STARS Learning Cooperative

Karyn Kurland

Karyn has been a director at STARS for 12 years. Her vision when creating STARS was to provide a positive, collaborative educational experience for all students and their families. She welcomes Christine Van Alstine as a new Co-Director to help her continue to realize this vision.

Karyn received her Bachelors Degree in Education from the University of Vermont, and her Masters Degree in Special Education from Saint Michael’s College.

Throughout her career as an educator, Karyn has worked with students from preschool through college in a variety of school settings, including specialized schools for students with specific learning disabilities, public schools, virtual schools and private schools. Karyn has worked as a special education teacher, a learning specialist, an early intervention specialist, a tutor and an executive function skills coach.

Karyn believes the team approach is essential for student success, and emphasizes the importance of ongoing, regular communication between students, parents, teachers and tutors/coaches. She also believes it is critical to empower students by involving them in collaborative goal setting, and supporting them in identifying the tools and strategies that work best for them as they monitor their own progress.

Karyn has three grown children and two grandchildren. She lives in Poland ME with her husband, Barry.

Christine Van Alstine

STARS welcomes Christine as new co-director. Christine received her Bachelors Degree at University of Maine Farmington in Early Childhood Education, and her Masters at Tufts University in child Development, specializing in developmental psychology and counseling. She spent six years teaching elementary school, multiple years homeschooling her own two children, three years as a primary school librarian in Yarmouth, five years working as a Learning Strategist and Study Skills teacher at a ski academy in VT, two years as Director of 7th Grade winter program at Green Mountain Valley School.

Christine is also the Academic Support Consultant and Study Skills teacher at North Yarmouth Academy. She believes in providing a variety of resources to encourage students to try new strategies and develop skills that match their individual learning styles.

One of her favorite inspirational quotes is from Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." She aspires to help her students feel good about themselves, feel successful and feel capable of advocating for themselves and their unique learning styles.