FAMILIAR FACES (17th edition)



^{Hello DWS Alumni! Welcome to our seventeenth edition of Familiar Faces. With DWS alumni spanning the globe, we thought it would be fun for you to see what everyone is up to and to have the opportunity to re-connect with your DWS community.}

^{*Note: class years listed are for graduation of the 8th grade and the names following the year are the class teacher at the time of graduation.}

Cristina Stamatin (Dincu)

HS Class of '79

I emigrated from Suceava, Romania to Detroit with my parents and brother to join our grandparents in the spring of 1977. They lived at Lafayette and Seyburn which was just a 20min walk for me to go to school. I was so happy to have been accepted by Detroit Waldorf High School in the Fall of 1977 as a 10th grader. I have so many great memories of the two years I attended (graduated HS in June 1979).

First, everyone welcomed me and helped me learn English better, the dialects, and the US cultural norms. Second, the teachers were patient and encouraged knowledge of subjects, of self, and of the world around us. Every Wednesday, the whole HS (35 of us) cooked dinner, ate and played games on the 3rd floor of Dr Hafner’s house - great fun! There are many stories I can share from HS days…. wonderful memories! We are making new memories now with longtime friends (Barbara Remboski, Dan Scott, Andrew Jarvis). We meet about once a year for lunch or dinner. 

With my husband Rica, and our children Eric (22) and Ramona (27), April 2023

After HS, I studied Bio–Pre Med at Wayne State University on a one-year scholarship. I had to start working to pay for school. After a few years of just work, I returned to school part time and studied Mechanical Eng @ Lawrence Tech University and graduated in 1992 while working full time. When I worked at GM/Saturn corporation as an engineer, I also completed the MS in Manufacturing Management, which helped propel me forward in my career with General Motors, where I ultimately became a Project Manager. After 26 years, I left GM and started as a Senior Engineer at Magna Corp where I still am today.

On a personal note, I have been happily married for the last 31 years to Rica, my Romanian husband (no, not arranged - met on vacation). We have two grown children (Eric 22, and Ramona 27), who make us proud. Eric is finishing a 5 year Master's program in Architecture next year, and Ramona is in Medical School (pursuing a residency in Psychiatry).

I have volunteered as a Charter School Board President for the last 11 years in South West Detroit, and founded Tangent Club USA for charity & friendship (2020) nationally and internationally.

To my Waldorf teachers, classmates and friends, thank you for a great education of self, human nature, arts, dance, and YES, all the science and math I've learned!

Lunch with DWS classmates Andrew Jarvis, Barbara Remboski, and Dan Scott

Hilary Hafner Vogt

Class of '81 | Sylvia Bowman and Paul Gierlach

It has been wonderful to see so many familiar and dear faces in these newsletters! I have spent the past weeks catching up on them and I greet everyone reading this warmly. 

To this day, the time I spent at DWS plays a central role in my life. Unfortunately, I had to leave the school at the end of fifth grade under unhappy circumstances (I had been in Sylvia Bowman’s class, which became Paul Gierlach’s class of ‘81), but the soul-starvation diet of the six different schools I went to in the next seven years led me straight to the question: Who was Rudolf Steiner and why was his school so special? This question has largely directed the rest of my life.

At age 13, when the question first arose in me, I had decided that I needed to know German in order to find out who Rudolf Steiner was, so after my school-odyssey I spent a year traveling and worked on a farm in Germany. When I arrived I could hardly remember the difference between the three different versions of “you”, but I was told I had no accent, which clearly was the result of five years of singing and reciting in Frau Landis’ German classes. 

With my husband Patric and stepson Lugh

Back in the States, with interruptions, I managed to get a BA in History from Bryn Mawr College. I didn’t particularly enjoy college but I stuck it out thinking one day I might be glad I did. (Jury’s still out.) During the interruptions, though, I took a few classes in eurythmy and eventually I overcame my prejudice and decided to give it a go: study eurythmy and try to be a normal, healthy, down-to-earth woman at the same time. Looking back, I really don’t know where that prejudice came from. All the eurythmists I knew back then were people I admired. 

My time in the Eurythmy School in Spring Valley, NY was deeply nourishing and very happy. Since then, albeit with many diversions along the way, I have been a teacher and eurythmy therapist at various Waldorf schools in the US and Germany. In 2015 I moved permanently to Germany, married my husband and became the immensely proud step-mother of a beautiful young man who is about to turn twenty-two.

I live in Berlin, work part-time as a eurythmist, and am also exploring other interests that have been ripening over the years. I’m training to be a biographical counselor based in anthroposophy and am in the process of launching a practice as a relationship coach for women. Another dream is to re-do the mediation training I completed in the States just before moving here. Facilitated, constructive conflict transformation and dialog between individuals, groups and nations strikes me as one of the greatest contributions one can offer the world today.

With my brother Tom in Berlin, May 2023

Michelle Grissom

Class of '82 | HS class of ‘87 Carol Fulmer and Alan MacNair

I've often joked that Waldorf students -- with all the knitting, spinning, woodworking, painting, basket-weaving -- could go undercover in an Amish community. 

Did you know the same could be said of building a Buddhist temple? I've needed everything, short of carding wool -- I haven't carded any wool (yet). However, my team and I sewed brocades for months, working from photos of the mother monastery in India, because apparently you can't buy Tibetan temple decor at Target. 

Sculpture? On the flowered faceplate of this enormous 35' stupa (pictured below - it's dedicated to healing incurable disease), we carved roses and vines using dental tools before it was cast. Wood-working? I helped build stupas of poured concrete using wood forms seamed with car Bondo, and decorated with pieces I carved with a jigsaw and dremel. Painting? My friends and I painted 1,002 four-inch high Buddha statues (see photo above), a process called "opening the eyes" which requires a brush like a cat's whisker. 

Languages? Do Waldorf students start German and French in kindergarten and first grade, the ideal time to hear new sounds? Yes, indeed, and that proves very helpful when you're studying Tibetan in India and later at the University of Virginia's Summer Language Institute. Did I mention teaching? Well, thankfully in 12th grade Paul Gierlach had us each lecture an entire hour on Russian Literature, which couldn't be better preparation for when I was suddenly dropped into a class to teach monks English. Despite having zero training on how to teach English as a Second Language, I was comfortable in front of the room. My first class was laughable, but later I earned a dual BA in English and Asian Studies and taught high schoolers for over a decade, following it with an MA in Teaching at Notre Dame of Maryland. 

As for my career, work is largely a support to my Buddhist life (I'd say don't tell my boss but she knows.) I'm an English and Social Studies teacher (AP World History), a sci-fi writer, and an editor.

Celia Colista

Class of '84 | Robert Witt / Michael Forward / Jack Troutner / Michael Kidney

This summer, leading up to the 2023 Detroit Waldorf reunion, I’ve had the wonderful experience of reconnecting with old friends, including Karyn Safran, David Votta, Jennifer Rouls, and Amy Officer. It brings back so many memories that date all the way back to 1973 when I first attended preschool as a Yellow Bird.

In future years, I would be in 1st through 3rd grade with Mr. Witt—magical years with a teacher I loved. Later, after a year in my local public school in Lafayette Park (downtown), I returned and was reunited with Mr. Forward, who had been a teaching assistant during my 3rd grade year. Mr. Forward was a huge Beatles fan, as was my family. My parents, younger brother and I, regularly drove up north to Torch Lake and would play the Red and Blue album cassette tapes on repeat. When Mr. Forward taught our 4th grade class to play those songs on the recorder, I was in my happy place (and kudos to the man who made the recorder cool.)

My husband Jim and son Luca at Luca’s band performance at the New Jersey Honor Band last spring

For most 11- to 13-year-olds, middle school is a challenging time. Bodies are changing, boys and girls are bifurcated into their own groups more than ever before. But at Waldorf, in our small classroom (I think by 8th grade there were only 15 of us), we could rely on our old friends, who were like a second family. Even when feelings were hurt or friends split off into new factions, we accepted, loved and relied on these friends whose flaws, strengths, and quirks were part of our collective DNA.

Eventually my family moved to Grosse Pointe, where I went to high school and reeled from culture shock. I deeply missed my old friends and the school that had taken care of me for the better part of a decade. But like everything, it was another life experience that contributed to who I am today.

In 2003, my brother Joey (another Waldorf alum) convinced me to move to New York City and be his roommate. We lived together in Brooklyn for six years until we both got married in 2010, eventually starting our own families.

Luca and I on the Hudson River in our hometown of Jersey City



Today I live in Jersey City, New Jersey, just blocks from the Hudson River and a 10-minute subway ride from Manhattan. My husband Jim and I both work in the city, he in visual effects for film and TV, me as a writer at an ad agency. After graduating from Washington University with a double major in French (thank you Francina Graef!) and Economics, I earned a Master’s in journalism, was a reporter for about 5 minutes (3 years) and eventually transitioned into custom content and advertising.

In 2011, at the age of almost 42, I had a baby boy. He’s now 11, and about to start his own middle school experience surrounded by friends he’s known since kindergarten. Even though he can’t go to a Waldorf school, my hope is that his experience with friends from diverse backgrounds with a similar love of learning and creativity, is a close, and wonderful, approximation.

Rachel Ornstein

DWS Development Director

I married my long time love, Matt, on August 13th in Traverse City, MI. We enjoyed a magical evening by the bay surrounded by our loved ones. Matt and I look forward to the adventures that lie ahead, and we are grateful for the love and support we have received.

On another note, I look forward to seeing many of you back on campus in a few weeks for the Alumni Reunion Weekend. The DWS community is thrilled to welcome you, sing with you, and yes, even participate in a bit of eurythmy with you!

Extended registration for the Alumni Reunion Weekend will remain open until Friday, September 8th if you are still interested in attending. We would love to have you! Please contact Rachel Ornstein with any questions.