Team

Niels Hansa

I am 48 years old, married and have two won­derful children. For more than 20 years, I have been able to acquire important pro­fes­sional skills in project man­agement, product man­agement, business devel­opment and sales, and have gained a lot of valuable expe­rience. Now I have reori­ented myself pro­fes­sionally to strengthen the meaning and value of my work, putting my skills as an entre­preneur at the service of a non-profit mission — to promote human edu­cation through inno­v­ative projects.

My roles in the team

IT, Finance, Public Affairs

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

Cycling instead of driving, my wife and kids, social entre­pre­neurship, edu­cation, edu­cation, education.

Gabriel Ionescu

I was born in 1977 into a family of teachers in Romania. After grad­u­ating from high school in Salzburg, I started a uni­versity degree in tech­nical studies in Linz. Unrav­eling the mys­teries and riddles of this world I found very exciting, so I decided to do physics. I found it par­tic­u­larly ful­filling to share insights with my friends and fellow stu­dents, and I expe­ri­enced that by engaging with other people’s per­spec­tives and views, not only can there be a better under­standing of the topic being dis­cussed, but also of the person in front of me.

I took these insights with me when I started private tutoring in math and physics. Espe­cially the one-to-one lessons filled me with great joy, as I could fully relate to another person and under­stand how he or she under­stands a certain topic (and thus a part of the world). Each lesson and learning path became as unique as the people involved, and together we were able to make great progress in a short period of time.

When I was given the oppor­tunity to teach math­e­matics in the senior level of a Waldorf school, I joy­fully accepted the chal­lenge. I realized that through the setup of a tra­di­tional school (fixed classes, fixed sub­jects, fixed schedules, etc.) the indi­vidual learning path is very dif­ficult to realize, and at the same time I saw how important it would be for many young people. Since then, I have been involved with the idea and real­ization of a place of learning where young people can follow their own learning path in a com­munity at their own pace.

My roles in the team

Learning guide, IT, learning platform

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

Exercise, nature, people, good con­ver­sation, clear thinking, aikido, zazen, bas­ketball, all open source.

Veiktour Khalil

Already during my studies I dis­covered my love for working inde­pen­dently, for eco­nomics and for mathematics.

Nothing in our lives is rigid — every­thing around us is in motion and always cre­ating itself anew. We, too, have the ability to con­tin­ually reshape our lives and ourselves.

With this in mind, after 14 years of self-employment and with the birth of my won­derful children, I sold my company. I have been working in the ele­mentary edu­cation field as a kinder­garten operator for the past 7 years.

I am 41 years old and have worked in product management/​sales in wholesale, where I gained valuable expe­rience. The love for my children led me to found a non-profit asso­ci­ation — a kinder­garten. Working in the kinder­garten is very mean­ingful for me per­sonally and fills me with a lot of joy every day.

My roles in the team

Finance and Legal, Public Affairs

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

Running, Wing Tsun, my family, edu­cation, reading, exercise in nature, philosophizing.

Peter Kogler

Life is learning — in this sense I have been gath­ering expe­rience with learning from dif­ferent per­spec­tives for over 40 years. Already during my school years I dis­covered my love for physics and math­e­matics, which I then developed during my studies. In addition, I began to give private lessons, with which I soon became self-employed. Since training as a Waldorf teacher, where I also met my wife, I have also taught for several years at a Waldorf sec­ondary school. In the meantime, we are parents our­selves and our daughter is just starting her school years.

I feel enthu­siasm is at the core of any true learning expe­rience and love to share it to help others develop. I see indi­vid­u­al­ization as a key element of the edu­cation of the future. For several years now, I have been looking at ways to actively help shape this future.

My roles in the team

Learning guide, concept devel­opment, orga­ni­za­tional structure, website, per­sonnel, learning platform

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

Our family, learning new things, boul­dering, being outside together, biking around the city, dancing, running, time to reflect and med­itate, vegan cooking and eating, my thinkpad running Ubuntu

Wolfgang Neigenfind

I have now spent more than 40 years of my life in various schools. What keeps my passion for the field of edu­cation so fresh and alive are the rela­tion­ships with people that fas­cinate me.

Aside from my studies in edu­cation, psy­chology and phi­losophy for the teaching pro­fession, I am still learning and inter­ested in topics such as family, edu­cation, rela­tion­ships, per­sonal devel­opment and spirituality.

A place for edu­cation, which everyone visits with joy and which is carried by devel­opment, curiosity, appre­ci­ation and love, that has always been my dream. I am delighted that we are now real­izing this dream together.

My roles in the team

Learning guide, school prin­cipal, marketing

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

My family, per­sonal devel­opment, writing, med­i­tation, helping other people to be happy, love, adventure and travel

Christine Weinkopf

Learning in the pro­tected space of trusting rela­tion­ships — that is important to me. People have important impulses that can be expe­ri­enced through their own trial and error and insights gained exter­nally and also con­sol­i­dated through practice. For me, giving space to these impulses and meeting each other at eye level with respectful regard means cre­ating a framework in which learners and teachers can develop together. During my travels through various school systems around the world (Aus­tralia, South America, Vietnam, Tan­zania, etc.), I have dealt with the ques­tions: How do we learn? What helps people in the process of learning? What does learning have to do with my social and spatial cir­cum­stances? My ana­lytical skills, which I was already able to put to very good use in my inter­na­tional business studies and in the private sector, as well as my expe­rience show that a balance is needed between a benev­olent network of the com­munity and indi­vidual freedom to develop one’s own potential.

I feel that the indi­vid­u­alized com­munity (expression coined by Gerald Hüther) is the means of choice to let young people dis­cover their self-deter­mi­nation with curiosity in a loving, boundary-setting framework. To be able to accompany this journey of dis­covery of one’s own per­son­ality is like a gift for me. Therefore, after 4 years in a Viennese middle school, I now want to help create this learning atmos­phere in our own school.

My roles in the team

Learning guide, mar­keting, sales, location

Per­sonally I am enthu­si­astic about

Accom­pa­nying the devel­opment of my daughter, nature & nat­u­ralness of people, mountain biking, swimming, climbing, phi­los­o­phizing, lying in the grass looking at the sky, serenity and humor.