Meet our director
Hi, I’m Carolyn.
I founded The Field School of Hvar, because I believe that schools can be an engine for healthy communities and a powerful instrument for building agency in young people.
I am an American by birth and upbringing. I now live on Hvar with my partner and our young son, who are both Croatian. We chose to live on Hvar because of the free-range childhood that we felt the island could offer our family. Recognizing that other families - both Croatian and international - share our aspiration for a holistic approach to child development, I began investigating how I could bring together the best possible educational community in our island paradise.
Before coming to Hvar, I began my career in grassroots placemaking, convening a festival of culture and technology that drew 20,000 attendees. I went on to work under the head of operations and fundraising at The Aspen Institute, a global think tank based in Washington, D.C. I am a “double Hoo” with an undergraduate degree in literature and an MBA from the University of Virginia.
Outside of work, home, and learning Croatian, my passions are (as you might expect from the themes in our program) hiking, gardening, and reading. I am extremely grateful for all the wonderful people I have already met on this journey to launch The Field School of Hvar, and look forward to meeting new allies and co-conspirators as we continue onward. If you are inspired by the work we’re doing, please get in touch!
Summer Academic Dean
Zoe Clute
Hello! I’m Zoe. As the academic dean for The Field School, I will hold community at the heart of all our learning practices. I believe children learn best when they feel connected: to place, to each other, and to a sense of purpose.
Creating exciting educational experiences has always been a driving force in my life. My career journey began at Stanford, where I studied child development and human biology, and enjoyed teaching children’s creative writing and working with 5-8 year olds at Stanford Sierra Camp.
I then became a faculty member at The Thacher School in Ojai, CA. There, I taught biology and yoga, backpacked with students, and designed a summer camp for L.A. middle schoolers to work with endangered turtles and tortoises.
My career journey continued to Castilleja School in Palo Alto, where I crafted a new climate change curriculum. Seeing the growing impacts of social media and new AI tools on my students, I then returned to Stanford for an M.S. in Learning, Design, and Technology.
Now, I work as a science faculty member at The Urban School of San Francisco. Outside of my time at school, I enjoy trail running with my friends, baking, writing letters, and pausing to admire every animal I see.
I look forward to deeply integrating theory and research into each experience at The Field School, while never losing sight of the childlike wonder and connection that drives learning. Let’s be curious together and make the world a better place!
Our Summer Team
Steinar Dervo
Wooden BoatmakingSteinar joins The Field School in July to help us build our first sailboat! He brings a rare combination of hands-on building experience and outdoor adventure. For the past decade, he has worked for GBS Entrepenør in Norheimsund, Norway — leading formwork operations, operating cranes and heavy equipment, and contributing to large-scale infrastructure and energy projects — while taking breaks to lead dog sled experiences and provide full animal care at his family’s farm in Finland.
Clara Einsiedel
ExcursionsWith a background in social work from Hochschule Fulda, Clara has spent the last eight years serving children and young people throughout Germany and Bosnia: mobile youth outreach in Fulda and Leipzig, an upcycling and silkscreen project, an emergency youth placement center in Thuringia, and eighteen months guiding climbers and travelers in Bosnia.
She brings to Field a rare combination — technical skills in textile and printing crafts, a youth worker's instinct for what matters to a kid, and a love of the outdoors that runs from the Thuringian forest to the Dalmatian sea.
Sonia Elkin
HealersSonia is an educator with four years of classroom experience and a strong background in intercultural early childhood education. She began her career as a student teacher at an IB school in Budapest, while completing her BA in Kindergarten Education, where her research on third culture children placed second in Hungary’s National Scientific Circle. She then worked as a lead teacher, applying language acquisition approaches with Hungarian and international children aged 3–5, before joining a Montessori school as an assistant teacher. She is currently completing her MA in Educational Sciences and holds a Montessori 3–6 Orientation from the Association Montessori Internationale. She speaks native English, fluent Russian, proficient Croatian, and some French.
Tonći Bavčević
SailingTonči is an islander, marine engineer, competitive sailor, and dad. He has been working on boats - from skiffs to oil and gas rigs - for his entire career, and knows the island’s waters like his front yard.
Fabijan Belić
ClimbingFabijan is an islander, founder of the adventure outfitter Tufa, a glacier guide in Iceland, and one of the organizers behind the Hvar Climbing Festival. Before coming home to the island and the rocks he loves, he spent five years as an infantryman, including a peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Maëlle Delebecque
ExplorersMaëlle grew up on boats, has guided sled dogs in Quebec, taught French across two continents, and spent a year and a half traveling from Alaska to Patagonia. Now she brings that intrepid spirit to Hvar — as our summer Explorers Guide!
Artemesia Buonerba
Summer Kinder + ExcursionsAn educator and journalist based in Bolzano, Artemesia has taught Italian and history to students aged 11–18, designed creative workshops across Czech Republic and Spain through Erasmus+, worked with children at a refugee reception centre on Lesbos, and founded Storŧə, an independent literary and photography magazine.
Ines Djuranovic
Summer Early YearsInes joins Field this season to bring our youngest learners into deep, daily relationship with the island.
A holistic educator with two degrees from Gothenburg University, Ines specializes in nature-based, child-led learning rooted in Forest School, Reggio Emilia, and Montessori traditions. She co-founded a forest-based learning center in Portugal, ran a kindergarten on a remote Indonesian island, and has facilitated nature play and wilderness immersions for families across Europe. She speaks English, Serbo-Croatian, Portuguese, and Swedish.
Prior to teaching, Ines spent over a decade in trauma recovery work for children, building clinical care centers in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and India.
2026 Summer Fellows
Mirna Mihoković
Zero Kilometer SchoolwearCroatian fashion and costume designer. Paris College of Art alumna. Zagreb Design Week finalist. A maker who dyes, stitches, and experiments by hand — and who believes clothing should be slow, tactile, and deeply personal.
This summer, Mirna mentors a remarkable group of Croatian and American teen girls who will be shaping our Zero-Kilometer Schoolwear project. Specifically, she will help them connect the dots between place and self-presentation — Croatia’s rich ethnography and its expression in contemporary idiom.
Shannon Merenstein
Zero-Kilometer SchoolwearShannon is the founder of Hatch Partners in Play, co-founder of The Creativity Project, a published author, and former teacher whose work has brightened the lives of thousands of children. Conceptually brilliant and effortlessly warm, Shannon embodies excellence in inquiry-based education.
Shannon will facilitate a special series of her signature PlayLabs for the teen creative strategists shaping our Zero-Kilometer Schoolwear project, helping young people better understand children through observation of open-ended creativity.
Mihovil Kotoraš
Teacher Training - Emergency ResponseMihovil is a professional firefighter with DVD Jelsa, which has been kind enough to host numerous Field School learner groups over the years. A father himeself, Mihovil’s family have lived in this part of island Hvar for centuries. He is also an avid rower, having competed twice in the World Championships at the U23 and senior level.
Mihovil will be training Field School guides on specific risks of the island, including fire safety, emergency response protocol, and local wildlife. All Field School Guides hold lifeguarding or comparable marine rescue training, as well as working-with-children clearance.
Lidija Detić
Teacher Training - Folk MusicLidija is an educator, composer, multi-instrumentalist and founder of KeDobro, an educational practice based in Varaždin focused on early childhood education and holistic learning through the Orff Schulwerk approach
A passionate tambura player for more than 30 years, she also teaches this traditional instrument and proudly shares Croatian musical heritage and personal artistic expression with younger generations. Her work also includes collaboration with organizations supporting people with disabilities, where she facilitates inclusive music workshops.
Outside of work, she is a hiking guide in a local mountaineering society in Varaždin, a wife, and mother of three nearly grown daughters. She finds inspiration in nature, community, and the belief that learning never stops.
Dr. Masha Jug-Dujaković
Teacher Training - Wild PlantsMasha is an ethnobotanist with a PhD in agricultural sciences from the University of Zagreb (2010), where she wrote her dissertation on the genetic and biochemical diversity of Dalmatian sage (Salvia officinalis).
Her published work covers the ethnobotany of the Adriatic islands — which plants islanders eat, which they use as medicine, which they bring to church on feast days — as well as the genetic diversity of Mediterranean species including immortelle (smilje), lavandin, Dalmatian sage (kadulja), and Dalmatian pyrethrum.
She is returning to the Field community this summer to train our Guides on local flora and its traditional meaning in our island community. In addition to being a scientist, Masha is a mother, grandmother, and a wonderful friend.
Andrea Cheong
Zero-Kilometer SchoolwearAndrea is a fashion commentator and movement leader. She is the author of Why Don't I Have Anything To Wear, founder of the Mindful Monday Method, host of Fashion Our Future podcast in partnership with Kering, and founder of The Sewn Assembly fashion workshops, empowering Londoners with practical sewing skills for a sustainable wardrobe. She also runs the community non-profit Mindful Mending Club that promotes slowing down and hands on, therapeutic crafts, taught by tailors and professionals. Andrea has been featured in Harpers Bazaar, British Vogue, The Guardian, the BBC and more.
Andrea will mentor the teen creative strategists shaping our Zero-Kilometer Schoolwear project, helping them learn how to sew, mend, and analyze apparel to better decode the messages that fashion sends us.
Annie Makela
Zero-Kilometer SchoolwearAnnie Makela is a social impact entrepreneur and educator working at the intersection of community, impact, and intergenerational exchange of ideas and wisdom. She is the founder of Opportunity Education Global (OEG), spent eight years as Founding Executive Director of the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Hillbrook School, studied and ran global fellowships on social entrepreneurship and impact investing at the Middlebury Institute, and has collaborated with the Aspen Institute across the Ideas Festival, Bezos Scholars Program, and Center for Rising Generations. She lives in Los Gatos, California, and is currently writing a book titled TheModern Village.
Anne Kappers
Auditing EducatorAnne Kappers serves as the director of a forest school in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She has worked with children for over 20 years. In Seattle, she served as an artistic director at a small children's theatre, and in Virginia, she has worked as a teaching artist, storyteller, and classroom teacher. She holds an undergraduate degree in theatre and an M.Ed. in Outdoor Classroom. When she is not directly engaged in the business of starting a school, she is hiking, learning the piano, devising outdoor dance performances, sitting by streams, and looking for ways to return to the Adriatic.
Dr. Irena Ateljević
Zero-Kilometer SchoolwearOne of Europe's leading voices on regenerative transformation, Croatian-born Dr. Irena Ateljevic earned her PhD in Human Geography (Auckland, 1998) and taught at universities worldwide. Co-founder of the Critical Tourism Studies network, she has co-edited three books and published widely. In 2011 she returned to Croatia, founding a local seed bank, an organic, vegan bistro, communal art programs, and a center for study and regeneration near Krka National Park, called Terra Meera. She continues to speak, research, and connect globally.
Our Fall Team
Klaudia Mankosova
Early YearsKlaudia is an Early Years educator with over seven years of experience and a strong background in outdoor and nature-based learning. She began her career as a teaching assistant at a forest school in Connecticut while completing her BA in Psychology, where she focused on child development. She then moved to the Czech Republic, to work as an Early Years teacher in a setting that combined forest school, outdoor education, and Reggio-inspired approaches. She is currently completing her M.ed in Early Childhood Education.
Early Years
Meet our faculty and a few returning families in our Early Years Open House.
Jordan Reese
Early YearsJordan is an educator with a background spanning Reggio Emilia–inspired teaching, curriculum development, art studio direction, and outdoor education. She holds a Master's in Curriculum & Instruction with a specialization in Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Learners from the University of Denver, and has spent the past several years building her own nature-based learning program in Los Angeles.
Language Arts
The focus of Language Arts in the fall is Homer’s Odyssey. We will explore this text with two major projects: making our own wooden sailboat and performing rhapsodies in the Homeric oral tradition.
Geza Frank
Upper SchoolGéza is a historian by passion and practice, with a rare depth of knowledge in the ancient world that he pursues not only in books but in the field. He has retraced the routes of ancient armies across the Alps and sailed the Danube aboard a reconstructed Roman vessel — the kind of hands-on, experiential scholarship that turns the distant past into something students can see, feel, and understand. It makes him an extraordinary guide for the questions at the heart of his classes: how the voyages of the Odyssey would truly have felt, and how the people of antiquity actually lived, worked, traveled, and made the world around them.
Born in Vienna and educated at the city's Lycée Français, Géza is also a professional flautist and piper who earned bachelor's and master's degrees with honours in Irish traditional music from the University of Limerick. He is a captain in the Austrian Army and brings to Field a rare mix of curiosity, discipline, and wide-ranging knowledge — and the conviction that the past comes most alive when we step into it ourselves.
Samuel Suárez Murias
Lower SchoolSamuel is an international educator whose teaching has taken him across three continents. He holds an MA in Spanish as a Second Language and a BA in English Philology from the Universidad de Oviedo, and has spent more than a decade in the classroom — most recently as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Universidad de Oviedo, and earlier at Shandong Normal University in China, where he received a Distinguished Teaching Award. Across these settings he has taught students of every age and level, with a gift for meeting learners where they are and making demanding material feel within reach.
Andrew Dodson
Wooden BoatsAndrew is a civil engineer, carpenter, and kayak builder from Tennessee who also helped run the River Gorge Forest School and co-founded a nature retreat with his family. He is someone who builds things, loves the water, and believes children deserve to learn how the physical world works by working with their hands.
This fall, Andrew and his family will join our community on the island. Together with our students, they'll build a real wooden vessel - an unforgettable fusion of STEAM and social studies skills development - on an Adriatic island with thousands of years of boatmaking history.
Jennifer Reif
"Rhapsody" - Dramatic PerformanceJennifer has been teaching, directing, and performing, around the Pacific Northwest for decades. She created Clay and Play, an inclusive outdoor summer arts program, served as Education Director for Studio East, Training for the Performing Arts, co-founded SecondStory Repertory Theatre, and has led drama programs for both public and private schools. She is a member of TPS (Theatre Puget Sound), AATE (American Alliance for Theatre and Education) and loves sharing her creative energy with other drama teachers.
She holds her BA in Theatre from Morningside College, and also studied at Oxford University in England. Her time with The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis filled her with a life-long passion for working and playing with young people. Her shelves are lined with children’s books and her happy place is in the woods. Jennifer has several theatre credits to her name, but her favorite roles of all-time are “Mom” to her adventurous kids and “Wife” to her theatre musician husband. Jennifer offers professional development for drama teachers worldwide.
Eleanor Ford
HallowtideEleanor is an avid maker of things, mother of two, workshop facilitator, community group organizer, homeschooling parent, author of Creative Spaces on Substack, and chief mess maker at the creative business Mini Mad Things. In her work, Eleanor shares practical ideas for bringing creative practices into one’s home or community spaces, deep-dives into art and craft techniques along with easy-to-do printable activity sheets. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Jewellery Design and a Masters in Textiles.
Eleanor will be leading a community celebration of Hallowtide during Field’s fall session. Drawing on local spiritual traditions, she will facilitate a secular ceremony that invites kids and parents to consider the loss, renewal, and transformation of the fall
Math & Quantitative Reasoning
Our goal is to bring the beauty and usefulness of math to life for learners through cooking, entrepreneurship, nature study and, for older learners, an exploration of Euclid’s Elements, one of the first and most enduring works of mathematical reasoning.
Samuel Suárez Murias
Lower SchoolSamuel is an international educator whose teaching has taken him across three continents. He holds an MA in Spanish as a Second Language and a BA in English Philology from the Universidad de Oviedo, and has spent more than a decade in the classroom — most recently as a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Universidad de Oviedo, and earlier at Shandong Normal University in China, where he received a Distinguished Teaching Award. Across these settings he has taught students of every age and level, with a gift for meeting learners where they are and making demanding material feel within reach.
Ben Reason & Mette Reitzel
Social EntrepreneurshipBen Reason and Mette Reitzel are joining the Field School as parents and fellows to support the social enterprise element of the Field Store.
Ben is the founder of pioneering service design studio LiveWork. Over the past 20+ years he has worked with a diverse range of organisations, from global corporations via government agencies to tiny NGOs, with the aim of using design-thinking to serve their clients better. Mette is a documentary filmmaker with a background in photography, anthropology and high-end commercials. They are looking forward to bringing their experience and expertise from London to Hvar for the autumn season.
Shameel Ahmad
Learning DesignShameel is a professor of economics, most recently on faculty at Rhodes College in Memphis, where he participated in its Political Economy Program. He holds a Ph.D. in economics with distinction from Yale University, a Master’s in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from Stanford. Shameel’s research interests center on economic history, economic development and international economics. He is currently writing - beautifully and accessibly - about the relationship between technology and cognition on Substack here.
Shameel joins the Field School math team as a curriculum advisory, helping us weave together a sturdy baseline of engaging, developmentally appropriate math education along with our interdisciplinary explorations of social entrepreneurship and economic history.
Michael Freer
Social EntrepreneurshipMichael Freer is the founder of Jedna Mladost, a youth social innovation program in the mainland city of Split. Related to this work, he has created an accelerator program for artisan social entrepreneurship in the nearby town of Kaštela, through which youth and disabled individuals design and create products which honor their landscape, heritage, and future. In the fall, older learners at The Field School will visit this project, which is a more mature version of our own Field Store initiative, for inspiration and mentorship.
Social Studies
Our interdisciplinary focus in the fall is prehistory and Ancient Greece, eras that have left vibrant traces on Hvar. Our major project will be to mine the past for inspiration and perspective on apparel - materials, techniques, motifs, and ideas of beauty.
Geza Frank
Upper SchoolGéza is a historian by passion and practice, with a rare depth of knowledge in the ancient world that he pursues not only in books but in the field. He has retraced the routes of ancient armies across the Alps and sailed the Danube aboard a reconstructed Roman vessel — the kind of hands-on, experiential scholarship that turns the distant past into something students can see, feel, and understand. It makes him an extraordinary guide for the questions at the heart of his classes: how the voyages of the Odyssey would truly have felt, and how the people of antiquity actually lived, worked, traveled, and made the world around them.
Born in Vienna and educated at the city's Lycée Français, Géza is also a professional flautist and piper who earned bachelor's and master's degrees with honours in Irish traditional music from the University of Limerick. He is a captain in the Austrian Army and brings to Field a rare mix of curiosity, discipline, and wide-ranging knowledge — and the conviction that the past comes most alive when we step into it ourselves.
Fatima Espina Coeto
Lower SchoolFátima is a bilingual educator with more than five years of experience teaching children and adolescents across a range of settings. She has taught World History, social sciences, and the humanities in both English and Spanish, designing her own curricula and learning materials, and earlier worked as a camp guide and mentor, leading recreational and team-building activities for young people. She holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and a master's in Social Leadership from the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, in Mexico.
A native Spanish speaker who teaches comfortably in two languages, Fátima is at home leading groups outdoors and brings to Field a warmth and energy well suited to guiding our youngest students in their first explorations of the wider world.
Bea Yates
Zero-Kilometer SchoolwearBea brings over a decade of experience in place-based, hands-on learning in the UK and beyond. She co-leads nature and craft workshops for children and teens, including basketry, natural dying, and fermentation. She also runs seasonal programs on a working organic farm emphasizing food systems and ecology.
Her career began in arts education, running programs for the Tate Modern and international photography workshops. Bea holds a BA in Fine Arts, a TESOL Certificate, and has completed Forest School training, Pediatric First Aid, and Food Hygiene certification.
Bea will support learner’s exploration of “zero-kilometer apparel,” resourcing, researching, and designing student-friendly workshops related to wool and other natural fibers and techniques.
Biology
Learners will immerse in natural science, drawing on Aristotle’s foundational studies, which he developed through study of an island similar to Hvar. The Field School learners and faculty will work with community partners to establish a compost operation, utilizing waste from the grape and olive harvests.
Mario Graćin
Regenerative AgricultureMario is the founder and owner of Soil Regenerative Landscaping & Practices. He is an ecological agronomist, drawing on years of experience designing Mediterranean landscapes that are not only stunning, but resilient and ecologically sound. He holds a Bachelor’s in Organic Agriculture from the University of Zagreb and is also a skilled trumpet player.
Mario and his team will advise The Field School in best practices for establishing a professional-grade compost operation on Hvar, providing coordination and expertise on issues such as measuring microbial activity, mineral levels, and other key variables.
Beatrice Carnelos
Upper & Lower SchoolBeatrice Carnelos holds a Master of Science in Climate Change from the University of Copenhagen and a Bachelor in Natural Sciences from the University of Padua, and she has spent much of the past decade leading camps, workshops, and farm-based learning across Italy and Northern Europe. Most recently she worked at an educational farm in the Veneto, designing daily activities that bring children together with animals, gardens, and the rhythms of agroecological life. Before that, she led international youth volunteer camps for Legambiente across several summers. Fluent in Italian, English, and Spanish, Beatrice teaches the way Field School believes children learn best: outside, hands in the soil, with curiosity as the compass.
Hrvoje Bota
Farm VisitIn the fall, older learners will visit Mikrofarma Mrvica, the most mature permaculture farm in Dalmatia having been in operation for over 20 years. Hrvoje and his wife will provide training in specific aspects of permaculture design, particularly compost, as well as the unique techniques which they employ to grow food in the Mediterranean biome.