I’m returning to graduate school this year to complete my Master of Education, and I’ve been thinking deeply about the question I want my culminating work to explore.
For many years, my work has lived at the intersection of education, embodiment, human development, and rites of passage.
I’ve taught children and teens. I’ve worked with parents and educators. I’ve studied Waldorf education, yoga, somatic and body-based practices, and approaches to understanding human development.
Again and again, I return to the same conviction:
Adolescence is not simply a stage to manage or survive.
It is a profound developmental threshold.
Young people are navigating enormous changes in their bodies, identities, relationships, emotions, sexuality, sense of belonging, and understanding of who they are becoming.
And I am increasingly interested in what happens when education makes room for that whole process.
My graduate work will explore **embodied approaches to adolescent development**, with particular attention to body literacy, healthy sexuality, identity, belonging, relationship, and rites of passage.
Alongside the research, I am developing and refining *Moon Rhythms & Body Wisdom*, an educational program for adolescent girls that grew from work I taught this summer.
I’m especially interested in the bridge between developmental research and lived educational practice:
How do we help young people inhabit their bodies rather than disconnect from them?
How do we give them meaningful language for boundaries, relationships, sexuality, emotions, and identity?
How do we create rites of passage appropriate for young people growing up today?
And how might education support not only what a young person knows—but who they are becoming?
These are the questions I’ll be exploring over the coming months.
I’m looking forward to sharing pieces of the research, the curriculum development, and what I learn along the way—and to connecting with educators, researchers, parents, schools, and organizations asking similar questions.