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About TNLA

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP EDUCATION?

Our community draws from the educational principles found in A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century by Oliver DeMille. To ensure quality, our mentors are trained by and implement the methodology taught in the How to Mentor series by Oliver DeMille.

We believe that faith in God is a critical part of our character and therefore cannot be separated from the education process.

Our Mission Statement

We, the families of Thomas Nelson Leadership Academy, commit to live mission, promote freedom, and strengthen society. We exhibit public virtue by sacrificing our personal wants and needs in order to show love to those around us and to improve other lives through our sacrifice. We are part of a tribe pursuing a mentored scholar education in order that we may empower and inspire each other to be the change the world needs.

WHAT IS A COMMONWEALTH SCHOOL?

A Commonwealth School is a Community-Created Leadership Education Vehicle that provides weekly classes where students are mentored by their peers’ parents and have stewardship over what they learn through mentored projects (mentors are second witnesses to what the parents are teaching), with a liberal arts focus. These mentors inspire students to develop the skills and abilities they need to become self-directed scholars. A Commonwealth School acts as a supplement to a family’s home education program and is intended to enhance it, not replace it.

A Commonwealth School creates an environment in which families of like culture can study the classics and become great citizens by gaining a greater vision of our country and ourselves. A commonwealth signifies “the common good or happiness; thus it is a form to secure the public good." While usually associated with governments of countries, ‘commonwealth’ can be applied to many other aspects of society. It takes the “co-op” group to the next level: to a community that self-governs under a contractual agreement (i.e. bylaws) that exists beyond the creators whose children are now raised and gone and can stand the test of time.

Notice of non-discrimination policy

TNLA admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and other school-administered programs.

Our People

Melanie Stafford

President

Christine Fry

Parent Representative Vice President

Ruth Brown

Administrative Vice President

Amy Dodge

Junior Director

Chelsea Garner

Registrar

Ingrid Beecroft

Treasurer

Rachel Abbott

Principal Mentor

Kate Strongin

Secretary

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia, was Liber-educated in the classics under the tutelage of his father and was later individually mentored by the celebrated Dr. Proteus at Cambridge. When the Revolutionary War started, he was called as head of the military of the state of Virginia. "The sudden call of the militia from their homes left many families [destitute], for a great part of the agricultural operations were suspended." General Nelson used his own money and resources to support many of his poorest soldiers, "and thus more than a hundred families were kept from absolute want."

The biographer of the Signers, B.J. Lossing, wrote: "Mr. Nelson made many and great [financial] sacrifices for his country. When, in 1780, the French fleet was hourly expected, Congress felt it highly necessary that provision should be made for them. But its credit was prostrate, and its calls upon the States were [ignored]. Virginia proposed to raise two million...dollars, and Mr. Nelson at once" set out to raise the money. "But many wealthy men told Mr. Nelson that they would not contribute a penny on the security of [Congress], but they would lend him all he wanted. He at once added his personal security."

I have wondered which type of person I would be in similar circumstances--the men who made sure their bank accounts grew during the War, or the Thomas Nelson...type who gave their all. And it is notable as well that [he] had established [himself] as [a man] of such integrity that those less altruistic individuals who loaned what they considered to be extravagant sums to the cause did so without reserve when the word of [this man] was given.

Thomas Nelson was elected Governor of Virginia when Thomas Jefferson's term expired, and during the Battle of Yorktown, the one... which turned the tide of the War to the Americans, Governor Nelson noticed that the American troops were firing at every home in town except his own. The British had stationed a number of their officers in his home, perhaps believing that as the home of the governor and head of the state military it was safe. Governor Nelson positioned himself at the head of his troops and begged them to open fire on his home--and it was shelled by canon fire.

Within a month of this battle, his health broke and he shortly passed away. Broke and destitute, he left his wife Lucy to raise their eleven children alone. Thomas Nelson's biographer wrote that "he descended into the grave honored and beloved, and alas! of his once vast estates, the honor and love was almost all that he left behind him. He had spent a princely fortune in his Country's service; his horses had been taken from the [plow] and sent to drag the munitions of war; his granaries had been thrown open to a starving soldiery and his ample purse had been drained to is last dollar, when the credit of Virginia could not bring a sixpence into her treasury."*

The sacrifices that Thomas Nelson made are known as Public Virtue. We value the culture of Public Virtue and it is because of this Public Virtue that we have named our leadership academy after him.

*Adapted from A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion by Oliver DeMille

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