School of Ed. Alum Opens Special-Needs School

Maya Mehanna ('01) is one of the Co-Founders, Education Director and a classroom teacher at Alexsander Academy in Alpharetta, Georgia. The school is in its inaugural year and is set up to serve students with sensory processing issues, autism, Aspergers Syndrome, ADHD, emotional/behavioral needs, and auditory processing and/or communication disorders. The philosophy at Alexsander Academy is that children do not fit into a “one size fits all” type of curriculum and that it is the job of educators to help students identify their own learning style and incorporate that into their own individualized curriculum.  

“Programs don’t teach children, people do,” said Mehanna.  She believes that by meeting each child’s academic, sensory, emotional, and behavioral needs, children will be able to reach their potential and feel good about it. This is accomplished through the individualized programming available to students at Alexsander Academy. Mehanna has designed an academic program that will challenge every student to achieve academic success with the necessary accommodations.

After graduating from Clemson, Mehanna moved to Georgia and worked as an elementary and middle school teacher in Cobb and Fulton Counties. During her seven years of experience in education, Mehanna has taught children with a variety of needs including autism, ADHD, emotional/behavioral disorders, LD, and ESOL students. While working in several different settings, Mehanna has developed individual, classroom, as well as county-wide curriculum. She has held leadership positions within the public school sector and in private therapy programs.

» www.alexsanderacademy.org