Our Story
We didn't set out to build a school.
We set out to create the place we wished had existed for ourselves, for our son, and for families looking for a different way to grow and learn together.
HART grew out of our own journeys. Long before we met, we were both asking big questions about life, human nature, and what it means to truly know yourself. Ethan spent much of his life exploring the world through biology, nature, wildlife, music, education, and time spent working with his hands. Angela discovered life through music, food, culture, philosophy, spirituality, creativity, entertainment, wellness, and the endless questions of what it means to be human.
Somehow, those paths led us to the same place.
We began to see how deeply the environments we inhabit shape us, not just the physical world around us, but the relationships, mentors (or lack thereof), experiences, responsibilities, ideas, the sounds, smells, and opportunities that surround us.
And we started asking: What if we gave children more of that?
More time outside. More meaningful work. More opportunities to contribute to. More freedom to explore their interests. More connection to the people around them and the land beneath their feet. More space to ask questions without rushing toward predetermined answers.
We believe children come to know themselves by participating in life. When they are trusted to create, build, care, question, solve problems, form relationships, and contribute to something beyond themselves, they begin to discover not only HOW the world works, but WHO they are within it. That is the heart of HART.
We aren't trying to create one perfect path for every child. We believe in diverse experiences, perspectives, relationships, and ways of learning. Like a healthy ecosystem, a thriving community needs diversity.
HART is the place we're building for our son, the place we wish we had as children, and a village we're grateful to build alongside the families who have found their way here.
We aren't here to tell children who to become. We're here to help create the conditions where they can discover it for themselves.
Angela’s Story
I have always been wildly curious.
From a very young age, I was fascinated by the big questions - Who are we? How did we get here? What/Who is God? Why are we here? and I wanted to experience as much of life as I could. My path has never been particularly linear. Born in New Orleans, LA —> Visalia, CA—>San Antonio, Tx. Growing up I was involved in sports, theatre, music, and just wanted to be creating. I studied music business and recording technology in Nashville, culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, worked as a private chef and television producer, and have been a voice-over artist for Disney and DreamWorks since 2007. Along the way, I explored music, art, food, travel, film, world religions, philosophy, biology, herbalism, movement, neuroscience, healing, culture, and so much more.
After 16 years in Los Angeles, I knew I needed something more. A life with more purpose. I came to Texas to spend time with family, fell in love with the land, and began growing a garden, making herbal products and developing a food program for children that would reconnect them with where their food comes from, how it nourishes us, and how we can grow it ourselves.
And then I met Ethan.
There was an immediate spark, trust, and deep resonance. His deep relationship with the natural world and his years in education met my lifelong exploration of the inner world, and somewhere in that intersection, HART began to take shape. We both were at the beginning stages of feeling “the call.” As I was developing this herbal/food program and dreaming of a “space to gather,” Ethan was planning on leaving public education and creating a nature therapy camp for kids.
We had Phoenix in 2020 and motherhood was an initiation into a new existence. It expanded my understanding of love, responsibility, freedom, childhood, development and what it really means to create an environment for another human being to grow. We began asking different questions.
What actually helps a human being flourish? What do children really need from us? And what might be possible if we stopped rushing them toward a predetermined version of SOMEONE ELSES idea of success and gave them more space to discover who they are?
In 2022 I opened a wellness shop in Lockhart with my sister, and my work continued to weave together many of the things I'd spent my life exploring - food, herbs, wellness, community, creativity, learning and our relationship with the natural world.
What started as a whisper to create something for kids, turned into a roar to create a place for the whole family, where children could experience the world fully, participate in meaningful life, build strong relationships, and have the freedom and support to discover themselves along the way.
I absolutley LOVE working with children. They are my greatest teachers. The curiosity they embody, the creativity and imagination they so easily access, and the way they play without inhibition is a current of energy we should never lose touch with. I feel so honored to walk beside them in life and support their life journey in any small or big way.
Ethan’s Story
I grew up in Cherry Creek, New York, surrounded by the kind of life that teaches you things without ever calling it education.
My father built our homes and grew much of our food, and I spent my childhood outside, working with my hands, exploring the woods, backpacking, and paying attention to the natural world around me.
I went on to study Classical Guitar and changed to Biology. I earned my Master's degree, eventually working as a field biologist and researcher before finding my way into education.
I spent 17 years in public education, including the last seven as a high school principal. I loved the kids and I believed deeply in the potential of education, but I also became increasingly aware of how much the culture of a school shapes a child's experience.
I wanted to do things differently.
I worked to create programs and spaces that weren't necessarily the norm in public education. A school garden, boys' and girls' groups, sound healing, project-based learning and opportunities for students to connect with themselves and one another in different ways.
I became convinced that culture was everything.
Children needed to feel safe. They needed to feel seen. They needed adults who believed in them and environments where they could discover that they were capable of more than they thought.
After some grueling years in public education, I found myself returning to something I'd always known, being outside in nature.
I reconnected with survival skills, backpacking, working with my hands and spending long stretches of time in the natural world. It brought me back to my center. The skills I had learned as a kid like how to build, grow, navigate, make, problem-solve and pay attention, started to feel less like hobbies and more like pieces of something I had been looking for all along.
I began imagining a different kind of experience for young people: part nature immersion, part survival skills, part mentorship, and part the kind of space where a kid could simply breathe, be challenged, and figure out who they are.
Then I met Angela. We immediately knew we had a mission together. Having our son, Phoenix, changed everything and just solidified our drive and purpose to create the life we truly wanted to live and share that with others.
For me, HART is a return to something I knew as a kid and spent years trying to find again.