What does it really mean to connect in a world that is constantly “online” yet often feels distant? In the first week of April, nearly 1,000 young people aged 16 to 20 from around the globe gathered in Dornach, Switzerland, to explore this very question. They had come to take part in this year’s International Students Conference, held under the theme “Disconnect to Connect.”
I met students and teachers from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Georgia, California, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, the Philippines, Brazil, Canada, Spain, and South Korea—many of them from Waldorf schools. I was especially pleased to meet students from the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School in New York. When I was a volunteer at the Triform Camphill Community, I often visited the school that my householder’s children attended for performances and exhibitions, and I was even given permission to spend a day shadowing a class. I was very happy about this, as it gave me, as a teacher, the opportunity to experience Waldorf education firsthand.
The students were not just participants, but active contributors to the conference’s vibrant cultural evening program. Their meticulously rehearsed performances brought the conference to life. Just to name a few: a wild dragon dance from China, a deeply moving musical from Georgia, energetic pop songs performed by a South Korean choir, and a beautiful eurythmy performance from California.
The conference was organized by the Youth Section at the Goetheanum in close cooperation with volunteers from the Waldorf SV, the official board of student representatives from Waldorf schools across Germany. They invited experts from a wide range of fields to offer 28 workshops. Topics ranged from creative storytelling, economics, clowning, youth advocacy, African rhythms, yoga, singing, Brazilian dancing, Social threefolding, body painting to Chilean mythology.
Since I work as a High School teacher in Berlin, I attended the teacher’s workshop. Here I met the teachers of these impressive students and had inspiring conversations about their educational approaches and the school systems in the different countries. Together with our workshop leader, Gareth Dicker, a former drone robotics engineer who became Waldorf teacher in North Carolina, we prepared the big project titled “The Song of Water”. With rhythm, song, choreography, and a rainbow painted on scraps of fabric, the students embodied the life cycle of water. At the end of the seminar, the participants spread across the entire Goetheanum campus, singing together as they gradually connected their individual fabric pieces into a vast, web-like structure. It was a powerful and moving image. Over a thousand individuals becoming a single, collective work of art. A visible expression of connection across distance and difference.
The conference also featured thought-provoking lectures from Gerald Häfner (co-founder of the Green Party of Germany and former member of the European Parliament), Frank Stigma (expert for e-waste and sustainability), Luigi Amato (Waldorf-alumnus who traveled through South America for two years as a backpacker while disconnecting from modern technology) and Dr. Michaela Glöckler (pediatrician and former head of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum). In small conversation groups, students were encouraged to engage with the ideas presented, form their own opinions and connect with students from other continents. In my conversation group I met Dr. Emily Samuels-Ballantyne from Tasmania, Founder and Academic Director of Living Earth College. Her inspiring work is focused on how communities can activate resilient local food systems through collaboration between farmers, citizens, institutions, and regional infrastructure. Since I worked as a farmer in the Triform Camphill Community, I really enjoyed the conversations with her about biodynamic agriculture.
During the final round table, students were invited to come on stage to join the experts in an open discussion. The conversation sparked many questions and thoughts in me that will resonate for a long time. I believe many participants will return home not only with new friendships from around the world, but also with a deeper awareness of what it means to truly be “connected.”
Together with Alma Zausch and Andreas Schwarz, I was invited by the Camphill Association of North America to attend the conference as a Camphill Ambassador. During breaks and the initiative bazar, we hosted a booth where we engaged in conversations with many participants and their teachers. Our aim was to inspire young people to consider a volunteer year in a Camphill community, and to introduce them to the study programs offered at the Camphill Academy.
We shared many pictures, videos and personal stories and anecdotes from our time in Camphill Village Minnesota, Triform Camphill Community and Camphill Communities California. The teachers took brochures and flyers with them back to their schools, and many students expressed strong interest in spending a gap year in the United States. We hope that after graduating from school, they will carry their enthusiasm for music, dance and culture into the communities as volunteers, thereby enriching the lives of the residents. The diversity and internationality of the volunteers is what makes life in Camphill communities so vibrant.
Thank you so much for these unforgettable days filled with impressive performances, exciting discussions and interesting conversations. See you at the next International Students Conference!
by Damon Ruhländer (Camphill Academy alumnus)
