Students have done field trips and interactive work for decades, but The Inspiration Academy (TIA) takes things to another level with their community modules. The modules are a series of programs where students learn with various local professionals, and one of the students’ new favorites is Reigning Grace Ranch.

TIA is a K-12 private school located in Fountain Hills, and they’ve done community modules ranging from entrepreneurship and personal finances to performing and culinary arts. As the weather started to warm up, TIA added modules that get their students outside to garden and learn about animals.

In February, TIA received a grant from NFL Green to design and install a garden next to their playground at Shepard of the Hills Lutheran Church. Around the same time, they started going to Reigning Grace Ranch.

The students go in alternating groups every Thursday – Boys go one week, girls go the other – and three students go each week for a mentoring program on Mondays after school.

TIA partnered with Reigning Grace for three programs. The one-on-one mentor program, a student leadership program for all students, and a service-learning program where students learn about the animals and agriculture on the ranch.

“Sometimes it’s not actually about the animals. Sometimes it might be about cleaning up horse poop, and even learning leadership skills,” 11-year-old Charlie Zemke said. “We were once able to describe a leader with certain adjectives, [like] polite, helpful and useful.”

The students pick weeds, plant seeds and clean up after animals as part of their service learning program. One of the mentored students, 11-year-old Jay Penick, lived on his family farm before they moved to Fountain Hills, and he said he thinks the ranch chores are relaxing.

Penick planted an orange tree on the ranch, and he got to take home a chocolate mint plant, too. The students’ favorite part of going is getting to see and pet the animals, but they also learn how each animal group helps the plants and other animals there.

Another student in the mentor program, 10-year-old Aurora Brandstetter, loves the animals at the ranch. She was able to use washable paint on a willing miniature horse, and she’s inspired by her mom’s childhood stories.

“I wish that I could live on a farm like my mom and my grandpa used too,” Brandstetter said. “She’s always telling me about it. How fun it was; like, even the chores were fun. They had woods in the back yard, and they could just walk in it, and she found baby turtles. Even if I didn’t find baby turtles in the desert, I would still like to live on a farm like that or a ranch.”

Reigning Grace Ranch seeks to provide a place for people to experience hope, healing and encouragement. The nonprofit organization uses Christian-based mentorship and the rescued horses inspiring stories to help strengthen the student’s futures.

“You get to do a lot of fun things, like you get to ride horses and you get to groom horses,” 10-year-old Aiden Vanchieri said. “My mentor calls horse treats ‘yum yums,’ and he lets me feed them to one of the horses.”

TIA received grant funding from the Fountain Hills Crisis Response Team to cover mentorship costs for three students. The kids develop relationships, responsibility, and self-confidence through the weekly program.

The students do different activities when they are there together. They have climbed stacks of hay bales, built an obstacle course and guided blindfolded classmates through it, and they interact with all sorts of animals in the “Critter Corner.”

“I like petting pigs,” Zemke said. “Their fur, I guess you could call it, is kind of bristly. Sometimes we also are able to have a little lamb, it’s very cute and we pet it, but one thing about the lamb is that it always follows the previous person who fed it.”

TIA is accepting enrollment for the 2023-24 school year, and you can learn more by calling 480-294-0193, or by visiting theinspirationacademy.org.