Hi! We’re Charissa, Charles, Katherine, and Tim, the founders of Threefold Schoolhouse. Here’s our story.
Charissa Mitchell is our CEO and Head of School. She’s a French-speaking, ex-investment consultant who grew up in Lancaster County. She and her Philly-born husband, Charles, a serial nonprofit entrepreneur, moved to Central Pennsylvania in 2010 and have four children (all girls!).
Katherine and Tim Clymer are also parents of four—but they figured out how to have boys and twins. They own and run Threefold Farm, an organic orchard and plant nursery in Mechanicsburg. Katherine is our resident Texan and serves on our Board of Directors. Tim is a software developer turned orchardist and a native of Perry County.
Now that you know how many children we have among us, you won’t be surprised to know that our families have experience with pretty much every kind of education—public school, private school, homeschooling, skipping school, school taxes, and more. We certainly never intended to start a school. But as we have struggled to find the right way to educate our children, we stumbled across Acton Academy, a school launched by Laura and Jeff Sandefer in Austin, Texas, and read Laura’s book, Courage to Grow.
Laura and Jeff’s words spoke to our dreams for our families in a profound and unique way that resonated deeply with our Christian worldview. And we’re not the only ones: Their school in Austin has spawned over 200 other affiliates across the globe—including five elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
It’s unique. It’s exciting. And it has achieved for many other children the three big things we want for our own kids. We want them to grow in wonder. We want them to grow in community. And we want them to grow to serve the world around them. When we saw that, we knew we had to start an Acton Academy affiliate in our community, and we embarked on that journey in February of 2019.
Mariana Cervantes is Threefold Schoolhouse’s Spark Studio Guide. She has a deep passion for serving others and is wholeheartedly pursuing her calling to work and learn alongside children.
After obtaining a Master of Divinity and investing seven years as houseparents at Milton Hershey School, Sabrina and her husband moved to Dillsburg to begin their own business and live the farm life. She is a mom to three boys, an entrepreneur and a lifelong learner. Sabrina enjoys attending church, building relationships in her community and milking her cow, Daisy.
Recently graduated from Lancaster Bible College, Liberty is ecstatic to join the Guide team at Threefold. She greatly benefitted from a non-traditional learning path herself and is looking forward to carrying out Threefold's mission to help Heroes on their journey to find a calling. Liberty enjoys playing all kinds of games with her family, traveling the East Coast with her college friends, and swimming in the pool with her Labradors. Oh, and she likes to go cliff jumping.
Mikayla is excited to support young heroes as they learn as well as learn herself along the way. She has been homeschooled all through school, and in her free time she loves reading and spending time with family.
Our team wouldn’t be complete without the amazing group of founding parents who are just as committed to being on a Hero’s Journey as their children. We’d love to have you join us.