Nick Stocco

NICK STOCCO Administrative Team Portland, OREmail NickJoined MNW in 2014 and again in 202111 years primary classroom experience10 years as a school leaderAMI Primary Diploma, MTCM, 1998B.A. in Geography

NICK STOCCO
Administrative Team - Admissions
Portland, OR

Email Nick

  • Joined MNW in 2014 and again in 2021

  • 11 years primary classroom experience

  • 10 years as a school leader

  • AMI Primary Diploma, MTCM, 1998

  • B.A. in Geography

What I do at MNW
I facilitate admissions, help to manage other daily operations, and provide any necessary support to the trainers, faculty, and students.

What I like about MNW
I appreciate how MNW is always exploring, stretching, and evolving its practices and efficacy as an organization.

Commitment to ABAR Work
As humans, we must aim to express comfort and joy with human diversity; to increasingly recognize injustice; and to have the will and the skills to act against prejudice. Our goals as society cannot be achieved without recognizing and dismantling the systems of bias that continue to marginalize Black, Indigenous and People of Color. This means committing - individually and collectively, again and again - to reflect and grapple with the racism in ourselves, our organizations, and our society.

Words to live by
Relentless > Forward > Progress >

Favorite school subject
Cartography & Vexillology

A hobby
Crafting small wooden boxes and giving them to friends

Favorite food
French fries & Coca-Cola

Favorite destination
Wildwood Trail & Pike Place Market

HS_Stocco, Nick.png

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

At one point or another, and often at the same time, Nick has been a Montessori child, student, assistant, guide, administrator, trustee, parent, peddler, mentor, presenter, and advocate. He has a BA in Geography from the University of St. Thomas, an AMI Primary Diploma from the Montessori Center of Minnesota, and certificates in Whole School Management and Whole School Leadership from NAMTA and WSLI respectively.

Nick was born and raised in Minneapolis, where he enjoyed hanging out at the lakes in the summer and building quinzees in the winter. He discovered Montessori in his late twenties when a friend gave him a copy of The Secret of Childhood. Nick started his Montessori career shortly thereafter, eventually landing at Children’s Workshop Montessori, where he was a primary guide for 9 years and then Head of School for another 6 years.

In 2014, Nick moved to Portland to be closer to family. He began working at Montessori Northwest, where he served as Communications Director and participated in the creation and operation of Alder Montessori. After 3 years at MNW, Nick became Head of School at Montessori Children’s House. While at MCH, he converted the school to a nonprofit and navigated the it’s community through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the summer of 2021, Nick returned to MNW to rejoin the Admin Team.

In his free time, Nick enjoys running long distances in the woods, making sawdust, eating mashed potatoes as a main course, playing golf with his son, and precariously stacking dirty dishes right next to the sink, much to his wife’s chagrin.