“Going to two other schools taught me how important Pathfinder is for our community. Pathfinder gives students like me a choice, and a chance for greatness. It caters to all types of students and makes it easy for all of us to learn. The amazing teachers are the best part of Pathfinder. They genuinely care about their students, and show it with their teaching methods and skills. They give us fun things to do and work in the knowledge without us even knowing it. Because classes are small, we get individual attention and challenges fit for each of us. 

It’s always nice when we go outside because we have an 22-acre campus with everything from a super-hot heat pit to a super-cold lake. We don’t have to walk silently in single file between classes. Sometimes we even get to have class outside in hammocks. When we cover a subject like slavery, we learn it in French, Language Arts/Social Studies, Math, and Science all at the same time. We are a small school, but we can do any extracurricular activity we want to do, from strings and track to Battle of the Books (we got 4th place last year and I was on the team). We have our own bus so we can go on lots of field trips, including beginning-of-the-year overnights at Leelanau Outdoor Center and end-of-the-year class trips to Lansing, Detroit, and Mackinac Island. Most of all, I like that Pathfinder has classes other schools don’t like Art, Music, Tech, Social and MIADs (classes of choice). I think Pathfinder will keep these classes forever because we are a first-class school for all people with all skills.”

“When you become a parent, your focus changes. You want to do everything in your power to keep your most prized possessions safe, to help them learn, to empower them to be whomever they will be…everything is seen through a different lens.

I looked at many schools, from public to parochial to private, and I asked a lot of questions. In the end, Pathfinder stood out as the school I thought my children would thrive in emotionally, socially, and academically. I remember the first day of school as I was dropping off my children…there was a lot of nervousness in our vehicle. Our children were greeted with warm smiles and friendly hellos. From that simple beginning of nervousness, our kids grew to look forward to school each day bringing home stories each night of building forts in the woods, of scientific experiments, of building underwater robots, of thought-provoking poems, and of artistic endeavors.

My daughter graduated from Pathfinder and just finished her first year of high school. It included significant changes, like her class size going from 11 to 300, but the change in class sizes was a non-issue for her. She did experience bumps in the road, but she was prepared to handle the bumps both socially and emotionally, and cannot wait for her sophomore year to begin. Academically she was also well prepared for the SciMaTech program and AP courses. She has a passion for learning that was ignited at Pathfinder, and she was given the skills to know how to learn, both lifetime gifts bestowed upon her by the expert and caring Pathfinder staff.

I continue to support The Pathfinder School as it allows students to learn, to fail, to succeed, to experiment, to invent, to be themselves, and most certainly, to ignite a love of learning.”