Dear Kroka Community,
Twenty eight years ago, Kroka was born out of our youthful idealism, two hand-me-down Old Town canoes and a nine thousand dollar loan for the purchase of our Old Blue Van which is still running strong!
We were 28 years old then.
The Austrian Philosopher and founder of Waldorf Education, Rudolf Steiner, explains human development from birth to adulthood through four, 7 year stages: 0 – 7 the development of physical body; 7 – 14 the development of life (or etheric) forces; 14 – 21, the development of emotional (or astral) capacities and 21 – 28, the development of spiritual individuality and attainment of adulthood.
During the same short 28 years, we’ve been fortunate to raise four children and to see them into adulthood. We’ve experienced our relationships with our children change and evolve as they grew. Maintaining close relationships to these grown children takes recognition of the changing role of a parent, getting to a place of giving advice and spiritual guidance, when asked, and being there when help is needed without forcing your opinion and judgement or taking over. Approached thoughtfully, the bond between adult children and their parents can grow throughout life.
We believe that the organization is a living and growing being. Our relationship to it, as founders, is very much like that to our own children. Grown children typically leave home and move away from the adults that supported them in their growing. They go off to have new experiences and influences to become their next being. The organization is deeply rooted in place and hence we, the so called parents, need to move on and let the organization flourish without us! Much like with our adult children, we see our role on the periphery while Kroka moves into its next stage of development. We’ll give Kroka space and time to live into its adulthood while being available when asked.
Ahead of us is a new expedition! With our work complete for the moment, our children grown and our home transitioned to the organization, we are opening a new page, not dissimilar to semester students putting on their skis and looking at the great expanse of Arctic tundra ahead!
We will complete our full-time work and residency at Kroka by June 17, 2022.
We are immensely grateful to the Kroka community, its staff, donors, new leadership team, executive search committee and our board president,Jon, for their gentle, loving and thoughtful support through the 2-year transition process.
With much gratitude,
Lynne and Misha
Introducing the Transition Team
By Jon McAlice, President, Board of Trustees
Two years ago, the Board of Trustees began to work intensively with Misha Golfman and Lynne Boudreau to envision the next step in Kroka’s development. At the center of our considerations was the question: Who can give Kroka the care and commitment that Misha and Lynne have since the beginning going forward? Last spring, the Board of Trustees’ created an Executive Search Committee to identify the future leadership of Kroka. The committee consisted of alumni, past and present student parents and professional collaborators including Kroka community members from across the United States (from New Hampshire to Alaska!) and Ecuador. After a rigorous search process with many interviews, campus site visits, countless Zoom meetings and a dramatic river expedition, everyone involved had reached a consensus that the future of Kroka lies with a team approach that brought together people with diversity of age and background, and included both profound long-term experience at Kroka as well as fresh wisdom and perspective from other peer organizations.
With a great deal of gratitude, we are pleased to invite you to join us in welcoming a new leadership team who have committed to the stewardship of the organization into the future.
Nathan Lyczak, Executive Director
Nathan has enjoyed a variety of roles at Kroka during the past 14 years, including summer director, capital campaign coordinator, cartographer, and managing director. Prior to coming to Kroka, he had served as a communications officer in the US Navy, taught English for a year in Nicaragua, and worked as a 4th grade classroom teacher in rural New Hampshire. As an undergraduate he studied Physics, changing course later in life when he pursued a Masters Degree in Education at Harvard University. In addition to his time at Kroka, Nathan has also held leadership roles at the Food Project in Lincoln MA, and the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership in Rockland, ME. He is the proud parent of two Kroka semester program alumni, and partner of long-time expedition leader and educator Hanah LaBarre, and is thrilled to be returning to full time work at Kroka at this unique moment of transition in the organization.
Ezra Fradkin, Managing Director
Ezra has been managing the growth and quality of Kroka’s programs since 2016, when he first joined our year-round team. Before that he attended Kroka’s Ecuador Semester as a high-school student and went on to graduate from Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, VT where his studies focused on sustainable food systems. A New England native, Ezra has also lived in the Pacific Northwest and the UK, where he recently completed an MA in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College. In addition to working in the office, Ezra has been developing and leading Kroka’s summer caving programs and is passionate about exploring the underground world.
Emily Sherwood, Expedition Director
Emily came to Kroka in 1999 as a summer student. She completed the first Vermont Semester in 2004 and was the first ever Kroka Apprentice. Emily spent many years traveling the world by ski, sail, paddle, and bicycle, furthering her education on multiple continents. In addition to being an explorer of wild places, she is a Waldorf educator, a student of the earth, homesteader, and an artist. She is particularly engaged by the relationship between people and landscapes, and the narratives that shape our sense of place. Emily lives in a multi-generational household at the end of a road in Marlow, NH with her husband Jacob (Kroka’s new Farm Co-Manager) and young family. They are thrilled to be part of furthering Kroka’s vision.
Linda Fuerderer, Facilities Director
Our beloved Linda has been keeping the water flowing and the fires burning here at Kroka for the past 14 years. Nobody is more intimately familiar with the biggest and smallest details of the construction and maintenance of the Kroka farmhouse and village, and, together with Kroka’s amazing carpenter, Hugh Landis, Linda will ensure that the campus continues to be the clean, organized, and beautiful home that it has become. Outside of Kroka, Linda is an avocational archaeologist, president of NH Archeological Society and serves on the board of the Marlow Town Library.
