Staff Bios
who's on staff
You'll find descriptions on our five bio pages of most of the 2011 staff. Things sometimes shift a little during the summer so there may be changes, but here's what it's looking like so far.
Grace wrote or revised some of the bios, so anything that sounds arrogant is probably her fault.
(Also, in case this page seems a little weird at the moment, as of January 2012 it is partially updated for 2012, not quite here nor there.)
Director
Grace Llewellyn, 47
Eugene, Oregon
photo by Ava Heinrichsdorff
Grace is most well known for her book, The Teenage Liberation Handbook: how to quit school and get a real life and education. She's also the co-author and/or editor of 3 other books, most recently Guerrilla Learning: how to give your kids a real education with or without school. A former school teacher, Grace founded NBTSC in 1996. Since 1991, she has been involved in the un/homeschooling movement in numerous ways--she has spoken at conferences, directed a resource center, and produced a mail order book catalog for unschoolers.
In her other life, Grace loves to dance. She performs bellydance once a month or so; is an apprentice teacher of a wonderful ecstatic dance practice called Soul Motion; and DJs and facilitates a couple times a month for Eugene's ecstatic dance gathering, Coalessence.
And in her most essential, miraculous, and recent life -- Grace is the utterly smitten mama of 3-year-old Yared, who came home from Ethiopia with her in February 2010. It feels ironic to her that after decades of hoping and planning to be a parent, and working with teenagers, it's only now that she's old enough to be a grandmama that she's finally beginning her own parenting adventure. And yet the timing also feels absolutely perfect.
Grace's more official (but outdated) bio is here, links to interviews with and articles about her are here, and her rarely-updated, badly out of date personal website is here.
At camp, Grace's intention is to connect with, and enjoy, every single camper and every single staff person. Some sessions that works out, and other sessions tedious disciplinary necessities and other stuff gets in the way, but she still usually knows everybody's name by the second or third night. Another important part of her role is to pay attention to the overall tone and energy of each camp session, and to do what she can (with help from campers and staff) to keep things harmonious and inspiring. She also tries to keep her eyes on every aspect of camp to make sure things are going OK or, preferably, much better than OK. And she spends a lot of time making notes for meetings with individual people and groups, and runs daily staff meetings, and all-camp morning meeting and evening meeting. And deals with discipline issues when they come up. Her workshops usually focus on dance, various aspects of writing and publishing, and goal setting and issues related to unschooling.
During the year, she reflects on the larger purpose, direction, and vision of NBTSC; communicates with campers and parents; reviews feedback from campers, staff, and parents; plans and implements major and minor changes and experiments for the coming camp year; hires staff; inspects all the previous year's camp expenses and sets a budget for the coming year; updates all written camp materials, policies, and such; and works closely with the administrative goddesses to make sure everything that needs to get done gets done. And, she updates this website from time to time.
Unschooling history: It took her a while to figure it out. First she went to school, and college, and taught school. Then she started to think there must be a better way, investigated, discovered John Holt, and that was the beginning of the end. Or the beginning of the beginning.
Camp history: Grace holds the one and only near-perfect attendance award. (She missed part of Vermont in 2007 and 2008 due to her Soul Motion teacher training.) She has always directed, and for many years was an advisor also.
Assistant director
Now that Grace divides her attention between parenting and directing, she is grateful to have Evan, her dear friend and longtime staff member, sharing the load -- mainly at camp but also year-round.
Evan Wright, 30
Seattle, Washington
When he was 15, Evan read The Teenage Liberation Handbook and began unschooling. Outside of high school he was able to re-establish a direct, personal relationship to learning and education. He explored the British Museum; raised orphaned harbor seal pups in California; volunteered at a London homeless shelter run by nuns; trained villagers in Mexico to disentangle sea lions from fishermen's nets; and assisted in research of 5 ft. long green sea turtles in Costa Rica. Without school he studied the life of Albert Einstein, eventually correcting an error in a Princeton University Press book on the scientist. Attending NBTSC for the first time in 1998 was an inspiring and affirming experience.
At camp Evan has led or co-led workshops and discussions on: Stone Sculpting, The Supreme Court of the United States, How to Get What You Want, Speaking (to others) about Unschooling, How to Build an Underwater Robot, How to Change the World in 90 minutes, A Tidepooling/Marine Biology Fieldtrip, Scavenger Hunt, Investing for People who are Scared of Money, How to Make Homemade Pasta, The Life of Albert Einstein, How to Organize a Big Project or Event, A Local Farming Tour/Fieldtrip, Barn Raising (a networking activity), Blues Dancing, and The Effective Unschooler.
more admin deities
Sarabeth Matilsky, 31
Ithaca, New York
Year-round office goddess and camper liaison
Sarabeth joined our administrative staff as our East Coast liaison in 2004, and now operates the year round NBTSC office for both Oregon and Vermont. She has fabulous organizational skills, and is a delightful person for campers and parents to be in contact with prior to camp.
In 1996, Sarabeth came to the first-ever NBTSC as a sixteen-year-old camper. Growing up in suburban New Jersey in the eighties, there wasn't a whole lot of support for unschooling, and she was blown away by her NBTSC experience. She decided to do something BIG with her own life, and in 1997 she rode her bicycle 4500 miles across the country to camp (solo except for the great folks she met along the way).
Fast forward to 2009: Sarabeth lives in Ithaca, NY with her most excellent husband (whom she met on that fateful bike trip so long ago!), and their two boys, Ben Starling and Jem Reed (both born at home on, respectively, 1/10/04 and 8/5/07). Some of Sarabeth's many interests (most of which she will resume participation in once both children start sleeping through the night): hosting dinner parties, playing piano, discovering and listening to music by independent and wonderful artists, cooking and baking, doing pilates, writing, and wholistic health and nutrition.
Sarabeth and Jeff's latest adventures include raising "diaper-free" babies, moving to Ithaca, NY so that Sarabeth could cook at the famous Moosewood Restaurant, more recently moving to EcoVillage at Ithaca, a cohousing community just outside of town, and undertaking their first whole-family bicycle trip.
Unschooling history: Sarabeth is the oldest of 5 sibs who have always unschooled. Having been at it for so long and in a very thoughtful, dedicated way (and written about and otherwise shared their experiences in numerous forums), the Matilskys have served as role models for many other unschoolers. Ben and Jem, like their mother, have been unschooling since birth.
Camp history: Camper in 1996 and 1997. Advisor 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 (Session 2 and 3), 2003 (Session 1 and 3) and 2004 (WV), logistics goddess in West Virginia 2004 and in Vermont 2006. Advisor in Vermont, 2008.
During the year, Sarabeth communicates with campers, parents, and staff, and processes all kinds of information related to them and to camp. Together with her husband Jeff Amaral, who is a Linux whiz, she translates NBTSC's forms and questionnaires into an online registration system that cuts down massively on the killing of trees and on the necessity of tedious re-typing of data. Sarabeth also pulls together gazillions of details ranging from workshop supplies to compiling directories to coordinating everybody's travel plans.
photo--Sarabeth and Ben at the prom, NBTSC Vermont 2006
Matt Sanderson, 22
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Logistics Coordinator, all sessions
photo by Kitty Pelham-Bush
After swapping private college prep school for alternative democratic school, all of my ideas about how education works changed. Instead of going to directly to college, I chose to differ my admission for a year and travel to New Orleans to do post-Katrina relief work.
After thinking about it for a year, I decided to differ from college indefinitely. I traveled to Ecuador and taught English and art for a semester, and then returned to the States and co-founded a camp called the Young People's Empowerment Convergence (YPEC). YPEC ran for three years, after which I moved to San Francisco for a semester to spend some quality time with fellow NBTSC staffers Alex Rhue, Frankie Cruz, Zen Zenith, and Abbi Miller.
Since then I've been living back in West Philadelphia in an apartment close to where I grew up. I've been working as the assistant program coordinator for the Middle School Friends (Quakers) organization in Philadelphia. Lately I've also been working the Young Friends (high school age) and volunteer teaching two days a week at my old alternative high school.
This year will be my fourth year working at NBTSC and my second as the logistics coordinator. I can't wait for camp!
Maya Toccata, 31
Joshua Tree, California
office goddess and camper liaison
unschooling history: Maya went to school until she was 13, when she read the Teenage Liberation Handbook and quit. She then proceeded to learn about hats, hardware stores, Anne Frank, traveling solo, rock climbing, newsletter editing, self defense, and life. At the age of 28, she decided she did want to go to college after all, and has had a great time working (a little more slowly now since Oliver came along) at a kinesiology degree.
camp history: Maya came to camp for the first time in 1997, and then was present every year and almost every session for many years afterward. She came so many times, in fact, and was so cute and smart and nice and peaceful and competent that eventually Grace had no choice but to hire her as a junior staff person (in 2000) and then (later in 2000) as the year-round office manager and, starting in 2001, the logistics goddess of NBTSC. Grace finally realized at camp in 2004 that the term "logistics goddess" no longer fully reflected Maya's role at camp, and renamed her "assistant director." While she no longer officially holds the AD title or even manages to make it to camp now that her life has gotten exponentially more complex, she remains as essential to NBTSC as group hugs and rainbow-colored hair.
Maya says, “I am delighted to be back in the role of office goddess and very much looking forward to being in touch with campers and parents.”
Health coordinator
"Health coordinator" is a new year-round position at NBTSC. Heather has been attending conferences, hob-nobbing with nurses and health department inspectors, rewriting our medical history forms, and generally upgrading the way we approach health at NBTSC. So far she has only been able to attend NBTSC in Oregon, and can't do even that in 2011, but one can always hope that eventually she and her little sprout Poppy will make it to Vermont also.
Heather Loo Jaggers, 41
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Heather says:
I left school when I was 17 and ventured to my Grandmother's. There I was able to indulge my love of animals from milking goats to raising orphaned raccoons. Those experiences encouraged me to explore the veterinary world to become a technician. I still work at the vet clinic a few days a month and enjoy my time there--especially during puppy and kitten season. I've taken all sorts of classes in human medicine. My husband and I met during my clinicals on the ambulance (he was a paramedic--not a patient!). I like to blur the lines of distinction between human and veterinary medicine.
I am enjoying my job as the parent of a homeschooled "preschooler". My most favorite past times include catching frogs and riding horses.
Camp history: Mama Bear, 2007-2009
Next.....please choose a session, and enjoy meeting more of the NBTSC staff.
Contact the camp office.