This week marks Rachel Starr’s one year anniversary as an Educational Assistant at Ashland Middle School. She grew up in Philomath and attended Oregon State University where she got degrees in Chemical Engineering and German. In high school, she was an exchange student in Wolfsburg, Germany and formed such a strong connection with her host family and the country that she been back eight times since then.
More recently, Rachel and her family—husband, Nathan, and sons, Liam (who is 15 and a student at AHS currently) and Keaton (13 and at Willow Wind)—moved to Ashland 10 years ago. “I really love the community, and, as a parent, I’ve found the parent community to be really supportive.”
In addition to enjoying reading, cooking, hiking, and dancing, Rachel is a practicing Zen Buddhist who regularly attends morning meditations at 6am at the temple on Tolman Creek. For a while, she considered training to become a priest but decided to work with children instead and we’re happy she found her way to AMS.