Dawn Zibolis-Sekella
Lower School Administrator
BA, Elementary Education and Special Education, Rivier University
Certificate, Non-profit Management, Marlboro College
Certificate, Certified Orton-Gillingham Reading Practitioner
Extra Lesson Training, Association for a Healing Education
Certificate, Non-profit Management, Marlboro College
Certificate, Certified Orton-Gillingham Reading Practitioner
Extra Lesson Training, Association for a Healing Education
The adventure of childhood can be either a fast track, with information thrown at you as you fly by, or it can be savored and discovered in a way that the lessons of life can unfold with purpose, allowing children to travel down a path where knowledge comes from experience and beauty, where they cannot help but fall in love with learning. That is what we do here.
Dawn first learned about Waldorf education during her undergraduate years from the Director of the Department of Education at Rivier University, who was sending her own children to a Waldorf school. Dawn’s subsequent experience teaching in public school ignited her search for an education model that focused more on allowing children to develop and grow, void of the prodding from standardized testing. She witnessed time and time again how the latter approach deflated students’ love of learning and diverted young children onto a path of special education because they needed more time to be children, not because they had learning challenges. So Dawn enrolled her youngest daughter in our preschool program after attending Parent & Child and completed the foundation studies through the Center for Anthroposophy. Between 2005 and 2014, Dawn became a regular substitute teacher on our Pine Hill campus. In 2015, she moved into the role of office manager for our Pine Hill campus and now serves as our Lower School Administrator.
In her role as Lower School Administrator, Dawn is central to the smooth operations of our Pine Hill campus. This involves myriad responsibilities such as managing schedules; working with maintenance and emergency personnel; supporting families, students, and faculty members; serving as a member of our Care Group, which helps to identify and support students who have particular needs, and our Pedagogical Leadership Group; and even stepping in as a substitute teacher from time to time.
In her life off campus, Dawn loves gardening — everything from designing to composting — and exploring the world with her family, either through travel or a walk in the nearby forest. She is also involved in the non-profit that she founded in memory of her oldest daughter: Alisha's Love Child Foundation. Growing up in a family who own a construction business, land and real estate are in Dawn’s blood, so you might also find her doing a bit of real estate work here and there. “Whatever I do, it is with my whole heart, and staying busy with both feet firmly planted in service to my community and my family is both my passion and my purpose.”