There is something extraordinarily special happening in South Florida these days. It has become a hub of education entrepreneurship and emerging K-12 learning models, creating increasingly more abundant and diverse education options for families.

I recently had the opportunity to spend several days in the Fort Lauderdale area gathering with these incredible microschool founders. Shiren Rattigan is one of them. She runs Colossal Academy, a beautiful and inviting microschool for middle schoolers. Shiren also does an incredible job of connecting local founders and other education entrepreneurs with each other and with the greater community, sharing resources, hosting gatherings, offering support and encouragement, and really helping to accelerate this entrepreneurial cluster of innovative learning models and schooling alternatives.

Colossal Academy is a VELA Education Fund grant recipient, as are many of the other microschools in the South Florida area. VELA is a non-profit, philanthropic organization that offers grants to education entrepreneurs who are creating non-traditional learning options and other schooling alternatives, including microschools, homeschool collaboratives, learning pods, etc.