Staff - 2009 Oregon Session 1
Advisors
Advisors do lots of things: teach workshops; lead games, sports, hikes, fieldtrips, and other activities; help out with logistics; and other stuff. But most essentially, they connect with campers--individually and in small groups. Each advisor meets daily with his or her group of 11 or so campers, and is generally available for support, hugs, and conversation.
Tilke Elkins
Springfield, Oregon
Advisor, Sessions 1&2
Project Leader, Session 2
Ms. Elkins says:
At age ten, I referred to school as “The Institution,” and wore a button that said FREE THE KIDS. Many years of schooling later, a good friend passed me the Teenage Liberation Handbook. Even though my chance to rise out of compulsory education had passed, I had found the bible to freedom I’d been looking for all those years. When I turned to the page about Not Back To School Camp, my heart beat faster. People were doing this! Maybe, just maybe, I could still be part of it.
A lifelong tree climber, I heard about a place in Oregon where people were climbing tree giants with ropes, around the same time I read the TLH. The two put together seemed like good reason to voyage west. I sent a letter ahead of me to Grace asking, “Is there any way I can be part of your camp?” The answer was “yes!”
Eight years and two changes of address later (first to to a house full of camp staff and then to a bigger house that initially held eight of us), camp continues to define my community. The household is smaller now (four of the eight have been replaced by two cats and two pugs), and I’m married to the illustrious Mr. Nicholas E. Walker. We met at Quo Vadis, a gathering for unschooled adults run by NBTSC staff member Evan Wright.
Art is my greatest passion. For me, art is a bit like the notorious food additive MSG, without the side-effects: art makes life more intense. When I create, ideas flow, feelings clarify, and most important, I allow myself to become aware of and magnify what I most love about the world. This usually manifests as expressive landscapes, but I also make cloth “color portraits,” puppets, and drawings of animals.
Like many artists, I find a variety of ways to make a living. For several years I made “a radical magazine for children ages one to one-hundred and up,” called All ROund. I stopped making All ROund in 2005 to give myself time to write and illustrate a book all about my favorite things about color. I support this gargantuan project by doing freelance graphic design (www.leafboat.org), among other things. This July I’m assisting at a nature camp for four-to-eight year-olds.
Past NBTSC Workshops and Projects I've orchestrated in the past include: How To Eat Fruit, All About Color, Wild Edibles, Intuitive Drawing, Tree Climbing, Puppet-Making, and “Are You a Synaesthete?”
www.leafboat.org
www.allroundmagazine.com
Danielle LaVigna, 28
Santa Rosa, California
Advisor, Session 1
I rose out of school when I was 16 years old, after reading the first chapter of The Teenage Liberation Handbook. Then began one of the most adventurous journeys of my life. Between the ages of 16 & 18, I went exploring to satisfy the many yearnings of my soul: I danced till I dropped (Swing, Lindy-hop, Blues, Afro-Haitian, ballet, hip-hop); I committed to animal rights & veganism, environmental sustainability, & social justice; I studied ancient goddess history, photography & biology.
As I began to do some deep inner work, I became drawn to communication as a tool of transformation & conflict resolution, as well as self-expression. I have spent much of the last ten years building my skills of communication through workshops, seminars, therapy, co-counseling & coaching.
My early 20s were filled with many experiments & self discovery. I created an intentional community household, co-directed an environmental youth nonprofit organization—learning everything about fund raising, managing & hiring staff, running large events, & talking with foundations & politicians as well as running student action teams, youth leadership groups & empowering young people to speak their truth & stand up for what they believe in.
I also fell in love, got engaged, & didn't get married. I made peace with my father & practiced a lot of Bikram yoga.
In my mid 20s, I became so immersed in my nonprofit work that it became my identity. I worked incredibly hard, burned out & faced the biggest challenge of my life so far : chronic pain & disability.
These last two years, I have been on a healing journey—cycling through a whirlpool of denial, anger, bargaining, depression & acceptance. I have severe tendonitis in my upper body stemming from a genetic condition. My limitations include most repetitive motions such as using a computer, handwriting, & driving. Through this journey, I have learned who my real friends are, how to ask for & accept help, how to contribute to others without the use of my arms, how to listen to my body, how to deeply nurture & take care of myself. I also have had to learn how to be with loss . . . the loss of functioning arms & the ensuing loss of my career, my self-sufficiency, my ability to dance & even ride a bike. I am learning how to be with loss of all kinds & the permanent impermanence that is life.
I now live in Santa Rosa, California, very close to my family. Santa Rosa is in Sonoma County, which is known for sustainable agriculture. Here, I fulfill my passion for fresh artisan foods that support local, organic farmers. Now that I am a full-fledged omnivore, I enjoy eating grass-fed meats & raw goat cheeses regularly.
I have a wonderful new community of loving, kind friends who enjoy exploring the intense challenges & succulent joys of life with me. I spend a lot of my time taking care of my body. I am also creating a life-coaching business focused on youth. I get joy & satisfaction contributing to the empowerment of my youth clients. My past & current life challenges have enabled me to be a fully present & extraordinary coach for others. After a four-year hiatus from staffing at NBTSC, I am so excited to be back!
Blake Boles, 26
at large (California, Oregon, etc.)
Advisor, Sessions 1,2,3&4
Project Leader, Session 2
2008 was an exciting year for Blake--he signed a publishing deal for his book (College Without High School), led a group of nine teenage unschoolers around Argentina for six weeks, and acted (for two weeks) as the full director of a children’s wilderness summer camp. Never one for a “stable lifestyle”, this year found him living in Portland, Oregon for 4 months, working as an EMT medic for a New England environmental education program, presenting at two homeschooling conferences, and returning to the California High Sierras to work and backpack. Blake is SUPER excited to work all four sessions of NBTSC in 2009 and connect with dozens of new unschoolers!
Blake was a public school student and didn’t get bit by the unschooling bug until he was in college--but it bit hard. After redesigning his major to study alternative education exclusively, Blake went on to brainstorm a cornucopia of unschooler-related enterprises. He is the co-founder (with the famous Abbi Miller) of Unschool Adventures (www.unschooladventures.com), a teen travel company for unschoolers. You can find College Without High School (a great gift for friends in high school!) via the publisher’s website (www.newsociety.com), your local bookstore, or the omnipresent Amazon.com.
Blake is a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and an instructor in Wilderness First Aid and Red Cross CPR. When not working with teens, Blake enjoys backpacking, ultimate frisbee, Argentine tango, international travel, and never-ending reading and writing. He has worked as a snowboard instructor, academic tutor, marketing researcher, chef, outdoor science teacher, freelance web designer, homeschool mentor, and windsurfing instructor. He spends time living in both California and Oregon.
Evan Wright, 27
Seattle, Washington
Advisor, Sessions 1, 3, and 4
(photo by Vanessa Filkins, Quo Vadis 2004)
One of Evan’s defining characteristics isn’t obvious at first, although it has a long history. When he was ten years old, he decided he wanted to “stay underwater” and built a diving bell out of an upside-down garbage can, a length of rope, and 75 pounds of weight: he is a creative problem solver to the core. After a decade developing experience as an autodidact, he is even more at home using the tools of stubborn curiosity, independence, and unconventional approaches to arrive at surprising and innovative solutions to all kinds of challenges.
Evan began his practice of self-education after reading The Teenage Liberation Handbook at 15. His curriculum included unlearning many of the unspoken lessons from school and re-establishing his own direct personal relationship to learning. He explored the British Museum; worked at a London soup kitchen run by nuns; raised harbor seal pups, disentangled sea lions from fishermen's nets in Mexico, and assisted in research of 5 ft. long green sea turtles in Costa Rica. Without school he studied the life of Albert Einstein, assisted with research on whales, and explored the writing of educational visionaries and critics.
As an adult, Evan has specialized in creating projects that bring people together. He enjoys facilitating connection among challengingly diverse groups of people and fostering community among those who may not fully appreciate what they have in common. For over a decade Evan has worked with unschoolers and their families, establishing his reputation as a generous mentor, a passionate leader and an articulate advocate of unschooling. He is the founder of The Education Empowerment Project (an unschooling organization) and for five years was the director of an adult unschoolers event called Quo Vadis.
Evan has participated in Not Back to School Camp for a decade: for many years as an advisor, and as a camper before that. He is a total dork and is honored to share a week with one hundred home- and un-schooled teenagers. At camp Evan has led or co-led workshops and discussions on: Marine Biology, How to Build an Underwater Robot, How to Change the World in 90 minutes, Stone Sculpting, Investing, How to Make Homemade Pasta, The Life of Albert Einstein, How to Begin a Project or Event, The Supreme Court of the United States, Barn Raising (a networking activity), Blues Dancing, The Effective Unschooler, and How to Get What You Want.
Alex Rhue, 21
San Francisco, California
Advisor, Session 1; Dish Queen, Session 2&4; Night Owl, Session 3
Growing up, partially, in the middle of rural California was the most instrumental chapter of my life to date, I believe. For it was there that I discovered how, and why, to be curious. I would spend my days and evenings wandering through the forest near my house, with a small pickax, in search of fallen trees, natural springs, and the ever elusive Banana Slug. I think that my parents' unbridled willingness to let me spend quite literally every waking moment in the outdoors, galavanting, conversing with animals, and just... Breathing - is to this day one of the things I am most thankful for. That and the flavor of watermelon.
Ennui was not an emotion I knew until my progression to Northern Michigan, acquiring a television, the invention of the internet, and puberty ( a malicious event in life that refuses to be supportive of you while you're around attractive people). Michigan, though, was the great state that introduced me to acting, being the home to the first play that I was cast in - Aladdin, I believe it was. I played a cloud. Now, surprising as though it may seem, it was not love at first sight. My older brother was actually the one interested in theater; I merely followed in his footsteps with a little stiff handed prodding form my beloved mother. Much like my first year at camp, my mother had to bribe me with some unnamed culinary delicacy, or perhaps the promise of less chores if I would simply try it. I was, and remain, a rather shy child.
After becoming enthralled with the fantastical ways of the stage, I spent the next 8 years learning lines, playing soccer, riding over the international bridge to get to rehearsals and ALWAYS being terrified of both the U.S. And Canadian customs officials, and playing more soccer. If I hadn't found my spark acting, then that's probably what I would be doing. Playing for the USA Olympic soccer team and trying to create some sorely needed dignity that the men's league never had.
I moved out of my house at 19, to another, slightly more racially and culturally diverse city in Michigan called Ann Arbor. I attended a very nice community college for one semester, before I abandoned higher education for the second time (but not the last, I assume) to pursue two "day-jobs" and begin writing what I only recently figured out to be a mildly fascinating screenplay. I then moved to New York on a whim (a proposition was made, with an expiration date of 20 minutes), where I divide my time between another increasingly ill-fated day job and writing down snippets and plot advances for several different screenplays and short films.
(Grace says: Then Mr. Rhue moved to San Francisco and engaged in more ill-fated and fascinating snippets and whims .... but I guess he ran out of whim while updating his bio for 2009. You'll have to sit him down and get a plot update in person.)
Abbi Miller, 24
San Francisco, California
Advisor, Sessions 1 & 2
Project Leader Session 2
Abbi has worn the hats of a competitive figure skater, dancer, actress, singer, yogi, chef, waitress, nanny, photographer, hair stylist, teacher, makeup artist, casting director, and choreographer. But her favorite hat is the one she wears at NBTSC.
Ms. Miller has unschooled since age 8, and has always desired to explore and expand. Her curiosity has taken her across Europe and to 44 of the 50 United States. As a professional actress, she flew around the world performing with the international tour of GREASE, making stops in South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Abbi and fellow-staffer Blake Boles are the co-founders of Unschool Adventures, LLC; an international adventure company created to pioneer the way for some serious travel escapades! In 2008 they took 9 untethered teens to Argentina, and had a hoot'n'any. To join in the party, check out our upcoming trips: www.unschooladventures.com
When she isn't jet setting, you'll find Abbi upside down on a yoga mat. She most recently fueled her insatiable love for yoga by completing her Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training at the Laughing Lotus College of Yoga, in San Francisco. She also holds a Karma Kids Yoga Teacher Certification from New York City.
Abbi lives in San Francisco, where she teaches ballet and yoga, bikes in the sunshine along the bay, layers her clothes, eats amazing raw vegan food, and has learned, the hard way, the true meaning of the words "steep incline".
Her partiality to the wonderful world of alternative education led Abbi to attend Not Back to School Camp in '01-'02. She was instantly smitten, fascinated by the unbound creativity and infectious inspiration running rampant in teenage unschoolers. This is her 4th year on staff.
Oh, and she loves you.
Jasmine Sheldon, 25
Seattle, Washington
Advisor, Sessions 1,2,3&4
Project Leader, Session 2
If you asked her, Jasmine would characterize herself as an affectionate optimist. She has spent the last year rewriting her life plan dozens of times; at this point she has simply decided to treat herself really well and be open to whatever comes her way. . .
Jasmine originally hails from the great northern state of Alaska, spending most of her adolescence in Palmer, where she didn't attend school, but did play in the woods, learn to cook, work at a bakery, teach swim lessons to cute kids, run around, laugh a lot, and spend many cold winters sledding with her sisters and reading aloud from good books.
Jasmine loves a good adventure. In the past year she has tried on a variety of professions, including working in a major trauma hospital, teaching preschool, making coffee and serving delicious lunches at a cafe, hosting at a back country ski camp, working on and off at a rock climbing gym, and most recently spending her summer rock climbing and backpacking with 8-17 year olds all over Washington State, primarily through Seattle-based non-profit Passages Northwest and Bothell-based non-profit Rite of Passage Journeys.
Jasmine is extremely excited about: Traveling. Finding new ways to incorporate silliness and play into her life. Hiking. Laughing. Rock climbing. Skiing. Backpacking. Swimming. Being true to yourself. Honesty. Playing games. Bringing ritual and gratitude into her everyday existence. Bike commuting. Bike touring. Building strong, supportive communities. Cooking. Baking. Reading new books. Re-reading books that she loves. Looking at the world through curious eyes. Taking pictures. Cutting up old clothes and putting them back together to make new ones. Dreaming. Making art. Writing. Poetry. Staffing at all four sessions of NBTSC 2009.
During camp Jasmine loves to be silly (think pirate olympics, etc.), sing in the sun, play rowdy games, laugh, be a sounding board for your thoughts about life, celebrate your uniqueness, and support you in any way she can.
Unschooling history: An unschooler since birth, Jasmine has spent time learning in a variety of settings. From the cooperative based loosely termed "school" of 10 families in Alaska during the late 80s and early 90s, to a year in a public high school and four years in a college program that pretty much let her design both her classes and her degree. She continues to learn, grow, and unschool in everything she does.
camp history: jr staffer 2003, night owl 2004, 2005-2008 advisor and project leader
Nathen Beryl Lester, 37
Eugene, Oregon
Advisor, Sessions 1, 2, & 3
Project Leader, Session 2
Nathen works as a music recording engineer and record producer, and is also famous (at least in some circles, including the NBTSC community) for Abandon Ship, a band he created with two of his brothers. He says (well, he said--a few years back), "I think I'm a classic unschooler in every way except that I am 32 years old and attended lots of schools during my first 27 years. I do what interests me. That includes writing songs, playing drums in a rock & roll band, making records, researching and experimenting with communication, relationships, nutrition and making money. I get excited about a lot of sciences--anatomy, physiology, psychology, evolution theory, geology and physics. I meditate, swim, climb mountains, read philosophy books and talk about them. I live with a group of adult unschoolers in Springfield, Oregon, where we grow food, compost and have parties and talent shows."
nbtsc history: Nathen has been an advisor at every session but two since 1999. He says, "What I love about camp is the people who come--the staff, the campers--and how they interact, how they share their excitement and inspiration and how they form friendships and communities with the people they meet. I love the talent shows, from nervous, first-time attempts to professional level performances. I love how at camp I'm treated like an interesting person and a friend by people who are younger than me."
unschooling history: Nathen homeschooled during third grade, and also observed four of his younger brothers homeschooling/unschooling.
at camp: Nathen is famous not only for being sincere, friendly, enthusiastic, and sometimes potently amused, but also for the zeal, intellect, and originality with which he teaches workshops on subjects such as the human digestive system. Among his tentative plans for workshops are Metacommunication, The Science of Attention and The Aesthetics of Recorded Music. He will also reprise his popular Session 2 project, in which a group of musicians -- with a wide variety of skill levels and instruments -- co-create a piece of music and perform it for the whole camp.
www.abandon-ship.com
Nicholas Walker, 24
Springfield, Oregon
Advisor, Session 1 & 2
I grew up in New England, first near Boston and then in southern New Hampshire. I helped to start and was the first student in a project-based alternative education program at my high school. I attended college early at Simon's Rock College of Bard, but left before finishing a degree.
I am a strongly kinesthetic learner and person. Perhaps because of this, self-education has always served me better than classroom education.
In 2005 I moved to Springfield, Oregon to live near members of the NBTSC community whom I had met a few years earlier.
My primary interests are strength training, athletic adventures, my relationship, my work, and relating to dogs.
I work for a small corporation managed by myself and my wife, Tilke Elkins. I perform a variety of tasks ranging from digital prepress to web programming to project and finance management. Over the years the work I do has varied, but it has always involved innovative technology and dynamic content created alone or with a small and focused team.
In my work I am a constant unschooler. Most projects that I work on require a substantial amount of research and self-education before and during the project. I feel best about working when learning something new, and I try to make that happen. I am a somewhat shy and introverted person. Please talk to me if you would like to. I am good at making myself available, but not always so good at initiating conversations.
Incidentally I like endeavors and creative works that involve a single person or a few people working together closely--both as a producer and as a consumer. Large scale efforts can be quite impressive, but ultimately I find them more bland than those efforts made by one person or a few closely aligned personalities.
NBTSC history: Advisor and project leader, 2008
Heather Loo Jaggers, 39
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mama Bear and at-large staff person, Sessions 1 &2
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 couple of times a month and enjoy my time there--especially during puppy season.
I've taken all sorts of classes in human medicine and someday I'll decide where I want to go with it. I met my husband (a firefighter/medic)while I was doing clinical hours on an ambulance.
Over the years I became involved in the community in various ways. I started the Greens (political party) in Colorado Springs and worked on several environmental issues. When I ventured with my friends in opening a natural foods market I was fortunate enough to work with local farmers in developing an ecolabel that required higher standards of organic farming. Currently I am learning sign language (ASL) with my three year old and have plans to advocate the use of ASL in preschools and early education.
I try to balance my productive hours with reading, gardening, crafty nonsense, dancing, and playing in the water. My most favorite past time includes catching frogs. My big sister is an advocate for unschoolers and has written a book or two on the subject. She was my biggest support system when I got brave enough to rise out of the machine.
Kitchen coordinator
Nicole Martin, 29
Albany, New York
Kitchen Coordinator, all sessions everywhere
Nicole's been on the NBTSC staff since 1997 as both cook and advisor. She is full of energy and creative ideas, has a magical way with food and is a sought-after chef/caterer, and comes as a set with her fabulous daughter Lou. Nicole is one of the most physically vital people you'll ever meet -- she surfs, does Capoeira, dances, and is at home in her body in a most inspiring way. She's also an accomplished singer and guitarist, an artist, a devoted activist, and a passionate mother.
Cooks
At camp, our fabulous cooks prepare 3 meals a day, harmonizing with each other and with the many campers who help out in the kitchen. Food at NBTSC definitely does not happen in a factory atmosphere; while making dinner, the kitchen crew is liable to sing together and to discuss life, the universe, and everything--or garlic, blackberries, and pizza crust, which often amounts to the same thing. Anyway, because they have so much interaction with campers we consider them unofficial advisors and hire them with that in mind--they are advisor-caliber folks who can also make magic with potatoes and other miracles of nature.
Rosa Oesterreich, 23
Minneapolis, Minnesota
cook, sessions 1 & 2
Dish Queen
Dave Thomas, 22
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dish Queen session 1
I was born in 1987 and was loosely homeschooled until I turned sixteen, attended NBTSC for the first time, and essentially took things into my own hands. Our TV only got PBS and a couple network stations. My brothers and I watched The Simpsons with a religious fervor not since exhibited by yours truly. For the longest time the only movies I ever watched were Stop Making Sense, (the Talking Heads concert video), U2: Rattle & Hum, and a bootlegged VHS of a Neil Young concert in Berlin during his "Trans" period. Occasionally I watched Romper Room, borrowed from the local library.
So, right there, it can be seen that - from the get go - I was being reared on pop culture, and nothing lame like Power Rangers either, only the best for little Daveroo. I studied music early (starting around the tender age of six), learning time signatures through the Orff technique before moving onto reading music and studying theory in fits. I played the recorder classically, blasting through high level symphony scores with an amazing little quintet.
When I was 12 years old I decided it was high time I learned how to rock out, and probably a smart move to put down the recorder. You'll have to remember that I was 12 years old, girls were entering the picture. The recorder is not what Maxim magazine would call a "chick magnet." It was the electric guitar, that thrumming tool of sheer rock'n'roll brutality, that I would make my own.
Unfortunately, my doting mother was not thinking in terms of "chick magnets," and "sheer rock'n'roll brutality." This is simply not how (most) moms think (Courtney Love is a great woman). My mother laid out the rules: if I wanted an electric guitar, then I had to take classical guitar lessons, at least for a little while. One thing that both she and my father always instilled in me was that what modern artists do (be they painters dotting enormous canvases with three flecks of acrylic paint, irreverant noise musicians playing their guitars with drills, or stoned beatnik writers typing poems that are novels and novels that are poems) is only worth paying attention to if the artist knows how to work within the confines of the system they are bucking. Thus it was that I began to study classical guitar at the age of 12, which I continue to do to this day (having stopped for a year to do some soul searching). Mind you, I do play my electric guitar with a drill, but not out of a lack of traditional musical education. My parents' rhetoric went deep when it rippled the surface of my thinking, and in the last few years, as I've delved deep into the art of writing, I've read traditional narrative fiction as well as bizarre and constrained works from the experimental camps.
I attend university in brief spells, often long enough to confuse myself even more by thoroughly enjoying an advertising course, leading me to scratch my chin and think to myself, "advertising, hmmm..."
I was told at a rather young age that Jack Kerouac (mind you, I had no idea who this man was) had never hopped a durn freight train in his entire life; this deeply affected my idea of what storytellers could do when retelling their personal histories. I still don't know for sure whether or not Kerouac did the things he said he did. I don't think it really matters. My favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor is Chubby Hubby.
Night Owl
In early camp years, we had a few vigorous staffers--the most memorable was our beloved Billy (Upski) Wimsatt, also the author of a couple marvelous books--who tended to stay up all night right along with campers. More recently, as our staff aged and wrinkled, this niche didn't get filled as automatically, so we made an official position. Now, at each session somebody sweet and strong stays up late--until 2 or 3 a.m., depending on when most campers have nodded off--to be a reassuring and attentive adult presence.
Andy Pearson, 21
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Night Owl, Session 1
I've grown up in and around Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of hot summers, cold winters, mosquitoes, and the Minnesota Twins. I love it. I came to NBTSC as a camper from '02-'06, did Jr. Staff in '07, and was Dish Queen in '08. I'm returning this year as Night Owl and am immensely thrilled to come back.
Over the past 21 years, I've been interested in a lot of things. I was heavily involved in theater for a number of years and acted or teched in at least 18 productions with various local homeschool theater groups. It's still a love of mine, but I haven't been in plays for a few years now because of the time commitment. I'm heavily into computers (though not computer gaming; never really liked that) and have done tech support for friends and nonprofits. Recently, I've been doing a bunch of graphic design work as well, and that's been fabulous. Ask me about this and I'll talk for hours.
I like to play guitar but am definitely not an expert at it. I'm also extremely interested in environmentalism and activism. For the past three years, I've worked on-and-off with environmental nonprofits on nearly every type of canvass imaginable (field, phone, fundraising, non-fundraising, for-pay, volunteer...). I have absolutely loved this work, and there is much more psychology and hard work involved in it than most non-canvassers would guess. It's also gratifying to see how many complete strangers turn out to be kindred spirits who care about environmental issues as much as I do.
I've unschooled since birth. Currently, I attend the University of Minnesota with an individualized major that I'm calling Environmental Communication. It feels useful. I'll be going into my junior year this fall and am looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to being back at NBTSC!
Camper 2002-2006, Junior staff 2007, Dish Queen 2008
Logistics puppy
This year our Logistics Goddess, Frankie Cruz (see the aministrative staff bio page), has the luxury of her own well-seasoned, dedicated assistant:
Matt Sanderson, 20
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Logistics Elf, Sessions 1,2,3&4
Matt was born and raised in Philadelphia, where he attended completely nonfreakyoroutoftheordinaryinanyway schools through 9th grade. In his sophomore year he switched to an alternative 'free' school called Upattinas, read Grace's Teenage Liberation Handbook, and fell in love with alternative education.
Matt spent 3 years working on the board of his new school attempting to maintain an equal balance of power between students and teachers while playing basketball with the school team and attending anti-war demonstrations in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Washington DC, and New York City. He graduated through a combination of collecting the required number of credits and putting together a video presentation on the anti-war movement. After finishing high school in 2006, Matt spent the fall in New Orleans gutting houses in the ninth ward, the area hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.
The next spring, Matt joined two of his friends in founding and co-coordinating a camp called the Young Peoples Empowerment Convergence (www.ypec.org). The idea for YPEC was to create a camp experience entirely created and maintained by youth, a goal which was accomplished through monthly meetings each of the six months preceding the camp's one-week run-time in June of 2007.
Matt spent fall of 2007 working as an art and English teacher for first through seventh graders in Olon, Ecuador. Later in the year he again co-coordinated the 2008 Young Peoples Empowerment Convergence, which happened in late July 2008.
Last year was Matt's first at Not Back to School camp. Hired for the first Oregon session, he liked camp so much that when invited to stay for the next two sessions as a volunteer, he was extremely pleased to accept. Since that time, he has lived with Not Back to school camp staffers Alex, Frankie, Nicole, Josh, Abbi and Zen (not all at once, but almost) in Philadelphia, Albany, and San Francisco. He's now returning to Philadelphia, with an eye on helping to again facilitate the Young peoples Empowerment Convergence (happening mid July).
Junior Staff
The junior staff does all kinds of logistical and grunty stuff that frees up the senior staff to focus on caring for campers directly--they scrub lots of pots and pans; supervise bathroom cleanup, the dish-line, and other chores; wake people up in the morning; count heads twice daily; cook; and do all kinds of other important stuff. We really appreciate and love our junior staffers! Their week on jr. staff also enables us to get to know them in a different context and find out how we think they might do in the future as potential senior staff, and it helps them see what being on staff entails. (Lots of fantasies are dashed, actually, when people discover for themselves how hard the staff works, so not everyone ends the week begging to join the senior staff!) Almost always, junior staffers are 19-21 year olds who have come to NBTSC previously as campers. Once in a while, they are folks completely new to our community. (As a bit of historical trivia, Nicole, Damian, and Jasmine all made their first appearances at camp as junior staffers.)
The Session 1 Junior Staff team is Anna Finkelstein, Josh Silver, and Newt Stremple.
Back to administrative staff page
Oregon Session 2 staff
Vermont Session 3 staff
Vermont Session 4 staff