By: Becky Larson
It was a bit tricky to pick this week’s Guess Who from the trio of pageant contestants in this photo. (I did give a hint though: Look for the Brunette!) Many of you had no trouble recognizing her- as City of Lakes Waldorf School’s Development Director, Valerie Aas has met nearly everyone! This week, she and I sat down to talk about how her family discovered Waldorf, her favorite part of family dinners and how her Development role has helped her personal development.
Valerie first heard about Waldorf through Deb Renshaw, a colleague at another non-profit. Valerie remembers the conversation clearly. “She said, ‘If you ever have children, send them to a Waldorf School. Just trust me.’ ” That comment was buried deeply, and the little seed sprouted to the surface when it came time to choose a pre-school for her daughter four years and a half years later.
Valerie began researching Waldorf schools in the area, and discovered City of Lakes Waldorf School’s website. As she perused the pages, she discovered a posting for a Development Director, a role she’d held for several years at another nonprofit. “I laughed, and thought it was just a funny coincidence.” But when she came across the posting again a week later, she thought “Wouldn’t it be convenient to tour the school and interview all at once?” She chuckles at the memory.
What began with ordinary research into her daughter’s education quickly brought her to a deeper understanding of what City of Lakes Waldorf School had to offer her family. She vividly remembers the way she felt when she walked through the front doors. “When I walked through the threshold, all of my senses were immediately engaged- the smell, the aesthetics…Everything felt amazing – unlike what I’d expected, but everything I hoped for.”
The emotional response surprised her, but she believes it was her intuition telling her she was exactly where she needed to be. She went into the interview team, everyone seated in a circle, each taking turns asking questions. Valerie had prepared herself professionally for this moment, and thought she knew what to expect. She had facts and figures at the ready and was looking forward to impressing the group. “I thought I was ready for every question, and then Jeannie Ouellette asked, ‘What kind of future do you envision for your child?'”
“I sat there trying to formulate the words to answer, and I began crying. It was such a personal question. It was about us. Right then I knew that this would be much more than a job.”
She answered that what she wanted for her daughter was to know and discover a beautiful world, to engage fully in it and to use her imagination. She walked out thinking she had blown it- nobody hires someone who cries during an interview! She recalls, “and later, Jeff Rabkin, who was there that day, said ‘You know Val, we hired you because you cried!'” That moment of vulnerability demonstrated how much her daughter’s education meant to her.
When she joined City of Lakes Waldorf school as the new Development Director and a new parent, the Waldorf philosophy was still an unknown, but her gut feeling from that very first day has proven correct. “I trusted my intuition, and it was spot on. It truly resonates for me – it makes so much sense to educate a child this way.” She likes that this isn’t the sort of workplace where you can just do you job and go home at the end of the day. “On a personal and professional level, it’s engaging and demanding. How I parent, how I live in the world- it’s rigorous, and yet open to what is brought to it.”
Although she brought a great deal of Development experience to her role, City of Lakes Waldorf School has provided plenty of challenges, along with rich rewards. “We’re a pretty middle class population,” she says, “and yet, people are so incredibly generous with what they do have.” That is real generosity, and she believes that support comes in part from the warm and welcoming community the school fosters.
Just this fall, she experienced a full-circle moment of community when she discovered the same woman who led her family to Waldorf education. Her former colleague Deb Renshaw, is now a grandparent at the school. She knows how precious that closeness is, for both parents and students. “Every alum I’ve talked to says how incredibly valuable this community was to them then and still is and how much they appreciate it when they leave,” she says.
Her work at the school has stretched her too. “I’m an analytical numbers person. And I’m very private and introverted, so it’s challenging work that asks me to be extroverted and open,” she says. What really enlivens the tasks for her is that they are in service to something bigger. “The work itself, raising the amount, is truly secondary to this work which is more global and meaningful.” Personal growth never really stops, and at a Waldorf School you get opportunities to engage with that growth directly. “It’s the life work of being compassionate and patient, and finding my way in the world as a wife, parent, and colleague,” she says.
“Accepting criticism without judgement and finding what is good and valuable in what is being brought gives lots of opportunities to grow,” she says with a smile. But her biggest reason to believe in Waldorf education walks into her office at 3:30 each afternoon. “She comes in at the end of the day , her hands and body often caked with mud. She just loves being in the natural world, and it’s amplified in this setting that honors and values that. ”
“Most days we ask at dinner, ‘What was the rose or the thorn in your day?’ This fall, she’s loved the monkey bars. First, her hands had blisters, then callouses. But she did it! Last year she was so reluctant, but now, she’s fearless.” Watching her daughter grow, change and thrive in the school has been profound for Valerie.