Antioch University
Major: English
At Emerson: Kindergarten through 12th grade - Class of 2012

Current Status: My current status is one of hard-won contentment! I’m married to the best person I’ve ever met. I’m a screenwriter. A horror film I wrote is currently doing pretty well at film festivals, and I’m a bookseller at my favorite bookstore in Chapel Hill. I didn’t take a traditional path, and that turned out to be the right choice for me.

To be honest, I never really went through a stage where I rebelled against the idea of Waldorf education. I always liked it. I mean, I certainly didn’t get along with all my teachers (lol), but I was appreciative of the pedagogical model, even as a student. 

Emerson was a place that encouraged me to develop into my authentic self, follow my curiosity, and embrace my sense of humor. I’m honestly the poster child of an anxious, neurodivergent kid who would have REALLY struggled in public school but really thrived in the context of Waldorf. 

I absolutely adored my class and could never have asked for a better family to accompany me on the silly and heartbreaking journey one takes from childhood to adulthood. I’m still good friends with a lot of the people with whom I graduated. I have considered—and am still considering—being a Waldorf teacher, which is why I picked Antioch as my alma mater. I feel grateful for my education. 

On Waldorf 
If you do any kind of creative work, you can’t underestimate the impact of having an education that pushes you into so many art forms and crafts. It isn’t simply that you develop all these skills like drawing and woodworking—the hidden psychological impact of a Waldorf curriculum is you are taught you are capable of doing all of these things. I was very lucky to have the teachers I had.

You develop a sense of your own capability. When you’re out in the world, and you decide you want to make your own movies, you don’t have this voice telling you that you can’t do it. Or, more accurately, you do have that voice, but you also have another voice saying, “Yes, you can. Could it possibly be harder than carving a spoon out of a block of wood?” 

I wasn’t an adept visual artist at all, and it was borderline dangerous to let me handle knitting needles. Still, I mastered the basics at Waldorf. 

It was the same thing with a camera. I bought the cheapest camera on the market and started shooting. I sucked at first, but I didn’t stop, and then I got better. That’s huge because so many adults would think, “I have no idea how to make a movie. I bet I could never do that.” Then, that dream is over. 

I encounter so many adults who wrongly believe that they don’t have any talent. The biggest filtering point for any creative vocation is right at the beginning, when most people filter themselves out without even trying.