Atlas Academy turns your teen's life abroad into a college-ready transcript — with credentialed-educator oversight, a true peer cohort, strategic four-year planning, and UN SDG fieldwork in real communities. Built by an educational researcher. Invitation only.
Led by Dr. Erica L. Tartt, PhD · Limited to 24 students per season · $500 fully-refundable deposit
Your family chose a bigger classroom — three continents, four languages, real work in real places. But when a university asks for a transcript, the richest education a teenager can have suddenly looks like a gap. You've been assembling it alone: no registrar, no counselor, no one to tell you what counts. Atlas Academy exists to close that distance — brilliance is already there; our job is to recognize it and put it on paper.
What families carry alone
Portfolio-assessed, standards-aligned, college-ready. Real course titles, real credits, a registrar's discipline.
Credentialed educators review every credit. A PhD-led academic spine behind your family's freedom.
A real cohort — 24 students, side by side in the field. The connection worldschooling teens are missing.
Strategic educational planning: a four-year map from where your teen is to where they're going.
UN SDG capstone projects with community partners — learning that leaves the place better than it found it.
A 4-day-per-week academic hub in Costa Rica. Mornings in seminar, afternoons in the field on an SDG capstone with local partners — turtle-nest surveys, regenerative agriculture, community documentation. Evenings belong to the cohort. Everything you make here counts.
Each season runs twelve weeks; your family chooses its six. Two overlapping cohorts, capped at 24 students in total, ages 14–18. Arrive from anywhere, leave for anywhere — the credential travels with you, and the Atlas peer community continues online between seasons.
12-week season · choose your 6 · 4 hub days per week · cohort continues online
No algorithm issues a transcript here, and no checkbox does either. Every credit is a human judgment, made by a qualified educator, on evidence your teen actually produced.
Students capture real artifacts — field journals, data, film, essays, built things — as they work.
Credentialed educators assess each portfolio against standards-aligned rubrics and record their rationale.
Validated learning is conferred as formal credit and issued on a college-ready transcript — formatted for accreditation-portfolio acceptance, with Cognia accreditation being actively pursued.
Transcripts are issued under transparent umbrella-school and portfolio-assessment conventions. Atlas Academy is pursuing accreditation through Cognia; families receive a plain-language explanation of exactly what the credential is at every stage.
The world places an embargo on young people's brilliance. We don't create that brilliance — we lift the embargo, recognize what's already there, and put it on paper. Dr. Erica L. Tartt, PhD — Founder & Director
An educational researcher, published author, and evaluator who has spent a career measuring what institutions miss. Atlas Academy is that career pointed at one question: what if a teenager's real life were treated as the serious academic evidence it is?
Tuition covers the academic hub, SDG capstone, educator assessment, transcript processing, and strategic planning. Families arrange their own travel and lodging — you are already experts at that part.
Atlas Academy is application-only — 24 places per season, reviewed personally by Dr. Tartt. A $500 deposit holds your teen's place and is fully refundable, for any reason, until enrollment is confirmed. If the season doesn't reach its greenlight of ten committed families, every deposit is returned. No pressure, no fine print.
A 20-minute video call with the founder — questions answered, zero obligation. Invitations are reviewed personally; you'll hear back within 3 business days.