Sweet Clover Nursery Program

Birth to Age Three (Montpelier Campus) 

JADA BERG
Sweet Clover Nursery Director and Lead Teacher - Dandelion Room

Jada has a bachelor’s degree in Progressive Education from Goddard College and earned her Waldorf Early Childhood Certificate at Sophia's Hearth Teacher Education Center in Keene, NH. She joined Orchard Valley in 2014 and taught at Green Valley Waldorf School, a nature-based Waldorf school in Putney, VT before that. She was also part of a small team that was instrumental in creating Orchard Valley's Sweet Clover Nursery birth to three years old program. Jada has also studied holistic healing practices for over 15 years, including nutrition, herbalism, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and wisdom teachings from around the world. 

JUNGWOO KIM
Lead Teacher - Rosebud Room

Jungwoo Kim earned her Waldorf Early Childhood Birth-to-Three Certificate through Sophia's Hearth Teacher Education Center in Keene, NH. She joined Sweet Clover Nursery in 2017 and is currently working toward the completion of her Early Childhood Certification for children ages birth to seven years old. Jung grew up in South Korea, where she earned a BA in fashion design. 

NOLWENN RENAULT
Lead Teacher - Sweet Pea Room

Nolwenn began her work in the Sweet Pea classroom in 2019. She completed a Vermont early childhood licensure program from UVM and Goddard College, where she wrote her Senior Study on the topic of Rudolf Steiner's perspective on early childhood. She is currently working towards her birth-three Waldorf teacher certificate from Sophia's Hearth. Before joining Orchard Valley, she worked in early childhood at the Trinity Children Center and Campus Children School, with school-aged children at Maple Hill School, and with teens at year-round outdoor education camps.

Nolwenn was born in France and incorporates her native language of French and Breton in her work in the classroom. She attended the Marshfield School of Weaving for a year, as well as completed the fishing instructor training with Vermont Fish &Wildlife, and enjoys bringing a reverence of all things handmade and outdoors to her time with the children. 

MELORA KENNEDY
Sweet Clover Assistant Teacher

LEX SANDMAN-PITONYAK
Assistant Teacher, Rosebud Room

Lex first came to Orchard Valley in 2017 as an assistant in both the Dandelion and Sweet Pea rooms at Sweet Clover Nursery (then Little Lambs). She began the Birth to Three training at Sophia’s Hearth and moved into the position of Lead Teacher in the Sweet Pea room before her move overseas. In 2021 she left to join her husband in Qatar where she worked for a term as an FS2 Lead Teacher at an international school before going on maternity leave and ultimately relocating to Egypt  where her husband is from. Lex has three years of eurythmy training from Peredur Eurythmy in England, and holds a B.A. from Bennington College with a concentration in Visual Art (painting and ceramics). As a Vermont native she is delighted to be back with her son Adam who now attends Sweet Clover Nursery.

Grace Farm Early Childhood Program

JOANNA VONCULIN
Maple Tree Kindergarten Lead Teacher

Joanna has long been drawn to the nurturing and intentional qualities of Waldorf education, and is so grateful to be working with the Mixed Age Kindergarten in the Farmhouse.  She has a background in children’s mental health, with a Master’s degree from Villanova University in psychology.  She moved into working in early childhood education when her children were small, and has studied it since, with an emphasis on early childhood outdoor education. Joanna has over a decade of experience in directing early childhood programs, and is a VT licensed teacher.  She is currently enrolled in the Sunbridge Institute’s Early Childhood Teacher program, and is loving deepening her understanding of Waldorf education.

When not at OVWS, Joanna enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, learning history, traveling, singing, walking in the woods, walking by the ocean, and trying her hand at nearly any handwork she happens to come across.

KYLY CLARK
Apple Tree Kindergarten Lead Teacher

Kyly comes to us from nearly a lifetime of Waldorf Education. She remembers with great impact the experience of tending her own garden plot and dancing around the maypole in her early childhood at Pine Hill and Waldorf School in Wilton NH. As a Waldorf alumnus, her education shaped her worldview and her deep connection to nature, artistic expression, a healthy and meditative lifestyle, and a lifelong commitment to learning. 

More recently she has been working in Waldorf PreK and Kindergarten classrooms at the Upper Valley Waldorf School and completed her degree in Early Childhood Education. Kyly loves being in the presence of Kindergarten children and is proud to come full circle in Waldorf education as a positive role model. She feels passionate about supporting young children in their growth, development, and learning. It is her sincere fulfillment to give back her learned love and thankfulness from her childhood and share gratitude as a life-habit, so the children may receive in reverence and remain heart-nourished in their own work and self expression.  She is present each day for the children and works to provide them the tools to flourish with confidence in their mind, body, and spirit.

TORA LACHANCE
Maple Tree Assistant Teacher

ALICE BOYER
Aftercare Teacher and TSGold Specialist

Alice has been in Early Childhood Education for thirty-five years, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education/Early Childhood. She meets the requirements for “Highly Qualified Teacher” for the state of Vermont, and also has a Professional Educators License Level II in Early Childhood Education (birth to Grade 3) for the state of Vermont. Alice has worked as the Director of Child Care at Smuggler’s Notch, Topnotch Resort, and Mt. Snow, and was a preschool teacher for Head Start and Hunger Mountain Children Center.

She is the mother of five children: three boys and two girls, eight  grandchildren, six great grand children, and one dog Forest whom I get great  joy out of his antics. She loves working with preschool children and learning something new  everyday from them. Alice likes to read, do arts and crafts, and walk in the woods.

Grace Farm Grades

HANNAH BILLIAN
Class Teacher - Grade 1
Hannah has been teaching for the past 10+ years in a variety of independent and alternative schools. Her background is in environmental science and outdoor education. She has taught at the Maine Coast Semester School, Kroka Expeditions, the Juniper Hill School, the Red Cedar School, and transitioned to Grade One Class Teacher in autumn of 2023. Hannah has worked for a few Waldorf-inspired programs, and began her formal Waldorf training with the Center for Anthroposophy in summer of 2023.

Hannah lives with her husband and step-daughter on their farm just a few miles from school. When she is not at school, she spends her time cycling on gravel roads, nordic skiing, trail running with her dog, working in her garden, reading, and weaving baskets out of various local materials.

MICHELLE GULLAGE 
Class Teacher - Grade 2 and Summer Camp Director
Michelle has a Waldorf Teacher Certificate from Sunbridge Institute and a B.S. in Recreation, Parks and Tourism, with a concentration in Outdoor Education. She worked in Outdoor and Adventure Education for many years and in 2009 stepped into the Waldorf Kindergarten as a teacher and transitioned to Grade One Class Teacher in the Fall of 2022. 

MARINA MIRONOVA 
Class Teacher - Grade 3 
Marina graduated from Sunbridge Institute as a Waldorf Elementary School Teacher in spring 2021. She joined Orchard Valley in September 2020 as a teacher in the Sweet Clover Nursery. Additionally, she taught mixed grades 6/7 and 7/8 classes during her apprenticeship program at Orchard Valley. Her love for Waldorf education began during her college years as she studied art, anthropology and the history of human culture in Siberia, Russia where she grew up.

LOTTIE MAKER 
Class Teacher - Grades 6/7 
Lottie received her B.A. in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where she also taught second and third grade at an arts-based charter school. After returning to Vermont in 2011, she worked at River Rock School in Montpelier before joining the Orchard Valley Community in 2019.

Grace Farm – Subject Teachers

LUKE BOUSHEE
Woodworking and On the Land Teacher

Luke is a graduate of Teaching Drum Outdoor School's Wilderness Guide Program and was a long-term apprentice at ROOTS School. He has shared his passion and connection to nature with youth at wilderness schools since 2012, beginning at Two Coyotes Wilderness School. For the past six years, he was a mentor at Earthwalk Vermont where he taught earth skills and naturalist studies to students in first to sixth grades, and outdoors in field and forest all year round. He has also led all-season camping trips with teenagers, taught at Kroka Expeditions and has led a variety of adult workshops in hide tanning, blacksmithing, rope making, bowl carving, etc. 

VICTORIA MANSURI
Handwork Teacher (Grades 1-5) and Grade 4/5 Co-Lead

Victoria Mansuri joined the OVWS community in August of 2021. She first learned her handwork skills as a student at the Washington Waldorf school, where she attended first through twelfth grade. She then trained to become a Waldorf teacher at Rudolf Steiner College, in Fair Oaks, CA. Though she was a trained class teacher, Victoria started teaching handwork “by chance,” while she completed her BA in English and Dramatic Arts at the University of California at Davis. She took her first first grade in 1998. Over the years, Victoria  has also taught in Waldorf teacher training programs and been a mentor and evaluator of teachers from Alaska to New Orleans and New York to Hawai’i. In 2019 she moved to Vermont to open her own studio, with the vision of teaching handwork to the community, and thereby create community. The pandemic has brought Victoria back to Waldorf teaching, where she is returning to her roots as a Handwork teacher. When she is not teaching at OVWS, she teaches handwork to private students online and with a Waldorf inspired, online, homeschool program. Victoria is also working towards her Master’s Degree for Experienced Educators at Antioch University, New England.

At home Victoria has two cats, Myles (a black and white “cow kitty” also known as Tiny Cow) and a little calico kitty named Clara. Victoria still loves dramatic arts; she sings in the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir and for many years could be found in colonial costume speaking in an English or Scottish accent as she led historical ghost tours.

MEG SCHERBATSKOY
Middle School Handwork Teacher & Farmhouse Aftercare Teacher

Meg and her husband Jon were introduced to Waldorf education in 1999, when friends invited them to a festival at Green Mountain School. Soon after, she became active joining committees, volunteering skills in art and drama. Their family moved to the Three Rivers School, and the next year Meg was on the board helping to start Orchard Valley Waldorf School. She served as the first board chair of OVWS, and her three children are OVWS alums.

Meg has a diverse background in education, administration, and the arts holding a B.A. through the Adult Degree Program of Norwich University. She has worked as an OVWS Handwork teacher, Summer Camp teacher, Apple Blossom teacher, Facilities Coordinator, and Handwork teacher at Wellspring. In 2013, she joined the Central Vermont High School Initiative, teaching Practical Arts, Fine Arts, History through Art and Architecture, Drama, and more. In July 2017 Meg completed Waldorf High School Art teacher training at The Center for Anthroposophy. Meg took a break from teaching in the grades to help meet the administration and Early Ed needs of the school. She is very excited to be working again with Middle School students.

SEAN BREKKE
Music

Sean received his bachelor's degree in music performance on viola from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in 2016. Shortly after graduating, he began working at the Brooklyn Waldorf School (BWS) teaching private lessons on violin and viola and learning about conducting, music education and Waldorf philosophies as part of his mentorship. In 2020, he stepped in to run the orchestra program at BWS, guiding grades three to eight. Sean is also an active performer and has performed internationally from New York City's Carnegie Hall to piazzas in Tuscany, Italy and concert halls in Switzerland. He joined the OVWS community in Summer 2021. 

ALLIE ANDRUS
Handwork Assistant

Allie Andrus is a mother of three and has been a Waldorf parent for 13 years. She is a Marriage and Family Therapist and Art Therapist and has worked with children and adults in a variety of settings, currently in private practice. She is a Doctoral Candidate in East West Psychology where her focus has been the role of domestic craft (meeting domestic needs with our own hands) in family life. She enjoys knitting, crafting, general tinkering, growing food, working with animals, and adventuring with her family.

STEPHAN VDOVIAK (he/him)
Eurythmy and Grades Support Teacher

Stephan met Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy in late 1985 and has been a student of both ever since. After completing an undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Michigan, Stephan began teaching in the early childhood programs at Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne VT. He then completed his four-year Eurythmy training at the Eurythmy School in Nuremberg, Germany and returned to LCWS for many years to teach and administrate while completing his Waldorf High School Certification from Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA as well as graduate course work in German Language and Literature at UVM. Stephan has taught at three other Waldorf Schools in Vermont: The Initiative: A Vermont Waldorf High School, Orchard Valley Waldorf School and Wellspring Waldorf School. From 2007 to 2021 he was either an adjunct teacher or a full-time faculty member at Freie Waldorf Schule Wendelstein in Germany. Stephan was a founding teacher at the Gathering Waters Public Charter Waldorf School in Keene, NH for the past two + years, helping to carry a sixth grade and teaching Kindergarten -11th Grade Eurythmy. Stephan spent a few years teaching and administrating at Sunbridge College in Chestnut Ridge, NY and was a 10-year Board of Trustee member of our Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. 

TYLER PRICE
Movement Teacher

Parent Education 

MARIANNE PERCHLIK
Morning Garden Teacher

Marianne is part of the parent community that founded the Orchard Valley Waldorf School in 2004. She joined the faculty of Orchard Valley in 2017. Prior to this, she owned a practice as a Childbirth Mentor, Doula and Parenting Coach and assisted in the Morning Garden preschool. She then trained as a Waldorf High School teacher and taught for four years at the Initiative; a Vermont Waldorf High School located on the campus of Goddard College. Before motherhood, Marianne served at the Juvenile Defenders office as a Juvenile Attorney, holding a JD and a Master of Environmental Law degree from Vermont Law School. She also served in the US Peace Corps as a sustainable agriculture volunteer in Paraguay and holds a BA in Theater and English. She is also the founder of our Martin’s Dream Summer Camp Program.

Watch & Learn: What is it like to be a Waldorf teacher?