Learn more about Marin Waldorf School’s inspiring, experiential, and welcoming middle school program at the fall Middle School Preview on Wednesday, October 29.
Learn more about the Waldorf approach to grades 6-8 with our middle school program director, Julia McIlroy, and school director, Megan Neale
Meet members of our middle school faculty and learn more about what they love about teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students
Hear from alumni in diverse professional fields about how Waldorf education helped prepared them for high school, college, and beyond (scroll down to meet some of the alumni on our panel).
This event is open to the public, as well as to MWS current families. Register here or at the link below to receive a Zoom link and confirmation.
Meet Our Alums
Alberta Born-Weiss (Class of 2012)
Alberta graduated MWS in 2012 and went on to attend Marin Academy. She received an undergraduate degree in Peace and Justice Studies at Wellesley College. She spent several years providing legal services to detained unaccompanied children on the US-Mexico border before enrolling in law school at New York University. She is currently in her final year at NYU Law as a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar, and will go on to be an immigration attorney in New York City next year if all goes to plan! One of her favorite main lesson blocks was Norse Mythology. Beyond any specific block, she often thinks back to the visually appealing and easy-to-read ways students had to present information in their main lesson books, using theme-appropriate calligraphy and containing our pages with beautiful borders.
Katie Spegar (Class of 2016)
After graduating from Marin Waldorf School in 2016, Katie attended San Francisco Waldorf High School, graduating in 2020. After a pandemic gap year, she is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Linguistics at UC Berkeley. One of her favorite blocks from her middle school years at MWS was anatomy and physiology.
Jack Berkenfeld (Class of 2012)
Jack Berkenfield was born in San Francisco, grew up in San Rafael, and attended Marin Waldorf School from Morning Glory kindergarten through 8th grade. I loved my time there, and I look back most fondly on the practical, hands-on skills and experience I gained as a Waldorf student, as well as the time we got outdoors.
After graduating MWS, he attended San Rafael High School, where I played water polo and was heavily involved with the student broadcast program, captaining the water polo team for 2 years and holding the News Director position on the broadcast for my senior year. He was also a member of Marin County Search and Rescue, a volunteer organization under the Marin County Sheriff. He attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a Journalism student, where he was involved in broadcast, working with the University’s broadcast engineers to support the student radio and TV stations, as well as working as a live board operator and technical director for many of the large events on campus such as graduation and election day. He is a freelance video editor and post-producer for San Francisco tech companies like Salesforce, Intel, and Apple.
About Our Middle School
At Marin Waldorf School, we strive to inspire our students to become thoughtful, compassionate, and curious young adults. Stewardship, social responsibility, volunteerism, and ethics are all part of the middle school curriculum at MWS. Through art, academics, off-campus experiences, and our strong social ethics program, faculty support middle school students in building a deep sense of self and meaningful bonds with their classmates. Whether they are whittling in the woodshop, trekking to the top of a snowy mountain peak, or puzzling over a word problem in math class, our students are encouraged to meet life's challenges with curiosity and courage.
Hallmarks of our middle school program include
Social Ethics Classes
Environmental Education
CyberCivics Curriculum
Outdoor Education & Class Expeditions
Gym and Sports
Class Plays and Ensemble Performances
Parent Agreements about Social Media
Cell-Phone-Free Campus
Innovative interdisciplinary Curriculum
Small class sizes
Middle School Math Specialist
World Language (Mandarin/Spanish)
Phenomenological Approach to Science Orchestra and choir
Handwork
Woodwork
