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Lola Nita was a full time Handwork teacher at AWS from 2011 until 2020. Aside from teaching Handwork, Lola was quite handy with the sewing machine and she gladly helped make costumes for class plays and Bahaginans during the early years of Acacia School. She was one of our first volunteer faculty who cheerfully taught basketry, machine sewing, weaving and cooking life skills workshops to our pioneer Upper School students during the first school years of AWS Upper School.
Lola Nita was a much revered Handwork mentor and trainor at Gamot Cogon Institute (GCI) in Iloilo alongside German Waldorf Steiner mentor Elizabeth Voss for several years. She was also a Handwork mentor facilitator at the Asian Teacher Trainings (ATT) held at AWS, alongside mentors Paul and Geya from the Netherlands every summer.
Our beloved Handwork Teacher Lola Nita’s teaching career started after she became a grandmother! Nenita V. Aranas, Handwork Nenita, or Lola Nita, as she is fondly called, was born in Moncada, Tarlac, where she spent her early childhood on a farm. When her parents separated, she and her Mom moved to Manila, where she was educated from her youth to adulthood. She studied Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Mapua Institute of Technology, where she met her late husband Ricardo, who was an architect and professor. They were blessed with two children, Laarni and Joel. Lola Nita was a full-time wife and mother and she would bring her granddaughter – Laarni’s daughter Aya to Manila Waldorf School (MWS) in Quezon City everyday.
Lola Nita was thus introduced and invited to teach at MWS, first as a Kindergarten Assistant for two years, then later on as a Handwork Teacher for several more years. She continued her new-found vocation as Handwork Teacher at AWS when her daughter Laarni became Main Teacher for pioneer students of Kalachuchi Class and then Mirasol Class during their Middle School years. Lola Nita was a devoted Handwork Teacher for more than eighteen years, and she just very recently left her post at AWS for a much-needed rest.