LEESBURG – Ryan Sleboda is a college graduate with a degree in anthrozoology, a 4.0 GPA, and the distinction of being one of five valedictorians for Beacon College’s Class of 2024.

He’s sailing off to a future where he expects to own a business – a doggy daycare – and live on his own.

“That’s my motivation,” he said.

These are significant milestones for Ryan, who is on the autism spectrum.

Socially shy for most of his life, Ryan, 23, has cleared hurdle after hurdle thanks in part to the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, managed by Step Up For Students. It enabled him to attend a private school that set him on his journey of success.

He graduated from Pace Brantley Preparatory School in 2020 as valedictorian and senior class president.

“One door opened to another door every time,” his mother, Susan said, “and it all started with that initial door, getting that scholarship.”

***

There was a time when the idea of Ryan attending college and living on campus was a concept his mother didn’t even dare to dream.

“We set our expectations low, honestly,” Susan said. “For a time, we thought Ryan would always live with us. But he’s come so far, and this college has been amazing for him.

“Now, we're seeing a student who's graduated, who is not just further ahead than we had hoped but has blown away our expectations. He wants to own his own business. He wants to be an entrepreneur. What's better than that? He has truly exceeded our expectations.”

Beacon College is a four-year college in Leesburg. It was founded in 1989 for students with learning differences such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and dyslexia.

Its small student body (455 undergraduates) allows for a teacher-student ratio of no more than 1 to 15 and creates a more nurturing learning environment. Its dorm rooms allow students to build the self-confidence that comes with living away from home while attending college.

“There are a number of things we want for our students, and one of them is to be independent, so when they leave, they can be self-sufficient,” said Beacon College Provost Dr. Shelly Chandler. “Of course, we want them to be educated. We want them to be lifelong learners. But the main thing is we want them to find meaningful work and live a fulfilling life.”

***

Two members of Beacon College campus security paused their conversation to greet Ryan as he walked past them on a sunny midweek morning. A trio of coeds did the same as they passed by.

From across the street, a classmate shouted, “Hey, Ryan!”

“If he were an athlete, he’d be an MVP,” said Bryan Cushing, a Beacon College professor who has taught Ryan since his freshman year.

Ryan returned each greeting with a cheery “Hello.”

“Attending Beacon College has made me an extrovert,” Ryan said.

“That's very true,” Susan said. “He used to be quiet. And I don't want to say afraid, but shy and timid. It was hard for him to make friends. He was afraid of making mistakes. Beacon College has truly turned him into a leader.”

Ryan excelled at Pace Brantley, but that was a familiar, comfortable setting. College would be different. There would be new teachers and classmates. Ryan would have a roommate.

Like his older brothers, Matthew (Florida Atlantic University) and Jason (Florida State University), Ryan wanted to go away to college. He wanted that independence. He researched the universities in Florida but couldn’t find one that would fit his needs.

“They just don't have those best services provided for those with special needs,” Ryan said. “With me, I can't handle being in a big crowd as much because that's where my anxiety rises so much that I can't focus. And that's where my autism starts to overstimulate really crazy, even when it's in a school setting.”

Ryan learned of Beacon College when school president Dr. George J. Hagerty visited Pace Brantley during Ryan’s junior year. The school, located an hour from Sleboda’s home in Sanford, offers anthrozoology as one of its majors, and that appealed to Ryan’s love of animals.

The school also offered a three-week program called Summer for Success, where high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors live on campus and receive the full college experience.

Susan and her husband, Bill, didn’t know what to expect when they dropped Ryan off in Leesburg that summer. They were surprised at what they found when they returned three weeks later.

“Honestly,” Susan said, “I couldn’t believe he was the same person. He entered that Summer of Success program as a young boy, and when we picked him up, he was a young man.”

Ryan walked and talked with a self-confidence they had never seen in him. He was ready to go away to college.

“That's what a lot of families experience,” Chandler said. “And when they come in the first semester, boy, do we see growth. By the time they graduate, they're different people. They really are.”

***

Ryan’s four years at Beacon College weren’t all seashells and balloons. He learned roommates can be challenging. Keeping track of his class schedule and coursework took some getting used to. As did living away from home.

“I have to admit,” he said, “I was homesick at first.”

But he slowly escaped the cocoon he’d built around himself and began meeting daily challenges.

“He took a lot of risks on his own socially and academically to build that confidence,” Cushing said.

Ryan became a leader in the college’s orientation program and gravitated toward new students, eager to show them around and answer their questions.

As a junior, he traveled to Costa Rica to study the local ecology. He interned at a doggy daycare near his home before his senior year. That’s where he developed the idea of owning his own business.

Through all of it, the straight-A student in high school continued to earn top grades.

Cushing said watching Ryan develop during these past four years is why he teaches at Beacon College.

“So many other people would see our students and just dismiss them off the bat, and that's not fair because they all have an equal right to education, and they deserve to get this education and the experiences that come with going to college, the social stuff, the personal growth,” he said. “And if we can provide that, and they take advantage of it, it's really a beautiful thing.”

 

TAMPA – Be a doctor, some say.

Be a lawyer, others suggest.

You’re so smart, you should do something big, they tell her.

Mikaela Powell politely listens to those who see her top-of-the-class grades and encourage her to pursue a lofty education and a lucrative career.

What they don’t know is the high school senior from Odessa wants to follow in the footsteps of her parents and pursue a career in education.

“I want to be a teacher,” Mikaela said. “Probably the second grade.”

Mikaela is only months away from graduating from Tampa Bay Christian Academy (TBCA), a K-12 private school in Tampa that she attends with the help of a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. The scholarship is made possible by corporate donations to Step Up For Students.

“The scholarship being available to Mikaela has just been a blessing,” Mikaela’s mom, Joyann Powell said.

Joyann and her husband, Mike, are both in education. Joyann has been a teacher in district schools for the last 18 years. She and Mike both wanted a private school, faith-based education for their children (their son Justin graduated TCBA in 2022). They wanted a safe environment and a small setting.

They found that at TCBA, where Mikaela has excelled since entering the fifth grade.

“She’s a solid, solid student,” Head of School Matt Peavyhouse said.

Mikaela is on the short list of candidates to be valedictorian and has been accepted to the University of South Florida, Trinity College of Florida, Florida Southern College, and the University of North Florida. She is waiting to hear if she has been accepted to the University of Florida and plans to apply to the University of Central Florida.

Mikaela will major in education because she places teaching on par with the medical and legal professions. She wants to be that teacher who has a lasting impact on a student’s life. The one who often hears from former students.

She wants to be like her first-grade teacher, Miss Toussaint.

“The way she made people feel was wonderful,” Mikaela said.

“She put Mikaela on that path to do well in school,” Joyann said.

With their careers in education, Joyann and Mike instilled the value of education in their children.

Mikaela’s thirst for learning increased when she enrolled in TBCA in the fifth grade. There, she formed a small circle of close friends that includes Kendall and Gaby. Mikaela, Kendall, and Gaby are the finalists for valedictorian, their grades separated by mere decimal points. They rush to compare test scores to see who’s in the lead.

“They lift each other up, so that’s cool,” Joyann said. “I have no problem with that.”

There are others in the circle – Yara, Bitia, Mark, and Jon. They’ve formed a bond that Mikaela expects to last a lifetime. When asked about the impact TBCA has made on her life, Mikaela is quick to mention her friends.

“And then the school in general,” she added. “I like the size for me because the teachers all know you and care for you. And then it's easier to learn since the teachers all can adapt to your style, and you can adapt to their style.”

Mikaela has been in every class play since she began attending the school, playing such roles as a lost boy in “Peter Pan,” a librarian in “Matilda,” and an apple tree in “The Wizard of Oz.”

An above-average volleyball player who excels on her club team, Mikaela joined TCBA’s winless girls basketball team last year at midseason because, as she told her mom, they really needed the help. She helped lead the Rams to their lone victory, which came in the last game – a one-point win over a team that routed them earlier in the season.

Mikaela tutors younger students. She sings in her church choir. She is comfortable working with the younger children at her church. Joyann and Mike have been long-time foster parents, so Mikaela has been around young children for years. That experience, she said, gives her confidence that she will thrive as a teacher.

“She’s thoroughly driven to reach her goals,” Peavyhouse said. “She’ll be great at it.

“She’ll be the teacher who will be in their life because she’ll be their volleyball coach in middle school, their basketball coach in high school. She’ll be involved in the school play, choir, whatever they’re doing. She’ll be with them outside the classroom in other activities.

“I told her we’ll have a position for her here when she’s ready.”

Mikaela thinks the best teacher she can be is one who has rules but is not considered strict, one who helps create a foundation for learning, and one whom the students are happy to be around both in and out of the classroom. An avid baker and talented artist, she plans to incorporate both into her teaching.

“Maybe it’s a pipedream,” she said.

Or maybe it’s a wonderful career.

When it comes to education, a rising tide lifts all boats, Florida’s education commissioner told a national audience of school choice supporters and education entrepreneurs. 

Look at Miami-Dade County, where leaders saw the tsunami coming and grabbed their surfboards.  

“The district figured out that movement in South Florida was coming so fast and becoming so popular that the only way they could survive was to improve their services, (and) to improve their offerings,” Manny Diaz Jr. told those attending a conference sponsored by Harvard University called “Emerging School Models: Moving from Alternative to Mainstream.” 

Despite the dire warnings that opponents have repeatedly issued since Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida lawmakers first began stirring up that school choice wave in 1999, none of the predicted devastation has come true, Diaz said. 

Now, 70% of students in Miami-Dade attend a school of choice in the nation’s third-largest public school district. Those include charters, magnets, public schools with open enrollment policies and specialty academies, as well as the nation’s largest education choice scholarship programs. 

Such a win-win situation didn’t stop the teachers unions and other school choice opponents from sounding the same alarms when he sponsored education choice legislation as a state senator.  

“When we passed House Bill 1, they said the sky was going to fall,” Diaz said. “They were completely wrong.” 

Over more than two decades, the legislation has created new options, including multiple scholarships with different funding sources that serve students with a variety of needs. 

HB 1 was the latest advance. Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, it granted scholarship eligibility to all families regardless of income and converted all traditional private school scholarship programs to education savings accounts. The change allows parents the flexibility to spend their student’s allocation on tuition and fees, curriculum, part-time tutoring, and other approved expenses. 

Diaz said the key to Florida’s success is its continuous quest for improvement, which at times has involved the passage of new expansions each year.  

 “It is a relentless chase of continuing to push,” he said. “The best defense is to be continually on offense.” 

Editor’s note: This article appeared Sunday in The Villages Daily Sun.

First Academy Leesburg is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Leesburg, but that doesn't mean every student who goes there attends that church, let alone is Baptist.

"I would say 20% of our students attend FBC Leesburg," said Greg Frescoln, administrator for First Academy Leesburg. "Another 60% attend around 80 different Protestant churches. We have students who are Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim. We even have students who consider themselves atheist."

But regardless of faith system or beliefs, Frescoln said, the students and their parents have one thing in common — a desire for a quality education.

"Parents know that their children are going to be cared for, and the kids know that they will succeed and be loved," Frescoln said. "A lot of our students and parents found out about us through word of mouth, they hear from the community."

First Academy is one of several religious private schools that dot the tri-county area. The schools offer an alternative to traditional public schooling, with an emphasis on faith-based programs and curriculums.

"We started in 1988 with 29 students from kindergarten through second grade," Frescoln said. "We now have 460 students from grades K-12. We will be graduating our 500th student next year."

"Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." — Proverbs 22:6

According to the Florida Department of Education, 1,681 religious private schools are listed in the state's Directory of Private Schools, which can be found at fldoe.org. Private schools are required by statute to complete an annual online survey to be included in the directory. However, it is possible that some schools have been omitted by the state.

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