History of Sunbridge

The Early Years Sunbridge Institute was founded as the Waldorf Institute in Detroit, Michigan in 1967 in connection with the Detroit Waldorf School. It was founded by Werner and Barbara Glas; Werner was an experienced Waldorf Teacher and Barbara a gifted painter and eurythmist. Theo Bergen and his wife, Marianne, both teachers at the school, supported the new venture, as did Dr. Rudi Wilhelm and his wife Amelia, who saw the need for a Waldorf teacher training institute capable of providing Michigan State Teacher certification. As the Waldorf Institute was the second English-speaking Waldorf teacher education program in the world after Emerson College in England, the Institute thrived with the rapid growth of the Waldorf School movement in the United States and Canada. Soon Hans Gebert and his wife Rosemary joined the Institute’s faculty and a proper foundation studies program began. In 1979, the Institute left downtown Detroit and moved to the Duns Scotus Campus in Southfield, Michigan, a Franciscan monastery and seminary. However, as the distance to the downtown school was substantial and the number of Waldorf teacher training centers in other more attractive locations grew, the Institute began to look for a more permanent home at other sites in different parts of the country. The Threefold Community in Spring Valley was chosen with the possibility of developing a college and building a campus within the context of the most well-established anthroposophically-based community in North America. Moving to Spring Valley In 1986 the Waldorf Institute moved to Spring Valley, and rented classroom space from the Threefold Educational Foundation. Classes began at the new location on September 6, 1986. In the following year the Waldorf Institute applied for a charter as Sunbridge College to the Board of Regents of the State University of New York, built (together with the Threefold Educational Foundation) a forty-unit dormitory called Holder House, and located its educational activities and offices on the main campus of the Foundation. On November 1, 1991, a few weeks after the death of Werner Glas, a provisional charter was granted to Sunbridge College by the State of New York. The following autumn, Holder House was inaugurated and the Master of Science Program in Waldorf elementary and early childhood education began. It was in the early nineties that the growth of part-time Professional Development Programs began, including the Part-Time Early Childhood Education Program, the Center for Life Studies and other new activities. The College gradually moved from being an institution with three main full-time programs and a nine-month rhythm, to hosting a growing number of part-time programs and many summer workshops and conferences, with activities year-round. By the mid-nineties the provisional charter of the College was extended, and a permanent charter was awarded by the Regents of the State University of New York on September 17, 1999. The number of part-time Professional Development Programs and affiliated programs has continued to grow until the College was serving approximately 200 part-time students in Professional Development programs. Serving Waldorf Education Nearly 2,000 students have graduated from Sunbridge in both full- and part-time programs since 1967, the great majority of whom went on to become Waldorf teachers. In addition Werner Glas, and to a lesser degree Hans Gebert and later Norman Davidson encouraged, advised and supported both new and established schools in many parts of the country. In addition to seeding new schools, such as those in Austin and Boulder, Colorado, Werner met, educated and mentored countless individuals who became experienced teachers and leaders in the Waldorf school movement. Both he and Hans played significant roles in the development of AWSNA and in the work of the Pedagogical Section. This work continued with Norman Davidson being a Board member of AWSNA for some years and Susan Howard providing mentoring and support to the Early Childhood Education movement through the eighties and nineties. Since the early 1980’s Christopher Schaefer, a faculty member and program director, has also worked with over 70 schools, providing support in areas of governance, decision-making and community development. The College regularly hosted the annual Waldorf Early Childhood Association Conference in February, the Toward Healthy Waldorf Schools Conference in November, and the Eastern Regional Waldorf Education Conference in March. Sunbridge Institute This year, Sunbridge College became Sunbridge Institute when Master's degrees were no longer offered. We kept the name “Sunbridge” to honor the legacy of nearly 25 years of educating Waldorf teachers as Sunbridge College. We adopted “Institute” to honor our roots as the Waldorf Institute. Infused by anthroposophy, Sunbridge Institute will continue to be dedicated to the stimulation and awakening of the consciousness of our students through our programs. Sunbridge and Anthroposophy From our founding Sunbridge has had an intimate relationship with the Anthroposophical Society, having received permission from the Council in Dornach, Switzerland to begin teacher education in Detroit in 1967. Since that time we have offered on-going courses on the life and work of Rudolf Steiner as well as basing all our course work on the unique contribution of Rudolf Steiner and his collaborators and students in the area of education, psychology, philosophy, sociology, astronomy, science, agriculture and the arts. Werner Glas was for many years a council member of the Anthroposophical Society in North America as well as its general secretary for a number of years. Faculty members have served on the Council and played central roles in the development of section work in the United States.