The Rebel Academy is brand new, but the needs it will meet are not; in Oregon, the GED is the only affordable option to complete a high school credential for students who did not make it through the conventional K12 system. It is an inequitable, privately-owned standardized test that holds adult's to today's K12 standards, which is an outrage. While community colleges offer GED classes, retention rates in these programs are notoriously low and passing rates are even lower. Student needs go unmet and their barriers to learning become overwhelming. The Rebel Academy is different; we are building the first GED-specific online learning platform, complete with live tutoring help, worksheets, and straightforward, no-fluff instruction unlike anything on the Internet (we have checked). We are also offering student-centered instruction that we bring TO THE STUDENT rather than asking students to come to us. Our business model with be to offer low-cost, in-person tutoring (made possible by your donations and grants), as well as establishing agency contracts so that we can teach agency clients throughout the Portland metro on-site. Services will be offered in English and Spanish.

Founder Lauren Zavrel has taught GED for three different community colleges over the past 15 years, and in jails and prisons. Her program at Larch Corrections Center made headlines in 2019 for having the highest GED completion rate of any Washington prison, and for launching the first peer tutoring program in a prison to earn certification from the College Reading and Learning Association. Her primary contracted tutor, Tim Tipton, is one of the founding tutors from that program, who has also made headlines and given several speeches for his successful reentry from prison.