About Springhouse

Jenny Finn has designed structures that foster vitality in people, communities, and organizations for nearly 30 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and co-founded Springhouse, a school inspired by a vision to live in a world where all life thrives. Dr. Finn’s research, mentoring, and teaching invites people to deepen the relationship they have with themselves in order to serve the world with greater clarity and compassion. Her work has taken many forms including non-profit leadership, trauma and hospice care, chaplaincy, clinical private practice, community building through the expressive arts, and education. With a dedicated and inspiring community, Dr. Finn articulated Sourced Design – five principles that take care of life in a person, community, and place. These principles are practiced at Springhouse and shared globally with those who share the vision of a thriving world.

Chris grew up in a Camphill community in Pennsylvania and attended the Kimberton Waldorf School. After high school, he followed an interest in cheese-making to a farm in France. He went on to earn a B. Sc. in Agricultural Economics from McGill University in Montreal. Before eventually settling in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Roxanne (his wife), Chris led canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness, taught English in the Republic of Georgia, and worked in food and farming in various places and capacities. He is interested in social forms that encourage authenticity and further wholeness. Chris started at Springhouse in 2016 teaching math part-time, participating in The Well, and leading coming-of-age programming. He joined Springhouse full-time for the 2018-2019 school year. These days Chris wears many hats at Springhouse. You might find him refining our budget process, writing checks, and reconciling bank statements. You could just as well find him leading teens in a new song, building fires in the woods, guiding a course in one of his many areas of interest, or following up with families about attendance. The breadth that each day holds is one of the reasons Chris loves his work with Springhouse.

After realizing the limits of the US public education system, a structure that wasn’t built to support the creative work they were after, H left their 5-year teacher education program a year early, graduating with a degree in Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies with minors in Elementary Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Upon receiving their diploma, they immediately left the town of their undergraduate university in pursuit of a more vital way of educating and learning. Now, after more than 7 years of immersion in and the co-creation of a vitality-centered learning environment, H is inspired to work alongside other educators yearning for something different - for an educational design that takes care of vulnerability, supports individual and collective development (youth AND adults), and responds to the needs of one’s community.

H has worked with diverse populations of young learners both in the public school system and alternative educational settings. They have experienced the learning environments of “failing” schools - where three-quarters of the learner population receive free or reduced lunches - and schools in which learners speak over 50 different languages and have relocated from countries all over the globe. A queer, gender-noncomforming educator, H is committed to creating educational designs that are truly responsive. If you happen to catch H outside of Springhouse, they may be experimenting with film photography, taking classes for their masters degree in yoga studies, or gleefully tasting a sweet treat.
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H first started volunteering at Springhouse in 2015 while they were still in college, and they have been involved in various capacities ever since. Currently, they design, implement, and revise Springhouse's Day School vitality-centered curriculum and assessment methods; support course facilitators; mentor teens; facilitate courses; co-lead the Sourced Design Lab with Jenny; and teach a yoga series through Springhouse's adult programming. H also typically offers a film photography apprenticeship and yoga classes - two of their passions - for the teens at the Day School.

Ian Stabler is an artist, woodworker, and natural builder from Denver, Colorado. In 2013, Ian graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Studio Art. He completed his Permaculture Design Certificate from Quail Springs later that year and spent the next two years as a natural building apprentice at Aprovecho Sustainability Institute in Cottage Grove, OR.

Ian has a deep appreciation for the natural world and humanity’s place within it and uses his art as an access point through which to delve deeper into our environment and himself. He loves farming, homesteading, and traveling. Ian believes that art in education can be as expansive as the learners who participate in it and believes in the potential for art to teach us depth within ourselves and the world.

Ian is an artist, builder, and explorer. He found his way to Springhouse in 2018 and somehow ended up walking to Roanoke with 30 teenagers on an Experience Week Trip.
This momentous beginning has led to more and more engagement with what it means to build regenerative culture now, and a love for the vitality that springs from the ground through the Springhouse community. You may find him teaching courses, helping students design and build shelves for the school's shoes, organizing the school's art supplies, coordinating artistic installations, or weeding the garden beds.
Ian loves old things that carry the marks of hundreds of hands, student watercolors of dragons, the satisfaction of hard work and a well built stair.

Roxanne is a kinesthetic learner and values hands-on learning and living connected to the land. She believes in the body’s innate wisdom and the importance of healing touch, which can be a mirror of the unconditional love that resides in each of us. Roxanne has participated in several somatic trainings and is a graduate of Hakomi, a body-centered healing modality that uses internal observation and somatic awareness to identify core narratives within ourselves. She is interested in how slowing down and turning inward can help us observe and become more conscious of how we move through our external environments. Roxanne is passionate about supporting others in cultivating resiliency in order to move towards challenge and growth.

Roxanne started volunteering one afternoon in 2015. Later that year, she found herself immersed herself in Springhouse’s second-ever experience week trip. Since then, she has been a chameleon experimenting with different roles and responsibilities within the organization. Now you will often find her leading all-school mindfulness, teaching various classes, holding a restorative justice meeting, mentoring, or working on envisioning a curriculum that weaves holistic development while exploring the world’s emerging needs. Roxanne cares about the curriculum by noticing how we cultivate resiliency to thrive, learn from differences, and work to restore what needs repair.

Sarah moved to Floyd in 2017 to get involved with Springhouse’s adult programming and became a full-time staff member later that year. Sarah and her husband Ian recently completed construction on their hand-built home where they intend to live and grow together for the foreseeable future. She holds a bachelor's degree in Religion with a focus in Buddhism and Western philosophy from Colorado College. Sarah studied permaculture design at Quail Springs Permaculture; completed an 18-month sustainable agriculture fellowship with the Allegheny Mountain Institute in 2016; and worked in the field of garden-based education before coming to Springhouse. She recently completed a master’s degree in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College, where she loved meeting people from around the world and exploring where theory and practice meet. Currently, she is the Director of Programs, leads the Day School Program, and coordinates the Adult Fortification Courses. She supports the Certificate Program, leads Sacred Dances and Wilderness Vigils, teaches courses for teens, and mentors teens and adults. She also loves taking lead on Springhouse’s sustainability efforts alongside dedicated teenagers.

Chuck lives in Twisp, Washington, close to his two grandchildren (of six) who live in the United States. After thirty years working in corporate management, leading large organizations such as Amana Refrigeration and small start-ups such as Breakthrough to Literacy, Chuck’s last six years have been focused on generative education, particularly effective literacy environments for children ages 3-11. Generative learning environments enable both the leaders and the learners to maintain their wholeness and agency. For more background on generative education see https://bit.ly/2LSAjz2
While also active in leadership positions in many community organizations such as United Way, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and Junior Achievement Chuck has focused on education with 10 years as chair of Foundations in Learning, 27 years on the Coe College Board of Trustees (3 as Chair), 26 years on the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business Board of Advisors, several years on the board of the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, and three years as the Chair of the Board of Advisors for the University of Iowa College of Education.