Garden City, N.Y. – Wednesday, April 13, 2011 – High School students at the Waldorf School of Garden City welcomed Waldorf graduate Dr. John Coffey this past Friday. Dr. Coffey visited with the students to share his own post-Waldorf experience in the Peace Corps and in medicine.
Students were enthralled with Dr. Coffey’s talk and how his life through the Waldorf School was similar to their own. “Years from now, you will have a full appreciation for the things you learned here,” said Dr. Coffey. “Whether it’s biology, botany, or art history, you discover that you have an amazing fluency in the world and the breadth of your education will equip you to engage in conversations on a variety of subject areas.”
Dr. Coffey spoke about his two-year experience in the Peace Corps and how it was an opportunity for the self-reflection which led to his decision to pursue medicine as a career. Following his comments, Dr. Coffey responded to a variety of questions from an actively engaged student body.
Throughout his talk, Dr. Coffey shared how his Waldorf experience helped him in college, in the Peace Corps, and in life. “I was able to draw on my strengths in figuring out what my next steps in life would be. For example, studying a foreign language from lower school to high school helped me to acquire a new language – like Nepalese – in a short period of time.” Whether it was putting together a lesson plan in math or science or working with his hands alongside other Nepalese farmers, Dr. Coffey shared how Waldorf prepared him to face all sorts of challenges.
A graduate of the class of 1974, Dr. John Coffey attended Bowdoin College in Maine and majored in chemistry and physics. He then entered the Peace Corp and went to a rural town in Nepal where he was a math/science teacher. Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Coffey attended medical school at Stony Brook University. He is now the Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. Prior to working there, he served as Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Montefiore Medical Center.
The Waldorf School of Garden City is a coeducational day school serving Nursery through 12th Grade. For more information on the Waldorf School of Garden City, please contact Carol Proctor at (516) 742-3434, ext. 129 or proctorc@waldorfgarden.org.
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Posted in Alumni News