Our team
We are a diverse group of teaching professionals with different educational backgrounds. During your stay, these are the people you will meet the most.
Jens Horstmann, works with the Minority Changemaker Programme and other højskole-projects
Jens is a Master of Laws (LL.M) and has taught extensively at both Danish højskoler as well as universities in Denmark and the USA. He has worked for more than a decade as a full-time teacher at a højskole, has briefly been headmaster at another one and has been part of the Minority Changemakers Programme since 2019.
He primarily teaches classes where he can confuse and bewilder the students and enjoys more than anything when his students continue the debate after class. If there is a chance to make conversations about food relevant in the classroom, he will jump at it. As it turns out there almost always is.
Maya Bram Sommer, project manager, Grænseforeningen
Maria is employed in Graenseforeningen as an organization consultant. She has worked with cross-cultural meetings for years and is very engaged in bringing people from different cultures together to build bridges.
For the MCP she coordinates the joint efforts of The Border Association, Jaruplund Højskole, and the University of Southern Denmark as well as manages the economy and different foundations.
Jonas Voss, MCP coordinator and teacher at Jaruplund Højskole
Jonas grew up in the Danish minority and is an educated teacher in the subjects physical education, biology and English. In the past Jonas taught both in the Danish and German minority, which makes him a native in all kind of minority topics. In addition, Jonas has been involved in different voluntary projects, one of which is the Roskilde Festival.
In his spare time Jonas loves to be engaged in almost kinds of sport or physical activity. Furthermore, you can talk with him about insects, animals, and ecosystems for hours.
Ditte Kröner, teacher at Jaruplund Højskole
Ditte has studied both archaeology and history at Aarhus University, her interest for history - how and why people do as they do forms her teaching. Before coming to Jaruplund Højskole she has worked in many different museums in Denmark studying cultural similarities and differences finding that most of the time the differences between people are rather small. In said museums she has also been teaching children and young people in the art of interpreting our predecessors.
Ditte also has a love for sewing her own clothes, dancing and for outdoor life, which are projects she would love to incorporate into the programme.
Karsten Dressø, principal at Jaruplund Højskole
Karsten is a positive structured changemaker who has a background in Lego and the military which he has used to think in thriving development and teams. After some years working for Lego and at different Folk High School he took over the position as principal of Jaruplund Højskole in 2014.
Rigmor Eybye, teacher at Jaruplund Højskole
Rigmor has worked at Jaruplund Højskole since 1998, and knows the school in and out. She has a master’s degree in music and Italian at Aarhus University. She is a very skilled piano player and has a huge passion for opera, whether it is Mozart’s Don Giovanni or contemporary music pieces.
She loves traveling, has been on a roadtrip all the way around Australias coastline, and is about to go to India for two months.
Ole Præstkær Jørgensen, teacher at Jaruplund Højskole
Ole is educated at The Aarhus Academy of Fine Arts. Having worked at Jaruplund Højskole since 2003 and previously at other folk schools in Denmark, he has a solid amount of experience in teaching as well as a solid expertise in fine arts artisanship. He is ambitious and passionate about his work, and can tell you all about drawing techniques, painting, sculpting and art history.
Furthermore, one of his major interests is motorcycles, namely Harley Davidson motorcycles. So if you’re interested in art or brake horsepower he’s your go to go person on the school.