Staff

ROOTS School Staff

Sarah Corrigan

Sarah is an herbalist and traditional skills practitioner who has a focus on ethnobotanical studies.  Informed by these land based arts, she finds they offer the rewards of self reliance through skill, responsibility and gratitude through growing and gathering, and the awe and wonder of things through the beauty of the natural world.  In effect, that this interaction can educate us to being more capable, responsible, and healthier human beings.  As a student and an educator, she remains passionate about continuous learning, and facilitating a student’s relationship to the natural world through supporting their own learning processes.

B.A. Art History, Drew University, 2005
Vermont Center of Integrative Herbalism Clinical Herbalism 3 year program
Brad Salon
My work at Roots combines my love for wilderness and adventure, hard work with good folks, building with my hands, and constant problem solving.  Although I have a love for all the skills I have devoted possibly too much time to flint knapping stone tools and find ever increasing complexity and challenges to pursue with that skill.  I have a love of bow building, archery, and hunting, a skill that has tested me on every level. The skills of tracking and awareness are brought to bare in every skill I work. The Scout classes are near obsession for me, but you will see that should you attend.  Learning to connect these skills to the present day, to the present conditions of the world, I strive to re-evaluate and grow my perspective. My work is done in the company of friends, all determined in their own ways to make the world a richer, healthier place. I started teaching wilderness skills in 2000. Aside from there skills I have a deep love for telling stories through the mediums of picture and video.
B.A. Individualized Studies, Goddard College, 2006

Guest Instructors

 
Sandra Kehoe

Sandra studies traditional willow basket making from teachers around the United States, Denmark and the UK. She has a strong focus in rib style willow basketry and weaving with bark. She teaches basketry classes and workshops in multiple mediums, at craft and art schools around the Northeast. She grows and harvests willow on her farm in the Mohawk Valley of New York State and is a member of the National Basketry Organization (NBO), Basketmakers Association, Northeast Basketmakers Guild and the American Craft Council.

Find out more about Sandra.

 

Penny Hewitt

Among other things, I am a homeschooling mom, craftsperson and homesteader, who is inspired by the traditions of other cultures to revitalize and share skills useful to everyday life. In an effort to deepen my connection to the land and limit my participation in consumer culture, I strive to grow, craft and participate
in seasonal harvests for as many of my needs and wants as possible. I am also grateful to be part of a generous community of talented makers and growers with whom I trade skills, ideas and wares. I use hand harvested resources from the forest, letting the qualities of varying materials dictate their use. We all hold
the capacity for positive change in the world and even the smallest steps toward reclaiming agency over our
lives and wellbeing reverberate far beyond what we can see and know.

Find out more about Penny.

 

Jared Kapsiak

Blacksmithing has fascinated Jared his entire life, as a traditional art & craft.  He first learned smithing while working in outdoor education, teaching Living History in the Catskills. 

Since 2009, blacksmithing has become a hobby and a passion for Jared, with an interest in functional crafting, tool & knifemaking, and decorative forging. The creative, practical, and inventive nature of smithing is both fulfilling & inspiring to him.
Starting in 2014, Jared has volunteered in a blacksmith studio in northwest Connecticut specializing in ornamental ironwork and decorative hardware for outdoor & indoor spaces. The creation of unique, custom, pieces that bring people joy is a point of great satisfaction for Jared.

Caleb Genereaux

Caleb was born and raised in North-Eastern Vermont on a large farm full of wondrous places to explore. As a homeschooler, wandering through the woods was just part of his daily education. This was a trampoline of sorts that catapulted him into a lifelong obsession with having fun outside with his friends. This obsession has led him to teach at Roots for the better part of a decade, to pursue outdoor adventures all over the world and to study Natural Resources and Outdoor Education at UVM. As part of his studies, Caleb attended an Outdoor Educator semester at NOLS, which pushed his understanding of leadership and its importance in our lives to a new level. Caleb brings these myriad experiences to his teaching style and combines it all into a wild ride of skills, curiosity, introspection and laughter.

B.S. Natural Resources-Outdoor Education concentration, University of Vermont, 202

Hans Mayer
Hans grew up in Starksboro VT and spent countless hours with with family hunting , fishing, and working the land. He and his brother ran feral in the woods. He now resides in south western NH with his family on their homestead with many trees and animals. His happy place is anywhere outside and continuing to learn and push his skills. When not stacking stones or working in the woods he still runs feral, though slightly more domesticated.