Our School

Rise is a Waldorf inspired school founded five years ago in the breathtaking Chirripo mountain range of Perez Zeledón, Costa Rica, currently serving 40 families from around the world.

The seeds of Rise were planted in 2021 by David Comfort, with a vision to cultivate a thriving community grounded in the principles of Waldorf Education; offering families a harmonious blend of nature’s embrace and an ethos that nurtures confident, imaginative, and compassionate human beings.

In March 2026, Amanda Easton joined Rise as Director. A Waldorf-certified teacher and mentor, a holder of a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology, and a mother of six, Amanda brings both the knowledge and the lived understanding that true education begins not with the intellect alone, but with the whole human being; head, heart, and hands.

“The present moment and all it has to offer is the only experience we can really have. Let us build our capacity to be fully alive and awake to these moments.”

Nestled at an elevation that brings a temperate year-round climate of around 72°F (22°C), our campus sits on 800 acres of forests, open landscapes, and a river that runs through the land — ideal for both outer activity and inner renewal. Two distinct seasonal rhythms bring the best of both worlds, and the Pacific coast is just one hour away. For daily needs and modern services, the city of San Isidro de el General — the second-largest city in Costa Rica — is only 20 minutes away.

As we grow organically, we are preparing Rise to become a full K–12 Waldorf school. At this important stage of development, we welcome dedicated individuals and families who feel called to be part of something living, growing, and deeply meaningful.

If that is you — we would love to meet you.

Most schools prepare children for life. At Rise, we believe childhood is life,  and it deserves to be lived fully, not rushed through.

True education is not the filling of a vessel, but the tending of a flame. It calls upon the whole child; the thinking, the feeling, and the willing, and honors each in its own season. The young child learns through imitation and reverence. The older child through imagination and story. The adolescent through reason and purpose. To hurry any of these stages is to rob the child of something that cannot be recovered.

We hold this vision with deep respect, honoring its roots while remaining alive to the world our children are actually growing up in. The forms may adapt. The essence does not.

At Rise, this lives in every morning circle, every song, every pair of small hands learning to make something meaningful.

Costa Rica is a land that already knows something about living in harmony with nature. It is no coincidence that Waldorf education is taking root here with such warmth and enthusiasm. Something in this soil is ready for it.

At Rise, we are part of a growing family of Waldorf schools across Costa Rica and the wider region;  each one an expression of the same living impulse, adapted to its own community and landscape. We hold the core of this pedagogy with care and with freedom. Natural materials, seasonal rhythms, artistic work, and a deep respect for the child. How they come alive in the mountains of Chirripo, in the hands of our teachers, in the faces of our children,  that is ours to discover together, every year anew.

At the heart of this vision stands the whole child — thinking, feeling, willing. Our mentors are not simply teachers of subjects. They are companions on a journey, attuned to each child’s unfolding, present to what each moment asks of them.

“Life as a whole is a unity. We must not only consider the child, but the whole of life — we must look at the whole human being.”— Rudolf Steiner