Compass Prep

tudent as an individual with their own needs, dreams, and goals. We believe in education that is practical and prepares students for the real world. In addition to foundational academic studies in math, science, ELA, and history, our students enjoy lots of time outdoors playing in creeks, hiking, exploring the woods, learning basic wilderness survival skills, and going camping in the fall. We have had cooking classes, money management, computer coding and robotics, first aid/CPR certification, fi****ms safety, woodworking, gardening, basic auto maintenance, STEM experiences, archery and much more. We explore the fine arts through classes in music, visual arts and drama and in those stretching spaces, we find parts of ourselves which may have otherwise gone undiscovered. We've had great successes in theatrical productions and in our annual Arts Extravaganza where brave students face their fears and step onto a stage or display their artwork to unselfishly share a talent which may have never been seen before. The arts have a way of turning a crysallis into a butterfly and we've gotten to witness that over the last 16 years. Every Wednesday afternoon, our OffRoad Program takes students out of the classroom and into the community to explore and serve. We get to know important people doing interesting things. Business owners, police officers, veterinarians, farmers, beekeepers, engineers, screen printers, criminal investigators, athletes, mayors, State Representatives, people running for office, judges in the courtroom, chiropractors, you name them, we've met them. We've flown in single-engine aircraft with the Young Eagles Program, explored a dry lake bed, tested water in creeks, visited the water treatment plant, seen how prosthetic limbs, stained glass windows, custom cabinets, signs, bathtubs are made. We've visited college campuses, radio stations, tv stations, technical schools, hair salons, bakeries, fire stations, every museum in Atlanta, the MLK, Jr. Center, Zoo Atlanta, Callaway Gardens, Ruby Falls, Tellus Museum. We’ve served. With MUST Ministries sorting canned goods and packing bags for Thanksgiving meals, The Hope Center cleaning, painting, organizing baby items for scared young women experienced an unexpected and terrifying pregnancy, Never Alone Ministries setting up their food pantry for locals who are un- or under-employed, Cherokee County Animal Shelter donating food and supplies and sometimes just taking a couple of love-starved dogs out to play, Camp Gideon helping clean their facilities and pick up sticks and w**d a hillside in preparations for inner-city kids to come experience camp for the first time, local assisted living centers where we’ve taken home-baked treats and performed some songs awkwardly but with great love and then stayed to hear the stories of people much wiser and more experienced than ourselves, we’ve scleaned up litter in parks, planted flowers, built growing boxes for vegetables, collected items to send to our neighbors in Venuzuela, Ecuador, Haiti and helped with hurricane relief, sorting clothes to donate to those who had lost EVERYTHING. We've traveled. Overnight trips and long weekends to visit St. Simon's Island to study marine biology, to Savannah to glean the rich history of Georgia, to NEW YORK CITY, for, well, the biggest adventure of our lives. We've spent a weekend exploring Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky and the NASA Space Center in Huntsville. We have enjoyed camping together in North Georgia almost every year since Compass Prep started in 2005, and in the rain and cold and mud and sun, we have become family. Compass Prep is like no other place I've ever known where strangers come together and turn into life-long friends. Not to be dramatic, but there's something supernatural about what has happened here. It's more than a place to check academic boxes, to fill out a transcript, to jump through educational hoops, to prepare for college and life. We are a community. And it gets pretty messy. Feelings are hurt, people get offended, problems need solving and we work hard to do that. We are all so different. Some are believers and followers of Jesus, some are not. All of us are broken. But there is a permeating love that transforms us when we ask God to join us in this journey. We become spectators as He shows up and shows off. When we invite Him into the journey, He always comes. I can't wait to see what He has planned next!