The Team
Finance Manager
melissa@wisdomhomeschooling.com
melissa.mceachern@gilbertineinstitute.com
accounting@gilbertineinstitute.com
Melissa was raised on fresh air, hard work, and unconditional love in rural north-eastern Alberta. She was "officially” homeschooled for the second half of her school years, but was introduced to learning at home well before gaining the title of homeschooler. The second-oldest of four sisters, Melissa learned the truth of the proverb, "Many hands make light work," and discovered that laughing with a sister over a shared chore made the time pass more quickly.
Data Manager
janelle@wisdomhomeschooling.com
janelle.mailhot@gilbertineinstitute.com
Janelle is married to Ed, and they have 3 children: 2 home school graduates and one in high school. They have been with WISDOM Home Schooling for 15 years for a total of 18 years home educating. Family time is very important to the Mailhot family, and they like to spend their time together outdoors, cooking, baking or playing cards and board games. You will often hear the guitar or piano being played in their home as they love to create music.
Socratic Dialogue Online Program Manager
nicole@wisdomhomeschooling.com
nicole.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
780-549-4008
Nicole Noster was home educated for 10 years (Gr. 3 – 12) and upon graduating, obtained her Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College, a classical liberal arts college in California. The College uses only primary sources, in particular the great books of Western civilization, to teach students to think logically and objectively across an array of subjects. Rather than lecture, professors guide students using Socratic dialogue, a process that Nicole realized as ideal for prompting students to grapple with questions and come to the answers as conclusions rather than memorized information. After graduation, Nicole worked in program development and management, putting her skills to good use with programs she believed in. Nicole and her husband, Simon, home school their 4 children and strive to always create a culture of learning in their home. In some of her random free time, she likes to garden, help on the family farm, perform choral music, and read lots of everything.
Events Director
marlane@wisdomhomeschooling.com
marlane.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
Marlane is a WISDOM founder and she takes the WISDOM ministry to heart. Home schooling has long been her way of life, and she draws from her personal life when assisting WISDOM families, organizing events, and writing her "Notes to Myself" column for the WISDOM Family Magazine.
High School Advisor
christian@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Christian Bekolay homeschooled with WISDOM through graduation. Spending his school years at home fostered a love for family life, and provided many opportunities to discover other little loves for things such as being with nature through hiking, foraging, and gardening, engaging in creative arts by sculpting, carving, and painting, musical pursuits in piano and guitar, a developing passion for cooking and baking, and finally, a very enthusiastic interest in the board game hobby, from collecting to designing games. Christian considers himself a dilettante and aesthete; there is so much beauty in the world that he finds it difficult to focus on any particular aspect, rather, he lives by the motto: "I choose all."
Home School Consultant
terry@wisdomhomeschooling.com
terry.yaceyko@gilbertineinstitute.com
Terry is happily married to Richard and spent 26 years home educating their four daughters: Natasha, Rachel, Mikayla and Julia. She loves the Charlotte Mason Philosophy, Unit Studies and really enjoyed eclectic learning with lots of hands on learning and books when home schooling the girls.
Home School Consultant
janice@wisdomhomeschooling.com
janice.laurence@gilbertineinstitute.com
As a home schooling mama of 10 for over 22 years, with seven graduated now, Janice has a wealth of perspective on what works (and what doesn't) in a very busy home schooling environment. She can happily answer your questions and be an empathetic ear, whether you're calling about elementary, high school, or keeping little ones engaged while home schooling older children. With a strong passion for home schooling as the primary means of rescuing our culture, coupled with past office experience, Janice is a perfect addition to the WISDOM team! She joins us part-time in mid-May, and we look forward to working with her.
Home School Consultant
peter@wisdomhomeschooling.com
peter.weidman@gilbertineinstitute.com
Peter grew up in Spruce Grove, Alberta, where he was schooled through the institutional model of K-12. He went on to the University of Alberta where he completed a Bachelor of Secondary Education, majoring in Physics with a minor in Mathematics. Upon completion of his first degree, he was called to the Seminary, where he attended the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, BC, which is conducted by the Benedictines of Westminster Abbey. Peter describes this as, “one of the most fulfilling and most valuable experiences of faith and community formation one could ever ask for.” Peter completed his Pre-Theology degree majoring in Philosophy and he says that he doesn’t know his minor as he had to take equal amounts of minor classes in Ecclesial Latin, Koine Greek, Catholic Religious History. While in Mission, his passion for hockey seemed to be contagious as he also managed to help get a new outdoor asphalt hockey rink built for intramural street hockey, of which he found himself the Commissioner and ran the league. He is proud to have taught Fr. Matthew, the seminary vice-rector, how to enjoy playing roller hockey.
Administrative Assistant
jennifer@wisdomhomeschooling.com
jennifer.laszlo@gilbertineinstitute.com
Home schooled for part of her own school years, Jennifer and her husband made the decision to homeschool their own 7 children. Their eldest graduated in 2021, and Jennifer still has lots of years ahead as a home school mom! With her past work as an office manager and bookkeeper for a large window covering company, she is an ideal addition to our team. She recently joined our office as a part time administrative assistant, moving seamlessly from data work to proctoring exams and answering your calls.
Administrative Assistant
haley@wisdomhomeschooling.com
haley.bruce@gilbertineinstitute.com
Haley was homeschooled from grade one to twelve with WISDOM. Being the fourth oldest of eleven children she never felt that she missed out on the full classroom experience; there were always fellow students around! She highly values her childhood and is grateful for the amount of time she got to spend with her family, allowing for the beautiful relationships that she shares with her siblings.
Administrative Assistant
amy@wisdomhomeschooling.com
amy.burkey@gilbertineinstitute.com
The oldest of her immediate family and the middle of a large extended family, homeschooling K-12 was a privileged space for Amy to grow in relationship and self-discovery. When her nose wasn't in a schoolbook (or any other book), she was out roaming the forests and fields, mothering her many farmcats, or creatively employing the costume box.
Family Funding Team Lead
taylor@wisdomhomeschooling.com
taylor.laurence@gilbertineinstitute.com
Taylor grew up in a large homeschooling family. As the second oldest of 10 kids, he enjoyed his homeschooling experience through WISDOM from early childhood through graduation.
Taylor has enjoyed working at WISDOM since September 2020, and he loves the office environment. He finds joy in serving the families of WISDOM and working with his fellow employees.
Development Director
saul@wisdomhomeschooling.com
saul.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com
Saul's experience in homeschooling goes back to his early childhood, going through K-12 with WISDOM Home Schooling and eventually starting work full time for the administration in 2014. He took a couple years off to pursue other ventures, gaining much knowledge and experience working in sales and development.
Development Assistant
joshua@wisdomhomeschooling.com
joshua.bruce@gilbertineinstitute.com
Joshua embarked on his homeschooling journey on August 3rd, 2022, coinciding with the joyous arrival of his daughter, Elodie, into the world. He has been loving the labour of love that is fatherhood and is honoured to help his daughter experience life. Joshua and his wife, Haley dream of settling their family into a piece of land where they can plant a garden and care for some animals, while steeping their children in faith, nature and good literature. The knowledge that many other parents are striving toward similar dreams is what drives Joshua in his work for The Gilbertine Institute.
Family Funding Associate & Systems Maintenance
dylan@wisdomhomeschooling.com
dylan.kwasnycia@gilbertineinstitute.com
Dylan, along with his wife Katelyn, love the homeschooling lifestyle. Katelyn was homeschooled with WISDOM for her entire education. The Kwasnycias are excited to homeschool their three young children, Henry, Emma, and George.
Dylan began his work as a WISDOM Family Funding Associate in October 2020. Since then, he has enjoyed working for families and with coworkers, and finds it very fulfilling to help WISDOM parents to achieve the same kind of aspirations that he has for his own family.
Finance Assistant, Accounts Receivable
jim@wisdomhomeschooling.com
jim.burgess@gilbertineinstitute.com
Jim Burgess is a home schooling father to 5 children. As a young adult, Jim had the chance to witness the benefits of home schooling in his brother's family. When he met and married a home schooled graduate, it was with the definite intent to home school their future children.
Data Assistant
abigail@wisdomhomeschooling.com
abigail.laurence@gilbertineinstitute.com
Abigail is a WISDOM graduate who originally started working part time in the office when she was 15 years old as a Student Employee.
Homeschooling k-12 allowed her and her siblings to explore each of their individual artistic, athletic, and academic passions as their family explored the province of Alberta, living in nearly every region before settling in Derwent in 2014.
IT Systems Administrator
levi@wisdomhomeschooling.com
levi.breederland@gilbertineinstitute.com
Levi was home schooled from kindergarten through grade seven near Vancouver BC. He grew up at commercial bell pepper farm where he quickly became the on-site IT guy, helping his dad with everything from printer troubleshooting to the climate-control computers. After high school, Levi went to school in England to study live sound engineering, then came back to BC to study web development.
Graphic Designer
desktop@wisdomhomeschooling.com
naomi.doyle@gilbertineinstitute.com
Naomi started working with WISDOM in 2005. Over the years of formally working for WISDOM her work evolved from odd jobs, stuffing magazines and cleaning the office to filing and print management. After a while her role developed into Editorial Assistant and Art Design Technician. She loves to make things beautiful to look at and attractive to read.
Mediated Learning Program Director
Dynamic Assessment
john@wisdomhomeschooling.comjohn.hoekstra@gilbertineinstitute.com
John has been with WISDOM for 15 years and is the Mediated Learning Program director, he also dons various hats for WISDOM events. He and his wife Liesbeth have eight children and one grandson and have been home schooling for 25 years. They live on an acreage in the rolling hills of Two Hills County.
Mediated Learning Advisor & Educational Therapist
lora@wisdomhomeschooling.com
lora.cardinal@gilbertineinstitute.com
Lora is a Certified Educational Therapist with an emphasis on cognitive modification therapy. She is the mother of three handsome adult sons who she taught to love learning through WISDOM Home Schooling. Lora participated in many WISDOM events with her children, including taking in the Mediated Learning workshops when her boys were young. This inspired her to choose educational therapy as a profession. It has always been Lora's dream to be a therapist, and to assist those who are in need. WISDOM Home Schooling was a part of her family for a long time, and she looks forward to serving other WISDOM families in this new role. Lora dreams of one day living in the mountains, and she loves hiking, kayaking, biking, long walks, music, playing piano, baking, and most of all her family.
The Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is a group of home schooling parents who helps advise WISDOM on ways to best serve the home schooling community. PAC members must be WISDOM parents who profess the Apostles’ Creed. They meet twice a year for an in-camera meeting of the PAC followed by an assembly with facilitators, office staff and administrators.
Members of the PAC:
- provide prayer and moral support to WISDOM and the governing school authority;
- are ambassadors for WISDOM by their lifestyle;
- are a resource for the families of WISDOM (this role is not administrative but supportive);
- welcome families new to WISDOM;
- make themselves available for contact by our WISDOM families (see the "Read More" section of each bio for contact information);
- advocate to WISDOM on behalf of WISDOM parents;
- assist facilitators with local WISDOM events;
- may gather or write articles for the WISDOM website or magazine;
- are politically informed, engaged and aware;
- update WISDOM families about current issues that impact home schooling (watch for inserts in the WISDOM magazine).
We feel especially blessed to have WISDOM as our homeschool administration! The support and encouragement we receive is priceless. We are still teaching four of our children at home, and next year one less. For many years we've had five students, and it seems the load is lifting somewhat, except now we're involved in our grandchildren's lives. We hope to play a supporting role as our adult kids have already begun to homeschool their children. What a beautiful legacy to pass on to the next generations!
We live on a farm near Fairview and we have 5 children, ages 14 and under: Joel, Rachel, Nicole, Monica and Luke.
We appreciate WISDOM’s position on traditional home schooling, their emphasis on character development and the social and academic activities that they make available to the WISDOM Families.
We have been homeschooling with Wisdom since the beginning of our journey, 17 years ago. I have only grown in my appreciation for Wisdom and the solid people connected to Wisdom, from the facilitators to the staff to the PAC. Wisdom’s dedication to and philosophy of traditional homeschooling have been a vital source of inspiration, support and information.We actually started out with our oldest two in a Christian school and after asking God “how can we build relationship with our kids now and for the future?” His answer came back, “time.” And I thought, “Where do I get that time? There isn’t much time for getting to their hearts!” And God gently whispered "home school" and we haven't looked back. We've stumbled, cried, laughed and sighed but not looked back. I was one of those moms who said, "I could never home school." I have learned since that I was right, I can't...on my own, but God has been more than sufficient to lead and empower and give His amazing grace on our journey. And let me trip when I stubbornly go my own way.
We first considered homeschooling our children when our oldest child was just a toddler. By the time kindergarten (and the yellow school bus) approached, we had surrendered to God’s leading by choosing to educate our children at home instead of in a school setting.
This journey that began with some trepidation soon evolved into a new lifestyle filled with fun, frustration, adventure…and a whole lot of fantastic books! Several bookshelves later, we find ourselves near the end of our homeschooling experience with our five children, with 25 years behind us and only 1 short year ahead.
We have been married for almost 25 years and the Lord has blessed us with our family. We live in St. Albert with our 4 children. They are a son (20) and 3 daughters 17, 14, and 11. We have been home schooling for about 12 years and all those years were with WISDOM. One reason we chose to home school was to become closer as a family. We enjoy camping, especially in B.C. We are active in our church and also our home school support group. We are thankful to have WISDOM along with us on this journey.
Diane and Joe met in high school and were married in 1981 in Calgary. Before their children were born, Diane taught English and French in senior and junior high school. Joe was formerly a Financial Analyst, then made a career change and became a high school Physics and Chemistry teacher. They were blessed to be offered a position with WISDOM in the fall of 1997, facilitating for 25 years before retiring and joining the Parent Support Council. Diane and Joe have also volunteered together in the marriage preparation ministry and have enjoyed years of scripture studies with their small church community. Living south of Calgary on a lovely acreage, Joe and Diane run a greenhouse in the spring.
The Harrison family is just a typical, quiet, reserved Alberta family.
Except they aren’t all that typical. Being blessed on a massive scale with 8 kids (3 girls and a handful of boys) is a bit atypical - maybe not among homeschoolers, but it is out of the ordinary. Also, they aren’t all that quiet - there are 10 of them after all. Okay, so they’re an atypical, loud, reserved Alberta family.