Ms. Stephanie Ferris is thrilled to be joining the faculty and staff at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School. A lifelong lover of learning, nature, movement, and storytelling, a taproot of her life grows deep in the Santa Cruz mountains. She moved to Boulder Creek her senior year of high school from the Windy City of Chicago. Immediately, she felt she had finally arrived “home.” There among the redwoods and creek song, she felt at ease.
It was in these mountains that she met her husband and became a mother. The first years of her son Christian’s life were spent outdoors, between the mountains and the ocean. Her husband’s work took them on a grand adventure to the Pacific Northwest, where their second beloved son was born. During this time, Stephanie served the childbirth community as a doula and assistant midwife, which is where her introduction to Waldorf education began. She knew straight away
that this was the education she wished for her children, and soon decided she too must embark on her journey of becoming a Waldorf teacher.
She completed her Waldorf teacher training at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento, CA. For a decade, she taught at Waldorf schools in the Portland, OR area. In 2020, with both her boys fledged, she embarked on a new adventure in Los Osos, California, where she supported and contributed to a developing Waldorf school’s accreditation with AWSNA. She taught outdoor kindergarten for her first three years at the Central Coast Waldorf School, where she is now completing her fifth year. During her time at the school, she has served on the leadership committee and the board of directors.
Stephanie has a passion for brain and body development through movement, and has taken up the study of therapeutic education and educational support. Some of her interests in this area include sensory and reflex integration. When she is not at school, she enjoys the marvels of the natural world and spending time with her family.
