Meet the Sisters

• Allison Thorp

  Allison has homeschooled since 1993 with one daughter and son graduated and the last daughter almost done. Her B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Delaware is in Art History, and those who have eaten her cooking agree that Allison’s meals are works of art…that become history soon after she serves them!

  Allison handles the office administration for 7 Sisters and Mt. Sophia Academy, and is the guru of coordinating large celebrations for her homeschool and church communities.

  

• Kym Smythe

  Kym holds a BA from La Salle University in Spanish Education and International Business, and an M.Ed. from the University of Vermont in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration. In the interest of keeping things diverse in her life, she is also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and a Seeing-Eye Puppy Raiser.

  Kym’s passion for people and ability to look on the bright side make her Spanish classes at MSA as much fun as the homeschool choir she directs for Tri-State. Kym gets the party started!

  

• Sabrina Justison

  Sabrina is a playwright and a singer-songwriter who has taught Fine Arts as well as Literature, Writing, and Latin at MSA. She creates annual Drama Camp one-week-intensives and is a wordsmith who enjoys helping people understand the vision and mission of an organization or event.

  Sabrina has been homeschooling since 1995. After she and her children walked through the difficulties of divorce, she was blessed to meet and marry Fred, and their blended family has 7 children ranging from teens to late twenties.

  

• Sara Hayes

  Sara and her husband Carl have homeschooled their five sons from the starting gun to the finish line – son #5 will graduate from high school in 2011. She teaches Algebra and Consumer Math at MSA, and has taught science, history, and literature in co-ops.

  In her father’s Christian bookstore, Sara gained many years of experience with bookkeeping and customer service, and her excellence with numbers keeps the less-precise Sisters from accidentally ruining the business!

  

• Marilyn Groop

  Marilyn holds a BS in Physical Therapy from New York University. Homeschooling her six children since 1990, she has dealt with a variety of learning styles and learning abilities - from gifted to learning disabled.  Three of her six children are adopted and some had emotional issues that interfered with learning.

  Since 1998, she has been a single parent and has continued to homeschool despite the challenges that situation offers. Marilyn and Vicki Tillman founded MEK/TEK and Mt. Sophia Academy, and they also helped found Elijah School, a traditional five day per week school for students who have learning differences that were difficult to reach in a homeschool.

  

• Vicki Tillman

  Vicki holds an MA in Counseling from Liberty University, and has worked as a counselor at Pike Creek Psychological Center since 1996. A member of the American Association of Christian Counselors, she is trained on their Life Coaching model, which she employs in the mentoring she does in the homeschooling community and elsewhere.

  Vicki Tillman is a visionary force in her local community; her mission is to advance God’s kingdom by investing in people. A homeschooling mom for 20-plus years, four of Vicki’s children are grown, and one is still in high school.