Alumni Successes
Life after Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm
Waldorf education provides a well-rounded foundation as our students move out and about into the world to attend diverse colleges and universities and to work in many different professions.
Graduate Fields of Achievement
The Survey of Waldorf Graduates, conducted by David Mitchell and Douglas Gerwin, indicates that Waldorf Education is achieving the following in its graduates:
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Multiple Intelligences and Cross Disciplinary Learners
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Global Consciousness and Sustainability
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Basis for Moral Navigation
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Creative Problem Solving
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High Levels of Social Intelligence
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Environmental Stewardship
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High Levels of Emotional Intelligence
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Thinkers Who Think Outside the Box
97%
attended college or university
90%
highly values tolerance of viewpoints
92%
placed a high value on critical thinking
90%
highly satisfied occupation
91%
are active in life-long education
42%
chose sciences or math as a major​
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2015 Success Survey
What are the Paths our Students take after Studying at Summerfield?
By Beth Weisburn, Former High School Math Teacher
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A Summerfield education prepares student for life, to be healthy and fully engaged in meaningful activity at age 35, 50 and beyond. This looks different for each individual student and the paths they take are diverse. Most students engage in some type of advanced training or education. Many take a gap year for travel and volunteer work right after graduating. Some enter college or university immediately, with a career goal in mind.
What do SWSF graduates do in the years just after high school? To get a sense of this, I took a “snapshot” of the 2015 class.
I sent out an email to the addresses used for senior project work, heard from some parents, and researched via social media and the internet. In a very short time, using these methods I was able to find some information for 22 of the 25 students.
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A significant percentage enter professions in science, technology and social services.
Most (22) attended training programs, college or university, including:
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Sciences: Masters in Chemistry, Biology, minor in Math, Communication Sciences and Disorders (Audiology), Integrative Psychology, Kinesiology (Physical Therapy), Molecular Environmental Biology, Nursing (2 students), and Physics and Math
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Humanities or Social Sciences: Economics and Philosophy, History, Political Science, Pre-law, law internships in the criminal justice system, Public relations/Advertising: Strategic Communications, Sociology with Legal Studies, Spanish minor,
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Interdisciplinary: Science, Tech and Society, and German Studies
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Art/Performance: Game Art, Theatre
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Four students immediately applied to graduate school—one to Law School, one for Physical Therapy, one for Audiology, and one for Chemistry. In addition, two are working in research labs—one in Physics designing a perovskite-based thermochromic solar window, and a second in Biology working in a non-profit medical scientific research center.
One student attended a circus training, and is one of three students now working in Sonoma County. Another student presently manages a creative team for video productions for an online tutoring company. Two students did not respond, and I could find no information about their work or schooling after Summerfield.
Notice that 9 students majored in the sciences, representing half of the total number of majors reported!
SWSF students are creative in the paths they take, in this time of rising college tuition costs. In recent years, several have attended the Santa Rosa Junior College for two years, and then transferred to universities such as Berkeley and UCLA to complete their four-year degrees. In some instances, these students have graduated debt free!
Other students go directly to liberal arts colleges across the country where they receive substantial scholarship support or financial aid. Most students are accepted to one of their top choices of college or university. More importantly, four or five years later, many are still attending school or have graduated.
