Project Profile: Voyagers Community School – Elementary

Karen Giuffre’ is the Founding Director of Voyager’s Community School who came to us late last year requesting a catalog to see our collection of better learning environments. Karen was specifically interested in learning more about preschool and elementary school furnishings for a project within the next year that she was working on. We set up a call to meet and to learn more about her ideas and vision for her space. She was looking for some information about budgeting for her classrooms as she needed to put together a the business plan and wanted to plan appropriately for the furnishings. We provided her with some ideas to take back and was on her way!

Over the next two months, we kept in contact with Karen. We sent her examples of projects that we were working on to offer her inspirations during the planning stages. From her side, she was working closely with the architects of the building and finalizing the blueprints.

In March we received the blueprints from the architects and worked together to create a concept towards creating Karen’s inspired vision and also meeting the individual needs of each of the teachers. We met several times, conferencing and viewing the plans together, presenting different options and revising plans based on feedback from the board and the teachers. During this process, we had a discussion about the continuity of flow throughout the whole school and started to discuss the middle school, high school and library spaces. Karen loved the idea of using our modular pieces throughout the school to create a unified space with the added flexibility of being able to move furnishings between the classrooms that worked well together.

The school was scheduled to open in September. In the time leading up to the delivery of Voyager’s new classrooms we continued to support Karen and the team arranging for potential school visits to see Natural Pod Furnishings in action, we introduced them to a team of people to assist with the assembly, and we organized the delivery of their new items to meet their timing needs.

Almost exactly one year later – after an amazing journey together – the new school is ready and looks amazing!

Please join us to help celebrate the opening of Voyager’s Community School in their exciting new location in Eatontown, New Jersey using many of our Natural Pod elements across all their grade levels. We’re proud to be part of helping to make Voyagers’ a better learning environment. At Voyagers’ Community School, they create an environment that invokes vibrancy and trust among children and adults alike. Their school is a place where children can find their voice and participate in a democratic community. In their hands-on learning environment, teachers and students show responsibility, good judgment, accountability, and respect. These positive traits help students gain confidence which in turn creates a lasting desire to learn. Learning doesn’t mean sitting still. They provide children with meaningful experiences for play and exploration, which is their work. Children take part in the entire cycle of learning: Interest, investigation, questions, inquiry, research, dialogue, connections, reflections, expression… Interest.