Terra Team
Connie Rojas
Program founder and Director
Connie was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina to two teachers and school principals who value Waldorf education.
When she was 5 years old she moved to Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, and lived there until she was 12 years old. Those years were full of nature immersion where all she did was climb trees, make mud castles, ride bikes, and play in her cabin’s backyard with her animals.
Because of those years in Patagonia and her mother’s educational background and cultural upbringing, she understands the value of nature connection at an early age to encourage an organic integration of children’s senses. She believes learned-led, nature immersion is paramount so that children can achieve healthy bodies, creative minds, and overall well-being.
Mostly, she knows the importance of seeing children as unique and celebrating their differences in order to encourage collective growth, self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and social responsibility.
Connie worked as a preschool teacher for 5 years until she moved to Santa Barbara in 2013. When she moved to Santa Barbara, she studied Early Childhood Education at Santa Barbara City College with her main focus on Bilingual Early Intervention.
She has been helping children with disabilities and speech delays for Mariposas Project Inc. since 2016.
In 2019, she moved to Oregon and was the Lead Teacher and Program Coordinator at the Mariposas Project Bilingual Developmental Center in Del Norte County.
During the pandemic, children were left with no classes and she realized that there was a need for children to connect to nature, learn through their senses, and mostly, continue to learn outside.
At that time, she decided to open her own outdoor music and art classroom called Childhood Roots as a nature-based program being held outdoors at the beautiful Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
During that time, Coni continued her education, got a California Speech Pathology Assistant License, and worked for Mariposas Project in Bilingual Early Intervention online.
In 2021 she moved back to Santa Barbara and is excited to bring her background in Child Development to Terra: Her first official Forest School with the integration of all her background in Bibliotherapy, Forest School training, and Sound Therapy.
Terra is an extension of her personal deep relationship with the natural world merging with other teaching philosophies such as Regio- Emilia, Waldorf education, and Montessori.
She enjoys gardening, growing her own mushrooms, and doing ceramics while working with children outdoors – a place where she believes every child belongs.
Nicole
Lead teacher
Born and raised in Argentina, Nicole would spend countless hours reading fairy tail stories and building forts in her wide backyard in Buenos Aires. She spent her summers spotting the wildlife in Patagonia and having bonfires under the stars.
From an early age, her Waldorf education nourished the sense that we are all part of something bigger and as individuals we shall contribute with our best qualities to the community.
Always driven by her passion for education and art, she traveled around the globe for three years. While visiting Europe, Australia, India and Thailand, she attended workshops, lived in many different communities and worked with kids every step along the way.
In 2016, she decided to go back to Argentina to start her formal studies as a teacher, specializing in artistic education. While studying, she worked in an education program for three years with Mensajeros de la Paz, an international non-profit.
In search of a new challenge, she moved to the States in 2021. Reunited with some of her family in Florida, she worked as a teacher’s assistant at a dance academy. Since she has always been curious to see the West Coast, she decided to move to beautiful Santa Barbara earlier this year. She quickly felt at home and is very grateful to have the mountains and the sea as her daily elemental guides.
Her goal is to continue to be observant and respectful for our Mother Earth, and she is always looking to learn and adopt a better way to use our resources. She deeply believes that an early education with these principles is key for bringing aware, sensible and respectful humans into our world.
