Mission Statement
Our mission is to serve homeschooling families through a Christ-centered hybrid model of education. Our goals are to offer support for home education, to provide a Charlotte mason-inspired classroom experience, to promote God-honoring friendships, and to nurture a genuine love for learning in our students.
Our Approach
We are a Christian hybrid program inspired by the methods of Charlotte Mason and classical education. Our focus is to come along side homeschooling families and partner with them by providing two days of tutor-led, on-site learning and optional lesson plans for your days at home. Our program meets at our security-staffed facility in Saylorsburg on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9am-3pm. On-site days consist of shorter, age-appropriate class times with a push for educating the whole child through rich literature, character building, and multiple opportunities for outdoor play and learning. We offer multiple subject areas including Bible, math, language arts/phonics, history, science/nature study, artist/composer study, art and more during our days here on site. We would love to team up with you and support you on your homeschooling journey.
Meet Our Staff
Jillian Ripley
Co-Founder - CEO
Jillian was born and raised in the East Stroudsburg area of Pennsylvania. She is a wife and mother of three and has five years of homeschooling experience. Jillian has her bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education and seven years of teaching experience at a private school. Opening and running a school has always been a dream of hers. She has a passion for home education and she wants to share it with you.
Lindsay Medina
Co-Founder - COO
Lindsay was born and raised near the shores of South Jersey. She is a wife and mother of six with a passion for honoring God, loving children, and serving families. She has been homeschooling for nine years after spending five years working with children as a pediatric nurse. She is excited at the opportunity to offer support and encouragement to the homeschooling community here.
Jen Smoke
Director
Bio Coming Soon.
Debra Stettler
Administrative Assistant
Debra was born and raised in New Jersey and later moved to Pennsylvania. She is a wife of 39 years and counting! She has raised four children and is blessed with seven grandchildren. She loves the Lord and enjoys sharing that love with all of our students and families.
Amanda Carlson
Kindergarten Instructor
Amanda was born and raised in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. She is a wife of seven years and a mother to one son. She has been homeschooling for three years and has experience tutoring students of all ages. She loves music, nature, and literature. She is passionate about early childhood literacy and teaching children about Jesus.
Kimberly Pak
1st Grade Instructor
Bio Coming Soon.
Jessica Miedreich
2nd Grade Instructor
Bio Coming Soon.
Amanda Cook
3rd - 4th Grade Instructor
Amanda was raised in Virginia and has resided in Pennsylvania for the last 15 years. She is a graduate of Appalachian Bible College and holds a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. Besides her experience teaching in various private schools, she also homeschools her own children. She is a licensed foster parent and loves helping with children. She looks forward coming alongside her students and guiding them toward a love of learning.
Erin Hummel
5th - 6th Grade Instructor
Erin is rooted in an imperfect, life-long relationship with Jesus Christ. She is a devoted wife of 14 years and a feisty, adventurous mama of four (and counting!). Born and raised in Bucks County, PA, she attended non-denominational, Bible-teaching churches and Christian schools.
She attended Bucks County Community College and Dixon School of Nursing for a Diploma of Nursing and received her BSN through LaSalle University and Phoenix University Online. Erin worked as a BSN, RN for 17 years while raising her family and serving through church ministry.
Most recently, Erin resigned from her career and moved to Albrightsville, PA where she is now home full-time with her family. Her background in nursing, with an emphasis on care-plans and returned-demonstration patient education, along with her late mother's love of life-long learning and encouragement of home education has spurred her on to dive into homeschooling the past three years (and counting!).
Erin tries to foster an awareness of the need of God’s grace, His gift of a Redeeming Savior through Jesus, the leadership of Jesus's life and teaching form God's word on a daily basis. Erin loves photography, all things holistic health, soaking-in nature, and finds joy in exploring new places through daily adventures.
Carolyn Viola
7th - 8th Grade Instructor
Bio Coming Soon.
Lindsay Harkins
Nature Study Instructor
Lindsay has been married to her husband, Jeremy, for 13 years. They moved to Saylorsburg from Easton 2 years ago with the dream of starting a homestead with the help of their 3 kids- Luke (11), Livy (7), and Aspen (5). Jeremy serves as worship pastor at Ebenezer Bible Fellowship Church in Bethlehem while Lindsay delights in her days spent at home schooling the kids and tending to the home. This will be her 6th year homeschooling. Most days you will find Lindsay working in the ever expanding garden, chasing their chickens around the yard, experimenting in the kitchen with homemade kefir, broths, butter, etc. (while daydreaming about owning their own milk cow!), working on one of the many home projects needed with their little fixer upper (if you notice paint in her hair, she knows…she knows ), and playing in the woods with the kids. Lindsay and her family love the outdoors. They love being “wowed” by God’s creativity, beauty, and mystery in nature. She can’t wait to introduce her Father’s world to the younger students at GAA!
Karin Falcone
Art Appreciation/Teaching Assistant
Bio Coming Soon.
Next Step...
Still have questions? Need more info? Contact us now!