Alex Stanton, founder of the Sunburst School of Music and father to one current and one future Falkie, graduated from Falk in the Class of 1999. Having worked at the school from 2008 through 2012, Stanton’s wife, Danielle Fox, is also a Falkie. 

Stanton says their oldest, now in first grade, is loving Falk. “So far, it's been non-stop excitement from him, which is kind of amazing, actually. The fact that [Falk] is still here and [our kids] get to have a similar experience as I did—kind of even better now—I think that’s really cool.” 

“There’s such a warmth when I think about Falk and when I think about being there,” Fox adds. “To have [our kids] be in an environment where I know a lot of the people who are there, and I trust them deeply—and it shaped how I am as an educator and my values—it just [feels] really warm.”  

Alex Stanton

Growing up at Falk

Although Alex Stanton's career as a musician and business owner didn’t take off until high school and beyond, he credits Falk for building a foundation for the creativity and artistic appreciation that are so essential to his work today. 

“What I really like about music is, you know, writing songs and producing albums or whatever where you’re just trying to put things together in a new way. That art project aspect of it is what really excites me and something that I think I did learn at an early age at Falk. And I think running a business has a lot more of that stuff than you might expect because every day there’s some new project—there’s infinite projects to go crazy on if you want to.” 

Stanton also says Falk encouraged students to be experimental and unafraid to try new things, especially when it came to hands-on projects. “I was really into art class at Falk. And my other favorite thing was that in fifth grade, they had a science project where we had to just invent something. I did a lot of making stuff in my basement at home, with motors and batteries or helping my dad in the woodshop. I went really crazy with that project and stuff like that.” 

Although the WonderLab, Falk’s woodworking and maker space, wasn’t around when Stanton was a student, he says the hands-on, maker philosophy was always a part of Falk. "When I saw [the WonderLab], I was like, ah wow, that makes perfect sense for this place.” 

Stanton also remembers Falk as a place where teachers were deeply invested in their students’ lives. Mr. Greg Wittig, for example, was “like the dad of the middle school in a way. Even if you weren’t in his homeroom, it felt like everybody had a personal relationship with him.” Stanton also recalls Ms. Joanne Ridge’s English class, Ms. Carmela Maccarelli and their shared sense of humor, and Dr. Pamela (Krakowski) Armstrong’s clay art projects. 

Sunburst School of Music

In 2011, a little over a decade after leaving Falk, Stanton was teaching guitar lessons in his students’ homes when he decided to rent out a dedicated studio space in Squirrel Hill. “If I had a little space to do [lessons] out of,” he said, “I could book more students, and they could come to me instead of me driving to their houses.” 

“I was really adamant that it be in Squirrel Hill,” he adds. “I grew up in Highland Park, but I was always weirdly jealous of the kids who got to live in Squirrel Hill,” where he says there is so much to see and do. 

Since its creation thirteen years ago, the Sunburst School of Music has undergone several expansions—far more than Stanton ever imagined when he settled into his one-room basement studio. 

“I got to a point about a year in where it was like, I have more students than I can teach myself, so I either start putting them on a waiting list or hire another teacher. I thought about it for a while and then did the second thing, and it grew from there.” 

“The [school] changed from one room to two rooms to three rooms to five rooms, and now it’s fifteen rooms.” Sunburst also employs 35 instructors, has a 60-seat performance area on-site, and reaches 700 students with lessons in guitar, bass, drums, piano, ukulele, voice, and music production. 

Danielle Fox

A happy coincidence

Danielle Fox’s relationship with Falk began in 2008 as a graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program.

With an undergraduate degree from Duquesne already under her belt and one semester of her master's program completed, Fox was attending an intern fair to explore student teaching options when she came across Joanne Ridge, Jackie Metcalf, Lindsay O’Sullivan, and others tabling for Falk. 

“I was just very drawn to them,” Fox shares. “They were just this really cool, down-to-earth group of women who were having fun and laughing and so cool to talk to, and they weren't anything like the sort of idea of elementary school teachers that I had in my head.” 

Fox says the women at the table asked, “What’s the most important thing to you?” Her answer—“I want to work with a diverse group of kids, but I really want to be somewhere that values the whole child”—immediately clicked, and “we really just hit it off.” 

Later that day, Fox met up with her then-boyfriend, Alex Stanton, and shared her top choice for student teaching. Stanton’s replies of “I went there” and “I had Joanne Ridge!” were a happy and hilarious coincidence for the couple. 

Shaped by Falk

Later that same year, Fox began as a student intern for Jackie Metcalf’s classroom. Afterward, she returned to Falk as the assistant director of the Extended Day program for the 2009–2010 school year, then worked as a long-term substitute, intermediate resource teacher, after-school tennis instructor, and middle school soccer coach from 2010 through 2012. 

“Falk was super impactful in helping me shape my teaching philosophy and my philosophy of education,” Fox says. “I was still just really young and new to teaching but enthusiastic and sort of [had] lots of energy to put in.” 

“I learned how to ask questions, even,” she adds, recalling a particular instance when her mentor, Jackie Metcalf, reshaped her words into a question that instantly clicked and had more impact with the students. “I was like, wow, she is a wizard,” Fox jokes. 

Fox also says it was clear from the start that her values really aligned with Falk’s and that she enjoyed learning about the importance of play, movement, and open-ended creativity from her students and peers. 

When asked who at Falk was influential to her, she replied, “Oh my gosh, who didn’t impact me?” before naming Jackie Metcalf, Lindsay O’Sullivan, and Laurie Williams as particularly influential colleagues. 

Today, Fox is a PhD candidate in cognitive psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and feels deeply passionate about all things educational research. She says former librarian Laurie Williams planted the seeds for this passion by introducing her to a breadth of interesting research during her time at Falk.

What makes Falk special

Because Fox began her teaching career at Falk, she didn’t fully realize what a unique place it was until she left.  Falk “really [took] the time to do things that don’t seem academic but that are important for kids at school,” she reflects. “There was just always some sort of fun community-building event,” along with intentional opportunities for students to collaborate and socialize across grade levels and classrooms. 

Fox's favorite of these events was a biannual trip to North Park with third through fifth grade. “We would play kickball, and we would hike through trails. It was just such a special day for everybody.” 

She also cites Falk’s emphasis on the humanities, the social-emotional, and the whole child as a uniquely appealing trait. “That’s the core of what Falk believes,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine it any other way.” 

A full circle story 

Stanton and Fox’s oldest son will be entering Jackie Metcalf’s class exactly twenty years after Fox interned for Metcalf in 2008. This year, he is in class with Megan O’Brien, a mutual friend of Fox’s from her teaching days. “It feels good to send [him] to her everyday,” she says.

Stanton and Fox say choosing Falk for their family “really felt like the right thing” and that they hope their kids will come away with the same creativity and curiosity they received during their respective years at Falk. 

“This institution shaped these people who I admire so much,” Fox says, “and I really hope my kids end up having the same experience.”