Welcome to the 2025-26 School Year! |
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| Freedom Friends,
Thank you for making Freedom so successful towards our vision of economic freedom for our high school graduates. In this newsletter you will learn about so many of our accomplishments, built upon the incredible talents of our students who have worked with us to learn the power of their genius and dreams.
Your support has been essential as we have built our high school support program under a mission of developing the next generations’ critical thinking skills to ensure a life of prosperity and American patriotism. The word is out, as we now boast over 140 high school students over our two high school programs, pursuing this American Dream with us. Add that to the twenty-two graduates out there, proving it to be a reality as they have 100% achieved their post-graduation goals, and smile about the future of our great country. You will learn about some of those graduates in the following sections, as well as exciting news about our second high school program, The Freedom Institute AI High, which is growing daily.
We cannot thank you enough for your support, past, present, and future, as we work together to ensure a productive, joyous future for our Eagles and our great country. Chris Marker - CEO / Chief Learning Officer |
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We are grateful for all of our families, friends, donors, partners and amazing staff for 2 years of support. Read our 2024-25 Annual Giving Report below. |
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Freedom's New AI Certificate Programs were featured in the August Issue of the Neapolitan Family Magazine! |
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We are grateful to the DEKKO FOUNDATION for their grant to support our innovative AI Educational Programs. |
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Freedom Institute staff were excited to attend Neapolitan Family Magazine’s annual Back to School Expo on August 9, 2025! What a fantastic way to connect with families and kick off the 2025–26 school year with energy, enthusiasm, and community spirit. |
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We were thrilled to be featured on the BizMinds Interview Podcast, where Mr. Marker, Dr. Poteet and Mrs. Vaill shared the inspiring story behind the Freedom Institute and our mission to transform education through 100% personalization and economic freedom for students and families. They also revealed exciting updates about our cutting-edge AI programs, including the pilot year of Freedom AI High. It was an energizing conversation about innovation, purpose, and the future of learning!
A big thank you to the amazing Naples2Night crew for this fantastic experience! Read the Naples2Night article here. |
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September is Education Month at the Rotary Club of Naples. The Freedom Institute was invited to be their first featured speaker to share about personalized education as an option for families seeking economic freedom, personalized learning, greater value and targeted focus on their students' college and career success. A big thank you to the Rotary Club of Naples for inviting us! | |
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New Principal and Success Coaches! |
Mrs. Vaill has been named Freedom's Principal for the 2025-26 school year! Congratulations, Mrs. Vaill! You will rock! Ms. Garafola is our new Senior Success Coach (and Civics Lead) and will be joined by three amazing new Success Coaches: Ms. Chardon (ELA Lead), Mr. Kukushkin (Math Lead) and Mrs. Chieco (Science Lead). We are excited for another fantastic (our third) year at Freedom!
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Launching Freedom AI High & AI Certifications! |
Dr. Poteet has taken on a new role at Freedom - he is now our Executive Director of Programs and AI. Yes, you read that right! Freedom has been awarded a $1M AI grant (thanks to the Dekko Foundation!) to develop AI certifications for all of our Freedom students + pilot a new Freedom AI High Program - the first of its kind in Florida and in the Country! With 10 students already enrolled in Freedom AI High, we are soaring in our expansion. Stayed tuned for more!
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From 18 to 130+ students in just 2 Years! |
We are growing fast and are very grateful to all of our students, families and supporters. We started out with the mission to personalize education and help our families achieve economic freedom! We have exceeded our own hopes and reached capacity at our building a year ahead of our plans. We are now working to expand so we can serve and impact even more students in the future! Help us grow by sharing a constructive review on Google. |
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Spreading His Wings in the Movie Industry |
"My career choice - the film industry - is a common career to pursue headlong after high school. Additionally many find it hard to maintain an unwavering confidence in themselves and their career choice when there is a very low success rate. Due to this low success rate, it is easy for others to have no faith in your ability. Luckily, the Freedom Institute saw my potential in the film industry and did everything they could to provide the support and encouragement I needed to tackle my ambitions. One year later, I am now a working actor traveling around the state doing what I love. I have booked the role of Caleb Miller in my first professional role, a TV series filming in Sugarcreek Ohio. Thanks to the guidance and coaching of the Freedom Institute, I am not only pursuing what I love, but I’m making money doing it. I’m forever indebted to the Freedom Institute staff for all of their support and unwavering confidence in me."- Christophe Farrell '24
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Meet Ms. Garafola -
Senior Success Coach |
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We are proud to spotlight Michelle Garafola, Senior Success Coach at the Freedom Institute and one of its founding members. With a deep-rooted commitment to education and community, Michelle brings a wealth of experience as a former administrator and a dedicated leader in civics here at the Freedom Institute. A proud Collier County native, she attended local schools and went on to earn both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Florida Gulf Coast University. In her spare time, she supports her two children, Ethan 14 and Emma 10 in their academics and extracurricular involvement. Michelle’s lifelong connection to Collier and her passion for empowering students make her an invaluable part of the Freedom Institute team.
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Upcoming Events at Freedom |
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| We have a busy Fall 2025 scheduled for our Freedom Eagles. |
♥ 9.4 - FSW Dual Enrollment Information Night: Dr. Tammy Caraker (Open to the public. Click here for more info. Please RSVP here.)
♥ 9.9 - Career Speaker Series: Dr. Chris Lee on Neuroscience ♥ 9.11 - "9/11 Never Forget" Memorial
♥ 10.6 - American Dreamer Series ♥ 11.20 - Freedom Friendsgiving |
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2706 Horseshoe Dr S, Naples, FL 34104, USA |
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