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MICROCOLLEGE: The Thoreau College PodcastAuthor: Thoreau College
MICROCOLLEGE is an exploration of the crisis in higher education and the innovative projects and thinkers working to address it, with a special focus on the human-scaled, place-based, meaning-oriented learning communities we call "microcolleges."The podcast is hosted by Jacob Hundt, Founder of Thoreau College, a micro college rooted in the Driftless Region of rural southwestern Wisconsin, inspired by the model of Deep Springs College, Waldorf education, and Henry David Thoreau. This podcast is for thoughtful, motivated teenagers and young adults who are disappointed by the options available to them in post-secondary education, as well as their teachers, parents, counselors, and mentors, and anyone interested in the quality of higher education and its role within our culture.Listeners will be introduced to new ideas and alternative opportunities for post-secondary education, as well as thoughtful criticism of mainstream models and practices at colleges and universities. Listeners will discover exciting educational programs to apply to, books to read, and thinkers to learn more about.Learn more about Thoreau College and the microcollege movement at https://thoreaucollege.org/ Language: en Genres: Education, Nature, Science Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Matt Voz & Shawn Lavoie - Youth Initiative High School
Episode 79
Friday, 27 February, 2026
In this episode I speak with Matt Voz and Shawn Lavoie, two leaders of the Youth Initiative High School, one of the key local partners of Thoreau College here in Viroqua, Wisconsin. This is a special conversation, as I participated in the founding of YIHS in 1996 when I was a teenager and subsequently returned to teach there for over 15 years alongside Matt and Shawn as we learned how to be teachers and build community together. Today, 30 years after it began, YIHS remains an unique and exemplary school and has served as a key influence on the development of Thoreau College. Founded as a Waldorf-inspired initiative, YIHS has remained connected with this global educational movement while taking the curriculum in distinct and innovative directions. YIHS students actively collaborate with faculty and parents as full citizens and stakeholders to staff committees and make decisions, to fund and represent the school to the public, and to clean and maintain the school. YIHS has also crafted a way to survive and thrive as an independent school in a small rural community while offering a dynamic and broad curriculum by welcoming a large number of part time teachers, supported by an experienced core staff. The school has also developed a profound expeditionary learning curriculum to support the cultivation of character and wisdom in the context of community.Matt Voz is the Administrator of the Youth Initiative High School, as well as a teacher of humanities, automechanics, and physical education and one of the house parents of the YIHS Boarding House. Hailing from western Minnesota, Matt holds a BA in History from the University of Minnesota-Morris and a MA in Agrarian History from Iowa State.Shawn Lavoie is the YIHS Faculty Chair, as well as a teacher of humanities, Spanish, and circus arts. He grew up in Massachusetts and received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and an MA in Arts Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Today, Shawn also teaches aspiring and practicing Waldorf high school teachers through the Great Lakes Waldorf Institute.Youth Initiative High School - www.yihs.netGreat Lakes Waldorf Institute - https://www.greatlakeswaldorf.org/Kaleidoscope - the YIHS Podcast - https://www.wdrt.org/kaleidoscope/Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
