultural history, family, place, craft, and the transformative power of making.

She draws a connection between transforming discarded materials into something beautiful and the long history of Black Americans creating nourishment, art, and culture from what society has discarded.

The hours she spent tearing fabric and crocheting by hand also carry meaning for her. She describes the repetitive, meditative nature of these processes as a way of connecting with ancestry and cultural memory.

In many ways, the philosophy behind this collection echoes something deeply familiar to Waldorf education: the value of working with our hands, paying attention to the materials around us, and transforming the ordinary into something meaningful.

A Waldorf Education That Travels With You

Azaria’s story is a beautiful reminder that education is not simply about what students learn while they are at school. It is also about the habits of mind, creative confidence, and relationship to the world that they carry forward.

At Kimberton Waldorf School, we believe that artistic and practical experiences are essential parts of an education. Handwork, movement, music, visual arts, and a connection to nature give students opportunities to experience themselves as capable creators and to see possibility in the world around them.

For Azaria, those experiences became part of the foundation for a career in fashion—one that brings together artistry, cultural storytelling, sustainability, and social awareness.

And her story continues to unfold.

On September 18, Azaria will present her collection at New York Fashion Week. She will also exhibit her thesis collection at an event connected with New York Fashion Week and Climate Week and participate in a discussion about sustainability and fashion design in the contemporary world.

We are proud to celebrate Azaria and to see the creative seeds planted during her years at Kimberton continue to grow.

Congratulations, Azaria! We can’t wait to see where your work takes you next.

Nadiv Brog, KWS 4th Grade Class Teacher

Tell us a little about your background.

I was born and raised in Israel, and I spent my childhood in a kibbutz, where we lived a shared communal life. As a child, I was always part of a group of children my age, and we spent most of our time playing and wandering through the open spaces and fields surrounding our homes.

As a young adult, I found myself in various situations involving mentoring and guiding others, which gave me a deep sense of meaningful contribution. From there, it felt natural for me to deepen my studies in education. Through my studies in education and the journeys of the soul that shaped my life, I encountered Anthroposophy and, within it, Waldorf education. Since then, they have accompanied my life and my family’s journey wherever we have gone.

What draws you to the Waldorf approach to education? And, in particular, being a Class Teacher in a Waldorf School?

My attraction to Waldorf education comes from a deep feeling that it is a meaningful thing for humanity. The understanding of the human being as an entity composed of body, soul, and spirit, together with the fact that the methods of teaching and learning are designed to nourish all three of these aspects, gives a feeling that what I am doing is truly good and right. For me, the human being is an unsolved mystery, and working in education allows me to remain constantly engaged in the search for the answer to that mystery.

There are two things about being a class teacher that I find especially wonderful. The first is the gift of having the opportunity to form meaningful, long-lasting relationships with children and parents. The second is the need to continually change and learn new subjects in order to be able to meet the children where they are. The role requires observation and learning—a constant creative movement.

How did you get to KWS?

Finding our way to KWS felt like finding a needle in a haystack. The question of independent thinking in education is something that my wife and I care deeply about. In my view, it is an especially urgent issue in today’s world, which is filled with polarized opinions, technological distractions, and forms of mental manipulation through both traditional and social media.

I was fortunate to meet Brad at a conference dealing with questions related to ‘Individual thinking’ and education. I was deeply impressed by the direct and courageous way he chose to speak about these fundamental questions concerning education in the contemporary world in which we live.

From there, the desire to send our children to KWS was born. Then an opportunity opened for me to apply to work here as a class teacher.

What are you most looking forward to this coming year?

I am very excited about fourth grade and all the magic that children bring with them at this age. On the one hand, childhood is still very much alive, with all its enthusiasm, innocence, and joy. On the other hand, children are beginning to develop a stronger sense of their place on the earth and a genuine desire to learn about the world around them.

I am especially curious and excited to explore the geography block. I am not yet very familiar with the region in which we live, and the opportunity to teach local geography at this age will allow me to learn something completely new.

You also have two students in school. In your opinion, what makes our school unique and special for our students?

The accessibility of nature is something I value tremendously. The experience of having direct and immediate contact with nature is woven throughout the students’ daily lives at school. The spaces where the children play and explore allow them to gather many healthy and enriching childhood experiences.

The fact that the school has existed for many years, and that strong traditions have developed over that time, provides a wonderful sense of stability. Children love knowing what is coming and what they can expect, and the school’s traditions allow that sense of anticipation to emerge at the right time.

The 2025-2026 school year has been quite the year… From the Ice Cream Social and Rose Ceremony at the beginning of the year, we journeyed into the darkest nights of the year together as a community with Lantern Walks, Advent Assemblies and the Candlelight Sing. We emerged this spring to celebrate the beauty of our natural world with May Day and May Faire, Pentathlon, and even the cherished “cow day”. Our students have grown, learned and appreciated the world around them, both this year, and over the decades. We’ll soon send off our newest graduates, the Class of 2026, and welcome them into the halls of our alumni.

Thank you for being a part of our community!

Alumni Update! Safaya Smallwood (KWS ‘20) won second prize in the prestigious Rylands Art Prize Competition. Safaya is currently pursuing her MPhil in African Studies at Cambridge University, after graduating from UPenn in 2024.

Safaya painted this portrait of her late Great Uncle, a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Nsukka in Nigeria. Safaya included craft work in the painting, notably working with string and beading (for the sun of Biafra, the Ibo homeland that was lost to a horrific Civil War). Congratulations Safaya on winning this impressive and competitive Arts Competition!

Dan de Angeli, Class of 1976

A Waldorfian Memory

I grew up, from Kindergarten  through 12^th grade, at Kimberton Waldorf School.  The experience of being in that school, having known no other, seemed completely natural to me.  It would be years before I really could appreciate just how special my school experience was.    When I was actually there, as a Waldorf kid,  it seemed perfectly ordinary that we would learn to knit and make bamboo flutes and paint with only three colors on paper soaked in water.  That we would begin each day by saying, “I look into the world, I see the shining sun, I see the sparkling stars…”   That we would learn French and German by singing songs.

Nor would the setting of the school itself, surrounded by fields and a creek with a covered bridge, seem particularly unusual.  Or that the main building of the middle school was once a very wealthy family’s home who so believed in the educational ideas of Rudolf Steiner that they would found a school based on his ideas.  That in that same building, which had the very unusual detail of an atrium space ceilinged by a great glass dome, the entire school would gather and sing during the advent celebration, and our voices would rise up, up, up and reverberate as one.  

In that same building were the middle grades of the school. Our classrooms had deep window wells, large enough to sit in and come the spring, the magnolia trees would bloom outside and we resume outdoor play again. For years we would have our class photos taken in front of those trees.

As a crafty kid, I thrived in the all the opportunities for making things with my hands.  In 4^th grade we were given the task to shape a darning egg from a piece of wood.  That was challenging.  You never look an egg again the same way after you have tried to shape one from wood. Later on in high school we started to use chisels and drills to make furniture and sculpture.  There is a special feeling from sitting on a chair you made yourself.

Art was my favorite class.  My teacher was Mary Harvey, who once brought in a record player and some of her classical collection.  She played Mussorsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, and asked us to interpret it visually. I don’t know if  this interplay and overlapping of the arts is a uniquely Waldorfian approach, but I have my old school to thank for learning about this idea. 

Art permeated all aspects of our education.  We produced main lesson books based on three week concentrations of a certain subject matter, and I loved to illustrate my books with portraits, landscapes and symbols.  In science I was weak on the basic concepts and made up for it by making particularly colorful charts and diagrams.

Years later I became a history teacher myself in a regular public school in Massachusetts.  I had only my own experience at Kimberton to guide my approach.   I remembered the colorful classrooms of yore and tried to make my own classroom into a kind of museum of educational artifacts.  I tried to teach history as experientially as possible,  like learning how to dance, or sing historic songs or  read poems from the era.  

You can take the kid out of Waldorf but you can’t take the Waldorf out of the kid.   At least in my case.  In a world where everything seems to move too fast, and our attention is being broken up by hundreds of messages and disruptions at any moment,  I feel I can access that special quiet calm of my Waldorfian childhood.  And when the world seems to moving towards something dark and unknown, I calm myself in handiwork or making art, losing myself to time and circumstance while I make something beautiful. 

Thank you Kimberton Waldorf for this priceless gift.

Reflections
by Valerie Burritt

Current KWS Parent

Choosing An Education that Honors Childhood

When we chose a preschool for our daughter Annabelle, we ended up at a small neighborhood school that was very convenient. But after a few weeks, we started noticing what she was bringing home—worksheets. Lots of them. After just a half day, she’d have pages of traced letters and carefully colored shapes. The teachers were so proud of how they were “preparing” the children for kindergarten and making sure they’d meet all the early academic benchmarks. But to us, it felt wrong. We wanted her to play, to socialize, to explore, to use her imagination—not to sit and trace the letter B thirty times.  We couldn’t shake the feeling that something essential about childhood was being overlooked. Around the same time, we started hearing more about how media and screens were being introduced in early education, and that concern pushed us to start looking for a different kind of school—one that aligned with what we truly valued for our children.

Luckily, we discovered KWS and were immediately drawn to the completely different approach to learning. We were thrilled that instead of worksheets, Annabelle and her younger sister Lily were now bringing home a million finger knittings and even gemstones left by fairies in the play yard.  Moreover, our children were coming home happy, curious, and at ease with themselves, and that told us everything we needed to know. 

Now that our kids are in first and second grade, we are still impressed by the balance between academics, creativity, and play—it all feels intentional and whole. For us, there’s such comfort in knowing that the approach stays steady and rooted in a deep understanding of how our children learn, grow, and thrive. At KWS, we don’t have to worry about being caught up in the latest educational trend because the curriculum is based on something deeper and more meaningful. We are grateful that KWS gives our family not just an education, but a sense of peace in how our kids are growing up.

This was originally written for Kimberton Waldorf School’s 2024-2025 Annual Report. Click here to see the full report.

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Cynthia Oswald, Senior Self Portrait Teacher

Tell us a little about your background. How did you get to KWS?

My path to Kimberton Waldorf School has been a weaving together of design, creativity, and intuition. I earned my BFA in Communication Design and spent nearly a decade in advertising, printing, and eventually directing web design and e-business development. Even as I advanced, I felt a pull back toward more meaningful creative work (something that allowed me to use my head, heart, and hands!).

That led me to the marketing department at Kimberton Whole Foods, where Terry Brett gave me room to grow creatively while I built my own design and art business on the side. It was through Terry that I first heard about Waldorf education.

A few years later, Tim Walsh (husband of Esther Walsh, the beloved music teacher) found me at the Phoenixville Farmers Market and invited me to design artwork for a school benefit. That project opened the door to future collaborations, and soon after, the marketing team invited me to support their SEO efforts. At the time, my oldest daughter was only a few months old, and I was simultaneously finishing my MFA in Communication Design.

Teaching had always been a dream, and after graduating in 2020 and weathering the realities of the pandemic, I eventually returned to teaching at Kutztown University last year. It was life-giving. When the opportunity to teach the senior self-portrait block arose, it felt like the exact right fit—aligned with my values, my creative work, and the way I encourage both students and clients to reflect inward and honor their authentic selves.

What draws you to the Waldorf approach to education and, in particular, teaching art at a Waldorf school?

What immediately drew me to Waldorf education was its deep respect for the arts as a way of knowing. When I first began working with the school years ago, I found myself doing some of my graduate research on the Waldorf approach—and I was honestly blown away by how intentional and integrative it is.

Art isn’t an extra here; it’s a vital part of how students understand themselves and the world. That resonates with me deeply. Art has always been the bridge between disciplines in my own life—whether I’m designing, illustrating, or helping a business communicate its story. It’s problem-solving, it’s memory-making, it’s meaning-making.

Teaching seniors who have experienced this integration since early childhood feels like an incredible honor. They come to the self-portrait block with a cultivated sense of creativity and curiosity. Guiding them through a process of inward reflection—inviting them to see themselves clearly and expressively—is something that feels beautifully aligned with where I am in my own life and creative work.

More recently, I was reading Limitless by Jim Kwik, and there’s an exercise where he teaches you how much better you remember something when it’s connected to story, visual imagination, and experience. You can memorize a long list of words effortlessly—not by repeating them, but by picturing them and connecting them to one another in a narrative. When I did that exercise, it immediately made sense to me why Waldorf education works so well. The arts-integrative, story-rich approach isn’t just creative—it’s an incredibly effective way of helping students build true understanding and long-term memory. They’re not just hearing about something; they’re experiencing it, engaging with it through senses and imagination. That reinforces learning in a way rote memorization never could.

What are you most looking forward to this coming year?

This year, I’m excited to be closer to my girls by being a part of the school—getting to do something I truly love while also being just a few steps away from them during the day. That feels really special, and I don’t take it for granted.

I’m also looking forward to deepening my teaching practice—both through the university and through Waldorf education. Teaching has been such a life-giving part of my year, and I love the balance it brings to my creative work. It really feels like where I’m supposed to be in this season of my life.

Another thing I’m thrilled about is an illustrated book project I’m collaborating on with a member of the KWS community. It’s already something I can feel myself pouring a lot of heart into. And in the studio, December marks one of my favorite annual traditions: the 25 Days of Minis. This will be my fifth year releasing a new miniature painting each day from December 1–25. It’s a joyful, grounding rhythm for me, and I’m excited to share that work again.

You have two students in the school. In your opinion, what makes our school unique and special for our students?

For our family, the heart of Kimberton Waldorf School is the teachers. Every teacher my children have had has been deeply nurturing, intentional, and wholly committed to seeing each child as an individual. Their grace, presence, and genuine care have shaped my daughters in ways that are hard to put into words.

I also love where the school is. There’s something about Kimberton—the land, the fields, the farm community—that carries its own kind of magic. I grew up in a valley surrounded by farmers, and I can see now how much that shaped my perspective and my appreciation for simple beauty and hard work. Having my children learn in an environment that mirrors that feels like a gift. The setting itself becomes part of their education.

The rhythms and festivals here are another thing I cherish. The way the school honors the seasons, the light, the turning of the year—it’s grounding, imaginative, and deeply human. And the cultural warmth and genuine acceptance within the community is something we feel every single day. Families from all different backgrounds show up with such openness and respect for one another. It’s rare, and it’s something I hold close.

Being part of this community as both a parent and a teacher has shown me just how special it is. The education here doesn’t just prepare students academically—it supports their whole being. And as a mother, I couldn’t be more grateful.