Iona is currently part of running and teaching at the Chrysalis Homeschool Initiative. She lives in Philmont, NY and outside of teaching she is furthering her own education through classes and study groups with other young people in the area.  She attended the Youth initiative program (YIP) and is interested in alternative education for children and young adults and is exploring questions of how education can meet the needs of human beings today. She has been part of organizing Youth Section activities since Spring of 2024.

Soren is a musician and biography social arts enthusiast  living in New York State. He is currently working to develop a community supported, self directed, arts and music residency program at Free Columbia.  He spent his twenties learning to be a carpenter and playing saxophone and clarinet in bands in Duluth MN on the magnificent Lake Superior. Two years ago he followed his musical inspirations to the east where he met the Youth Section and started engaging as an organizer.

Berenika Lehrman teaches at the homeschool initiative Chrysalis, in Upstate New York. She is an aspiring performance artist, interested in and working with the Chekhov acting technique, dance, and clowning. She is currently in the Foundation year program for Goethean Science at the Nature Institute. She has been involved in organizing Youth Section activities for the past two years, and is passionate about creating spaces for young people to have meaningful encounters with each other.

Gabel is an Artist and organizer based in Philmont, NY and originally from the Washington D.C. area. Currently, he is engaged in an artist residency at Free Columbia, using mediums of ceramics, music, and visual arts to explore questions surrounding the aesthetic qualities of form and atmosphere in relation to the non-material world. With a formal educational background in community development and work experience with the Schumacher Center for New Economics, he is continuing to expand from these foundations through a study of Goethe's phenomenology and Anthroposophic perspectives of the social organism and spiritual world. He is passionate about fire and wood-firing ceramics, speculative fiction, and folk music, and has been involved with Youth Section organizing beginning in 2024.

Adeline grew up in Spring Valley, New York and graduated from Green Meadow Waldorf School in 2019.  Since then she has spent time traveling, as well as weaving through various higher education institutions, including Bard College Berlin and Thoreau College.  She is currently finishing up a degree in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She cares a lot about poetry, Russian writers, and the process of self-creation. She has been active in youth section organizing work since the start of 2024 and is working to begin a youth section publication of young people’s original creative work.   

Em is a storyteller and media maker from Philmont, NY. She’s an alum of NYU Gallatin, and also studied with the International School of Storytelling at Emerson College and at the Goetheanum Studium. Professionally she works in arts marketing and admin, and she has been involved in youth section organizing work in North America and globally since 2021. She likes to bake and take walks with her pup Clover. ☘️

Madison is a multi-instrumentalist based in upstate NY.  She was homeschooled and grew up surrounded by a rich thriving Waldorf community. She studied with the Alkion Waldorf Teacher training program at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School in 2023. Last spring she traveled to Dornach, Switzerland to build puppets for the ISC24 and has been involved in the youth section ever since! She is passionate about bringing youth together through music, outdoor adventuring and song!

Nathanael moved to the US at one year of age and feels blessed to have grown up in a Camphill community. He works as a timber framer and more generally as a carpenter and he enjoys sculpture, drawing , painting and animation. He strives to depart from the industrial mindset that pervades much of our modern aesthetic and bring organic forms into his projects. More recently he has been involved in starting a homeschool program for people who struggle to conform with the “education” of 21st century America. He also has an affinity for motorcycles, aircraft and the theme of sci-fi although most of his tinkering has been on bikes thus far.

Lucy grew up right outside Detroit, Michigan, where she attended the Ann Arbor Waldorf school. She now spends her time in Philmont, New York where she has been farming for the past 4 years, both with vegetables, and currently with livestock. In addition to her love of farming, she enjoys functional art, ranging from fiber arts to woodworking and glass blowing, and she’s currently two years into her Waldorf Handwork Teacher Training. She has been involved with the North American Youth section for the past two years, and finds great joy in the creative and playful spaces that it facilitates.

Born in Los Angeles, Ezra moved to South America at the age of 18 to begin his adult life at the intersection of spirituality, humanity and the land. In Argentina, Ezra helped to manage El Peregrino Organico, a small farm based in a permaculture learning community. Following his return to the USA, Ezra engaged in the intentional community and principled non-violence spaces at Full Bloom Community in Oregon and The Possibility Alliance in Missouri. He then moved into the non-profit sector, directing Sunfield Biodynamic Farm and Waldorf School in Washington State for five years. After studying one year in Europe at the School of Spiritual Science, Ezra moved to Threefold Educational Foundation in New York State to engage with adult education programming, event planning and organizational transformation. Ezra aspires to create forms capable of hosting the future.

Masuda is an international student from Afghanistan currently studying in Berkshire Waldorf High School in StockBridge Massachusetts, as a senior. She recently moved and joined the Youth Conference last summer. She got inspired by the Youth Section and wanted to be a part of the organizing group for the next conference. She is joining the Waldorf teacher training and really enjoying her opportunity and Freedom in the US.

Tehilla is a Death Doula and Sivananda Yoga instructor living on and off in the Hudson Valley for four years. She had been a Biodynamic dairy and vegetable farmer and lumberjack for three years before shifting to more person centered work. She loves poetry, dancing, and delving deep into philosophy. She is continually in awe of the magic of this world and aspires to help bring connection through the youth section to many.

Eloise was born in New York City and at a young age moved to the suburbs in New Jersey. She then attended Green Meadow Waldorf School from second grade through twelfth. In her senior year of high school she became interested in anthroposophy and took the Biodynamic Agriculture course at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge NY. The project culminated in a series of artistic posters based on the preparations. After graduating high school she attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where she studied oil painting along with other classical art making methods graduating in 2024. After attending the 2024 summer conference she became more involved in the youth section and has since been working to bring visual arts to you all. Keep an eye out for lots of exciting projects on the horizon!!