Escuela Futuro Verde's History
The entire Futuro Verde project began with two moms, Andrea Drost and Astrid Schultze, in 2004, when their daughters were reaching school age. The idea to set up an International school with an internationally accredited degree was born and they started slowly but steadily to get all the necessary data together. The business plan got developed and more people become involved in the project.
Then, at the end of January 2008, to the surprise of everyone, even for the initiators, ESCUELA FUTURO VERDE began operations, initially with only 3 students, in Astrid’s private house. In March 2008, ESCUELA FUTURO VERDE moved to the new location between Montezuma and Cóbano and opened its doors to more students in Preparatory (5-6 year olds) and Primary School. This was complimented with an exciting afternoon program, open to all children of the area, at the school’s facilities. In of June of 2010, ESCUELA FUTURO VERDE moved to its new location in Cóbano and educated over 20 students from 8 different countries. In December of 2010, the founders, Andrea and Astrid, decided independantly to move back to Germany and the administration and coordination of the school was passed on to Khalida and Rico. As of April 2011, the school educates over 50 students from 18 countries!
The People Behind Escuela Futuro Verde
Khalida Katz Lockheed, Montezuma
Agua Vista Casitas, Vacation Rentals
Project Coordinator
Graphic Designer, Web Designer
Khalida began working with Escuela Futuro Verde by voluntarily taking over the big job of re-doing the website and its ongoing maintenance. She also worked with Madeleine on graphic design for the school's fundraisers, etc. In December of 2010 she took over Project Coordination of ESCUELA FUTURO VERDE from Andrea Drost. Khalida came to Costa Rica 1993 as a volunteer teacher with WorldTeach where she met her husband, Alex. They eventually moved to the US where they lived for 9 years. In 2006 they came back to Costa Rica where they run Agua Vista Casitas and raise their two girls, 5 and 7 years old, both attending the school.
Enrico Reolon, Montezuma
Ricobau Builders
Project Management
Rico has provided enormous support to the school in the form of materials, labor and architectual expertise for the facilities in both the old and new campuses and for the accreditation process. Simply put, we could not have moved to our new facilities without him! Rico and Khalida took over the management of the school from Andrea and Astrid in December of 2010. Rico and wife, Kris Cook, met in her native Bay Area of the US and moved here in 2003, and they have two daughters, ages 7 and 9 who attend the school.
Stuart Millar, Montezuma
As Treasurer of Escuela Futuro Verde, Stuart makes sure that everyone's enthusiasm for making the school great and buying wonderful materials for the students doesn't fall out of bounds of our budget. Stuart and wife Jennifer moved to Montezuma in August of 2010 with their four children, the youngest three attending the school, and representing four countries. They have run successful businesses in the UK and USA and were "moved by mangos" to relocate to this paradise.
Alexander Jimenez Gutierrez, Montezuma
Agua Vista Casitas, Vacation Rentals
Alex, Khalida's husband, comes from one of the oldest families of the area and has been integral in mobilizing the local community. Tirelessly promoting the school he knows who to contact in order to solve any of the myriad challenges confronted by the school and who to ask for donations to the school. Alex was central in finding the facilities for the school's new campus and for facilitating the renovations and move along with Rico. He has also been of priceless assistance in finding staff, the accreditation process, and generally getting what needs to get done, done.
Andrea Drost, Montezuma
Tropisphere Real Estate S.A.
Founder Escuela Futuro Verde
Andrea’s strength is conceptual and structural thinking. She developed and wrote the project plan, with support from Astrid, and coordinated the ESCUELA FUTURO VERDE project. Her good people skills gathered the many talents now involved in this endeveaour. As a former PR consultant in Germany and being one of the Tropisphere S.A. Real Estate founders she is familiar with marketing and the requirements of the business world. In this project she brought together her professional experience with what is close to her heart. Andrea has shifted her focus on structural changes of the Assocacion and the fundraising to facilitate the development towards the "big picture" of the community project.
Jennifer Millar, Montezuma
Kitchen, Food Curriculum
Jennifer is in charge of the kitchen and menu of Escuela Futuro Verde, and confronts the challange of feeding so many hungry mounths from the wide range of cultures represented at our school, all within budget.
Kris Cook, Montezuma
Montezuma Spa and Nativa Realty
Organic Garden
Kris oversees the Organic Garden project and uses her background as a successful landscape designer and organic herb gardener to inform her work. The children have planted vegetables and herbs for consumption in the school's kitchen. The school's agricultural projects include compost and a chicken coop.
Madeleine Morton, Montezuma
Graphic Designer
Madeleine, from Sweden, brings in her great eye with the camera and graphic design skills and works on promotion material. And she is a wonderful cook & pastry chef which she proves during fundraising events for the school. Her husband, Patrick Morton from Canada, puts his many skills to work at the school as a general handyman saving us from draught, darkness, and encroaching jungle. Madeleine was born in Thailand and grew up in Sweden. In her early twenties while working on a cruise ship, she met her husband Patrick on a Carribean Island. A decade later life brought them together again and feeling their life’s destination seemed to wait for them in the tropics, the adventurous Mortons set off from Canada by car to Costa Rica with their four month baby in tow. Now they have two children, 9 and 11 years old, attending the Escuela Futuro Verde Primary school. If you would like to communicate in Swedish, please contact Madeleine.
Astrid Schultze, Cabuya
Property Management Schultze
Founder Escuela Futuro Verde
Astrid is a practical minded and a very effective organizer from Germany. She worked for years in concert production and tour management for Italian music bands all over the world. She came to Montezuma in 1994, speaks four languages fluently and is an all around talent – be it translations or painstaking proofreading, info research, or as a convincing promoter. She is also a great cook, a wonderful asset helping the initiators through brainstorming sessions and hours of working on documents over the weekends.
Ekaterina Barquero Chaves
Founding Teacher/Director
Integral to the formation of the Escuela Futuro Verde, Ekaterina served as the first teacher and then director of the school. Ekateriana is a licensed Psychologist with Honors Degree from the University Iberoamèrica, San Josè; Audience year University of Nancy, France. She also posesses the “Diplôme des Etudes de la Langue Française du Second Degré” from the same university. Ekaterina started her teaching career in 2003, where she taught French for the Primary and Secondary level of Saint Basilio College, Escazù. In 2007, she was the main teacher and in charge of the basic subjects for the primary grades of the Montessori School Cabuya.
In 2008 she, along with Andrea and Astrid, founded Escuela Futuro Verde. She used her experiences in Psychlogy, Education and Arts to implement personalized teaching, where the strengths and weaknesses of each child determines the methods of learning. In this way, she discovered, together with the child, how to conduct a more effortless and entertaining way of learning. We all wish Ekaterina the best of luck persuing further studies in the field of psychology and hope to welcome her back to the school in the future.
Samantha Heller, Orlando, Florida
Teacher
Samantha was a volunteer who transitioned into a teaching position and became a huge supporter of the school and favorite teacher among students and parents alike. In 2010, Samantha and her husband Greivin moved to Florida and welcomed baby Ian. We hope to see all three of them back in Costa Rica soon!
Karin Hallstroem, Stockholm, Sweden
Teacher
Karin was the first teacher involved in the project, who deserves enormous appreciation for her valuable input on education matters. She now teaches at a public school in Stockholm, and will be happy to come back with her youngest three children (5–12 yrs. old) and her husband Peter, a musician who produced the first CD of the Montezuma band “Yucamote” which helped to start them out. We hope to see you here again teaching!
Rocio Valverde Hidalgo, Delicias
Rocio was involved in the project very early on with Spanish/English translations and vice versa. In addition, she did a lot of research with the Costa Rican Ministry of Education and general legal issues. Rocio has been very helpful for effective brainstorming sessions. She and her husband, Peter from Germany, have one daughter, 9 years old. In 2008, Rocio set up the private one year pre-school program, Las Chispitas, for children who were still too young for Escuela Futuro Verde. They currently live in Germany.
Geoff McCabe, Delicias
Tropisphere S.A.
Geoff set up the initial website for the school project, and as one of the Tropisphere Real Estate partners, he voted to put a part of the Tropisphere donations into this project (10% of each commission go into local projects).
Our Teachers and Volunteers
Of course, we have our great teachers and instructors – many of them are working voluntarily or on additional issues to get this project off the ground – mil gracias to all of you!
Formal advisors:
Juan Carlos Fonseca, Lawyer-Notary, Cóbano
Juan Carlos contributes with his work setting up the foundation for the project for free and is our legal consultant. He has two children, ages 3 and 7, the oldest attending the school.
Juan Manuel Zuniga
Regional Direction of Education, Puntarenas
Ministry of Public Education
Manuel is excited about the Escuela Futuro Verde Project, he supports us by providing all kinds of valuable information.