Meet Michelle Shaw | Educational Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Shaw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, what is the most important factor behind your success?
First, let me present my definition of success in my area of expertise – providing support to homeschooling families. Success is supporting and empowering teachers, parents and students to provide excellent teaching and support for the homeschooling students within their communities.

I am the director of two homeschooling non-profit organizations. Eastside Academic Studies offers quality, affordable weekly 90-minute classes to upper elementary, middle and high school homeschoolers in the metro Atlanta area. We also offer a host of clubs and other social activities including game nights, an annual talent show, a formal dance and a graduation ceremony. The other organization is the Northeast Independent Preparatory Academy (NIPA). It is an accrediting organization for homeschool students operated under the Georgia Accrediting Commission. I was also the director of the DeKalb Christian Home Educators non-profit for 10 years.

My goal within each of these organizations is to make homeschooling accessible and a viable option for all families that choose to follow that path. This encompasses not only assistance in adequately preparing students for college but also providing a plethora of social activities available to students who attend traditional schools.

The most important factor behind my success within these organizations is the ability to empower teachers, parents and students to use their God-given talents and skills to benefit their community of learners. What I mean is that I see my role as providing the spaces and resources to enable teachers to teach classes and parents and students to run clubs (speech, debate, science, math, robotics, music, writing, cooking, chess, spelling bee) and provide special moments (community talent shows, Christmas dinners, formal dances, graduation ceremonies) for the students. I have always seen myself as more of a coordinator than a director – whether that is coordinating teachers, parents or students. At Eastside, I help to coordinate classroom spaces, student registration, and class schedules so that teachers can provide their classes to students. I also coordinate a student council which organizes a wide variety of social activities for the students including the various clubs, games nights, and community service projects. And, I coordinate parents who plan and run the formal dances, end of year activities and who supervise the activities initiated by their children.

For NIPA, my role is to assist parents as they prepare their children for college. I serve as a guidance counselor who helps to make sure that the parents and students have the academic, financial aid and college resources that are afforded to those students in traditional school settings. I am well aware that it is the parents who are in charge of their children’s education and my role is to come alongside them by sharing my experience and expertise in the area.

I believe that our homeschooled students have all that they need to be prepared to excel in college because of the efforts of the teachers, parents and the students themselves. We are able to offer a good amount and variety of activities because teachers, parents and students feel comfortable presenting their ideas to me and I am able to help them carry out those activities. I do not believe that we would be able to provide all of these activities and resources if it were dependent on me and my initiatives. It is my belief that any community is rich with talented people who can provide opportunities that will benefit not only their own families but the community of families around them. And, that is the important factor behind the success of the organizations with which I am involved.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have always believed that whatever I do, I should do with excellence. I have been trained as a lawyer at Harvard Law School and practiced for approximately 6 years. I performed well as a lawyer during those years. While I was in transition from one position to another, I discovered that I was pregnant with my first child. Since I was about to move to the position of starting a new law practice, for an existing law firm, I knew that it would be difficult for me to be excellent at my practice and excellent as a mother since I did not yet know what being a mother entailed. So, I decided to practice law from home for a period. As our children approached school age, my husband and I felt God leading us to homeschool our children and so I stopped practicing law. I welcomed the challenge of transitioning into a new field of learning – K-12 education.

We now have five adult children who were homeschooled all of their lives. Three of them have graduated from college (MIT, Dartmouth and Harvard) and the other two are currently attending colleges in Georgia (Georgia State and Kennesaw). One of our sons just received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business. While we were homeschooling our children, I was able to learn a lot not only about homeschooling but also about education in general. As the director of a homeschool coop I learned about various academic curriculum offerings and extracurricular activities such as spelling bees, speech and debate tournaments. And, as the student records coordinator of the Northeast Independent Preparatory Academy I was responsible for creating the transcript for our students. I therefore learned a lot about high school graduation and college preparatory requirements. Later I became the director of that organization and serve as the guidance counselor for our students.

All of that is to say that I transitioned from using my gifts and talents from practicing law to helping homeschooling families. I believe that I am very knowledgeable about the education field so that I can provide excellent assistance to others. My goal as a lawyer and now as an educational consultant is to help others accomplish their goals. I am blessed to have been afforded opportunities to do this throughout my life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If someone came to visit me in metro Atlanta for a week, I would take them to tourist attractions such as the King Center, the Civil Rights Museum and the World of Coca-Cola.

I would also like to take them to Eastside Academic Studies where I work. If they are familiar with homeschooling, I would love to show them the classes and the student activities that we offer. If they are not familiar with homeschooling, I would love for them to meet some of our students and parents so that they can have conversations with them and perhaps dispel any myths that they may have about homeschoolers.

I would also like to take them to visit my church if they were here on a Sunday so that they could meet my church family and experience the spiritual aspect of our city. And if they are here on a Tuesday, I would definitely take them to our church’s mobile food pantry where we distribute food to over 400 families. I would love for them to meet some of the wonderful people with whom I have been able to interact while also serving the community.

I would probably take them to Bahama Breeze and/or a Jamaican restaurant to eat. I also love going to see movies so we could see what movies are out at the time.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Margaret Shuman and Derek Owens who are foundational teachers at Eastside Academic Studies

Angela Paul who started the Northeast Independent Preparatory Academy

The amazing teachers, parents and student leaders with whom I work

One Mission Church which provides space for our organizations

Eastside and NIPA Board Members

Website: eastsideacademicstudies.com, nipageorgia.com

Instagram: eastside_academic_studies

Linkedin: Michelle Shaw

Facebook: Eastside Academic Studies

Image Credits
My photo – Lifetouch Eastside_formal-118 – Corey Harden Winter Formal Image – Rocheal Matthews