Craig Doerksen
Director, Founder
Craig is the founder of Waterloo School, leading the team of three co-founders in researching and developing the unique model. Craig led the School of Rhetoric at Regents School of Austin for eleven years, where he guided its growth from a division of one hundred-plus students and a small faculty to over three hundred students and close to forty full and part-time faculty and staff. He co-founded the Bluetower Arts Foundation in Eugene, OR, taught and served as Upper School Head of Trinity Academy of Raleigh, established the food service at Young Life’s Washington Family Ranch, built a Young Life ministry in partnership with Bethesda Lutheran Church, in Eugene, Oregon, taught public school English in Los Angeles, and ran the kitchen at Young Life’s Malibu Club in British Columbia. Craig holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Ireland and graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in English. Craig serves on the Board of Directors for BlueTower and Gutenberg College. Craig and his wife Dana are members of Christ Church of Austin and are actively involved in the ACNA Matthew 25 initiative and pre-marital counseling. Hobbies include woodworking, writing, backpacking, and travel.
Education
- Master of Arts, University of Ireland Maynooth (2002)
- BA, English Language and Literature, University of Oregon (1992)
Experience
- Upper School Head, Regents School of Austin (2007-2018)
- Bluetower Arts Foundation (2005-2007)
- Upper School Head, Humanities Teacher, Trinity Academy of Raleigh (2002-2005)
- Young Life (1995-2001)
Posts by Craig Doerksen
Have you ever been on a class trip? Where did you go? What did you do? Plenty of schools embark on class trips to unique cultural destinations to explore and expand young minds – some turn them into mission trips building local relationships and engaging in acts of service. At Waterloo, we’ve taken many of…
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Education at Waterloo School is inspired by several different learning models. One of those is well known by some and a bit of a mystery to others: Project-Based Learning (known by those familiar with it as ‘PBL.’) Just what is project-based learning? How does it work? And what does it look like in practice? What…
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As we are in the middle of Thanksgiving break and on the eve of the day itself, it is with much gratitude that I share that Waterloo is now fully accredited! The Texas Alliance of Accredited Private Schools (TAAPS), the oldest private school accrediting body in Texas, has accepted us as a member school. Accreditation…
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When we think of a Christian school, we tend to think of a few common features: Christian teachers and staff, Bible and Apologetics classes, weekly chapel, and frequent prayer and Bible studies. A few other images may sneak in from private school culture: conservative prep-style uniforms (blazers on chapel days), prefecture and school houses (hello,…
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What’s the purpose of school? What words do teenagers often use to describe learning at school? For many students, the school experience checks way too many of those boxes. Ever wonder why that is? Is it just inevitable? The rise of achievement-oriented education We think the problem has to do with what we’ve come to…
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Your senior year is a great time to be in high school! Will you coast through the finish line, or will you make the most of the time you have left? Dr. Christina Swan (admissions, sciences) and Craig Doerksen (director, humanities) recently had a chat about how Waterloo empowers seniors to get a head start…
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Academic rigor in high school is often touted as a selling point for families and an indicator of future success for students. But what does a rigorous curriculum really mean? Is an “academically rigorous” curriculum really the best way to help students succeed? To help unpack this idea, we captured a conversation between Dr. Christina…
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Why do so many sports have a halftime — and why don’t we do that more in life? At halftime, teams pause, gather in their locker rooms, catch their breath, reflect on their efforts, listen to coaches, support one another, and refocus before heading back into the game. In life — and in school —…
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“I hate you, Mr. Doerksen.” When spoken by a student to a teacher, those words can go in a lot of different directions! Not all the possibilities are as bad as they seem. The student’s squinting eyes and sly grin looking past her classmates down the the table to where I sat suggested her meaning…
Read MoreFacebook is getting a lot of attention these days…for how they keep our attention. While the social and political implications of what platforms do and don’t do is very important, the story also draws attention to… attention. Attention is a finite resource—we can ‘spend’ it or ‘invest’ it—but we do not get more of it. (ADD and ADHD…
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