About
Faculty & Staff Bio
- colej@leelanaumontessori.org
- BA Elementary Education and Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education -
- Brevard College
- AMI Elementary Certification - Southwest Institute of Montessori Studies
Janelle grew up in Rockford with her parents and younger brother and was homeschooled by her mother. Her education and play at this time was quite self-directed and made full use of experiential, immersive and real-world education. Janelle continued her education on the picturesque campus of Brevard College, located between the Pisgah National and DuPont State Forests. During this time, she cultivated a deep understanding of and love for leadership development and the limitless potential held within outdoor education and experiences. Janelle then spent a year training, traveling and racing professionally as a road cyclist around the United States and in Europe, followed with a carpentry apprenticeship in beautiful Boulder, Colorado... an adventurer's dream come true! She returned to Michigan and enjoyed spending a year with an energetic, insightful class of pre-kindergarten students, delighting in their sweetness and looked forward to the challenge of designing individual strategies to help support their academic and social emotional success. Coming finally to Montessori education was a sigh of relief that accompanies a feeling of coming home for Janelle: of finding an educational philosophy and methodology that I am eager to share with our young people. Janelle completed her AMI Elementary Certification in June 2024.
