Meet The Staff

LISL HOFER, M.Ed., was born and raised in a small village in the Austrian Alps. As the daughter of a forester and a teacher, she had many chances to develop her love for nature. She became an avid skier and coach, and enjoyed hiking, mountaineering and climbing in the Alps. In 1985, Lisl moved to the United States. She has taught at Kimberton Waldorf School for 13 years. Lisl has two children, Stefan and Katrin who have both taught at Kroka. Lisl joined Kroka in August 2006 as one of our lead teachers and the Semester Programs Coordinator.

LINDA FUERDERER is our amazing Office Manager/Administrator and she always steps up to do many other tasks. Until the sale in 2007, she worked along side her family in the family business, Jack’s True Value Hardware in Keene, New Hampshire. While working in the family business, she received a Bachelor’s Degree at Keene State College. Here she deepened her passion for archaeology. Linda has participated on many digs and regularly volunteers with the New Hampshire SCRAP program (State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program). She is a resident of Marlow and sits on the Conservation Commission as well as ARLAC (Ashuelot River Local Advisory Commission).

NATHAN LYCZAK is Kroka’s Managing Director Extraor-dinaire. He is responsible for financial management and organizational systems development as well as providing administrative support and training for all of the staff. He brings to Kroka 15 years experience in non-profit manage-ment, and youth development and holds a masters degree in Education from Harvard University. While not at Kroka, Nathan lives in Keene with his two children Meg and Rye, and spends his time enjoying music, dancing, gardening, and having people over for dinner.

Teaching Team
TOM ROSENBERG is a Kroka Alumni in his fourth year of teaching at Kroka. Tom grew up in Portland, Maine and has attended Kroka camps for many years. He has been on many advanced programs, including expeditions to Ecuador and Canada. Tom was a participant in the 2006 Vermont Semester and returned as a teacher assistant on the 2008 Vermont Semester. He is in his second winter of working at Mahoosuc Guide Service in Maine. Tom is also a student at Marlboro College. A young man who has already dedicated many years to study of wilderness, Tom has developed a strong teaching style and the amazing hands of a skilled craftsman.

LILY FREY is a Kroka Semester Alumni in her third year of teaching at Kroka. She is currently working in Ecuador with our semester program. Lily grew up in California on her family’s vineyard, living joyously on the land, helping on the farm and playing music with her brothers. Lily completed a year at Fosen Folk School in Northern Norway sailing Viking ships and learning traditional wilderness and folk crafts. A confident leader and experienced outdoors woman, Lily shares with students her love of all living things, her special musical talent and her passion for farming. In 2009, in addition to teaching at Kroka, Lily managed Kroka’s gardening program.

HANS MAYER is an Alumni of the Semester Program and has been part of the Kroka family for many years. This is his fifth year of teaching at Kroka. Hans is from Starksboro, Vermont. He spent his youth immersed in the natural world—tracking, hunting, fishing, wilderness camping and organic farming—and has a great reverence for nature and love of outdoor pursuits. Hans came to Kroka as an accomplished tracker, hunter and outdoorsman. Through his years of training and learning while here, he has acquired strong adventure guiding skills and developed his own warm and personable teaching style. The students love him. When he is not at Kroka, Hans works as a solar installer and volunteers as a certified firefighter.

CLARA KAZAROV is returning for her second summer as Kroka staff. She has been a student here for 5 years and an apprentice for three. Clara has participated in many advanced Kroka programs and is an accomplished white water canoeist and outdoors woman. Hailing from New Jersey and currently studying Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Clara has balanced her somewhat urban lifestyle with summers at Kroka. Enchanted by traditional crafts, teaching others and new experiences Clara is an enthusiastic and strong leader, always eager to learn and share her knowledge with the students.

LAUREL ISELIN first came to Kroka for her 8th grade class trip. She has since participated in many advanced expeditions, including those in Canada and Ecuador. For her senior class project Laurel studied about traditional lodge building with Cree Natives in Canada and then guided Kroka students in the process of building our Cree lodge alongside Grandfather Ray Reitze. Laurel attended Waldorf School through grade twelve. She completed a year of study at Fosen Folk School in Norway and spent another year traveling by bicycle in South America. Laurel is currently completing a foundation year in painting at Harlemville Free Columbia School in New York where she is building yet another Cree lodge. She is an incredible fiddle player who also enjoys circus arts and horses. Last year, while teaching at Kroka she was responsible for the care and training of Brita, our workhorse.

ETHAN TAPPER is a NH-VT Semester Alumni returning for a second summer of work at Kroka. His skills include a broad knowledge of small plants and forest ecology. Ethan is returning from a winter-long internship in Maine with Chris and Ashirah Knapp, Kroka long time teachers and founders of Koviashuvik Local Living School. There he immersed himself in the study of traditional homesteading and subsistence skills such as hide and pelt tanning, trapping, snowshoe making and other traditional crafts, and many other skills, all while living in an uninsulated dwelling harvesting all of his firewood from the forest using only an axe and a bow saw. Ethan is in his element crouching on the ground smelling and getting to know the tiniest of wildflowers, roaming the woods for dry-standing firewood, or with a paddle in his hand or a heavy pack on his back. With college studies in Education, Ethan is able to present his knowledge, joys and awe with children in a fun and lighthearted way.

Our White Water Specialists PAUL BELENKY and MIRON GOLFMAN are Kroka’s youngest staff. However, they are both expert paddlers respectively in kayak and canoe. These outstanding young men share much in common: they both come from Russian families who interestingly enough both have long standing traditions in family trips of white water expeditions. As a result of this, they both have a multitude of challenging rivers under their belts. Each has been a participant of Paddlers Journey Up North for as long as we can remember. Their skill and passion for paddling, sound judgment and love of sharing their sport with others make them excellent white water specialists at Kroka. Paul is a high school senior in Newton, MA., while Miron is a junior at TARA Performing Arts School, a Waldorf High School in Boulder, CO.

INTERNATIONAL STAFF
Every season for the past seven years we are joined by dear friends from our sister school “Nahual” in Ecuador. THOMAS, MICHAEL and MATHIAS DAMMER, the principles of Nahual, have created a special outdoor school working with local as well as international groups. Kroka’s partnership with Nahual spans summer, schools and semester programs as well as staff and apprentice exchange. Their staff bring to Kroka immense wilderness and technical experience, combined with the richness of South American culture.

GUEST TEACHERS
JOHANNA GARDNER loves the outdoors. Canoeing, camping, biking, and hiking are among her favorite activities. Johanna grew up in Newfane, Vermont and resides in her childhood home with her husband and three children. Along with her husband, Bahman, she is a musician and member of BroadBand, performing locally throughout Vermont. Johanna teaches French at The Grammar School in Putney, and has been with Kroka for 10 years.

Master Craftsman MICHAEL KOHOUT lives with his wife, Jessy, and children Owen and Natasha on the banks of the West River in Dummerston, Vermont. He teaches crafts and outdoor skills at the Greenwood School in Putney, Vermont. Soon after receiving his first jackknife at age six, Michael made his first bow and fishing rod, and armed with these, began a lifelong prowl through the woods of New England. Michael has shared knife making, birch bark canoe building, bow making and fishing with Kroka students since 2003.

JASON BRUECK is an environmental educator, research biologist, and trip leader living in Vermont’s rural Northeast Kingdom. Jason and his wife, Annie, are the founders of the educational non-profit, Siskin Ecological Adventures through which they strive to pass on the knowledge, lessons, and examples shared with them by Iowa farm families, research scientists, Australian sheep ranchers, Guatemalan biologists, and the countless students who have touched their lives. Jason’s and Annie’s lives have also been blessed by their three young children— Corbin, Cooper, and Sabine. This is Jason’s fifth year of teaching at Kroka.

APPRENTICES
Each summer we are joined by a group of outstanding apprentices ranging in ages from 16 to 21. These are skilled and responsible young people, most of whom are Kroka alumni, chosen for the strength of their character and hard working ethics. Apprentices work and learn side-by-side with Kroka staff, contributing their love and enthusiasm to the experience of students at Kroka.

Some of the returning apprentices for 2010 season include DYLAN HERMAN DUNPHY and RAINA GARDNER.

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