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Favor Ellis

Favor Ellis

She / Her

Dean of Community

[email protected]

“I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laughter until they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom. Then you will see what medicines they make, and where and when to apply them. That is the work. The only work.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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Favor Ellis was raised off the grid in rural Maine, deep in the forest, two miles from her nearest neighbor. “We relied solely on solar and wind power, and grew, harvested and put up most of our own food,” she recalls. “I was a girl with pigtail braids, scraped knees and dirty hands, always reading a book, always asking the world for answers. I fell in love early with the place right there, where the tops of trees touch the bottom of the sky. Look up, look up. I learned to be curious, compassionate and creative in the face of rural isolation and I continue to apply these values to all my choices and relationships.” Ellis’s appreciation for the natural world runs deep; Ecopsychology and Ecofeminism were cornerstones of her graduate work at Goddard College, where she studied Transformative Language Arts and Embodiment Studies. “It is important to me that I am able to find meaningful connection with place, life, and spirit, and that I hold space for the people around me to find connection for (and within) themselves,” she says. “I am deeply invested in supporting communities that prioritize social justice, love, empathy, diversity and equity, in conjunction with a deep reverence for the natural world.” Connection, authenticity and trust matter; passion, empathy and vision matter. “I am a counselor, a doula, an Auntie, a writer, an explorer of liminal spaces,” Ellis says. “I am interested in moments of choice and transition, and am particularly invested in the use of story as a tool for transformation and connection. I have rested my hands and feet on the soil of every state in the Continental U.S., and Vermont has always called me back. I have great faith in the resilience, potential and vision of young people, and believe it is my privilege and responsibility to support the depth of exploration, community and opportunity that is nurtured at Sterling. I am so grateful to tend to the soul of this place as we embody our vision of empathy, generosity, social justice, accountability, abundance and intergenerational connection.”


Profile

Award Institution
MA, Transformative Language Goddard College
BA Goddard College
Birth Doula DONA
Licensed Massage Therapist Santa Fe School of Massage
Publications
“there’s a poet in the barn.” Line Zero. 2 (2011): 111. Print.
“all the pilgrimage places.” Line Zero. 2 (2011): 143. Print.
"Trucker's Atlas." She Holds the Face of the World: Ten Years of VoiceCatcher. (2015): 72-73. Print
“Trucker’s Atlas.” VoiceCatcher. 4. (2009): 70-71. Print.
“Hunger.” VoiceCatcher. 3. (2008): 73-75. Print.
Ellis, Favor; Ardila, M.; Contreras, C.; Gavilán, R.; Vargas, A. “Breath / Técnica de respiración.” La Palabra. Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Columbia. 15. (2007): 117-132. Print.

Three Books You Recommend?

Emergent Strategy, by adrienne maree brown

Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture, by Nora Samaran

How We Show Up, by Mia Birdsong

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Belonging, by Toko-pa Turner

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde

On Lies, Secrets and Silence, by Adrienne Rich

$500

Visit Sterling College and we will reimburse you up to $500 for travel expenses if you decide to enroll full time. So save your receipts!

Trustees Emeriti

David Behrend ’60
Susan C. Bryant
Marvin Brown, Alumni Parent ’85
Lewis Cohen
George J. Hill, M.D., D.Litt., Alumni Parent ’85
Jackson Kytle, Ph.D.
Peter Albert McKay, J.D. ’63
Virginia de Ganahl Russell
Mark Schroeder, Ph.D.

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Sterling College
PO Box 72
Craftsbury Common, VT 05827
(802) 586-7711

Sterling College uses education as a force to address critical ecological problems caused by unlimited growth and consumption that is destroying the planet as we have known it. Our mission is to advance ecological thinking and action through affordable experiential learning that prepares people to be knowledgeable, skilled, and responsible leaders in the communities in which they live.

Sterling acknowledges that the land on which we gather—places now known as Vermont and Kentucky—are the traditional and unceded territories of several indigenous peoples: the Abenaki in the North and the Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Osage people to the South. We also learn in-and-from a range of landscapes that belong to other indigenous peoples.

As we seek deep reciprocal relationships with nature, we respect and honor the place-based and cultural wisdom of indigenous ancestors and contemporaries. Words of acknowledgement and intention are just a first step. We must match them with acts of respect and repair.

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