She built the school she needed as a kid.
One that puts a child's heart first — before it ever measures them.
Shasta Mott · Founder
The kid who wasn't cared for.
Shasta Mott grew up moving through the foster system. She was a smart kid — school came easy. What hurt was never the academics. It was not feeling cared about. Not feeling like the system saw her — not her test scores, not her grade level. Her.
She never wanted to be a teacher. She hated school. She pursued ASL because it was the one language that came naturally to her. When she moved home for marriage and there was no Deaf community to interpret for, she stepped into a foreign language classroom because the teacher had retired and someone had to.
Her entire thesis from day one: "I'm gonna go be for these kids what I needed as a teacher. I just needed to feel cared about."
More than twenty years later, the students she taught still reach out. Now they want their own kids to learn from her.
We have it backwards.
This is the argument Wildgrove is built on:
"We put education first and build a child's identity around it. If they can't grasp academics, their identity becomes failure — failing the test, the class, the skill, constantly. Flip it: put their heart and mind first, build their self-esteem and character, and they'll form dreams. A kid with a dream finds the grit to push through whatever they have to learn to get there."
The system isn't built for the individual. It's built for the system. Wildgrove is built for the individual — the child who is bright and bored, or struggling and overlooked, or simply not suited to the box they were handed.
From calling to platform.
Exclusion isn't abstract to Shasta. Her 19-year-old son — adopted from Haiti — reads at an elementary level. The programs that could help him have age limits. The system isn't built for kids who are struggling or have disabilities.
She spent years dreaming this platform into existence. Then she found a builder she trusted — and she made herself a promise: "I'm not gonna do it this time. I'm gonna do it."
Wildgrove is that doing.
Shasta Mott
M.Ed. · 20+ years in education · Homeschool parent · ASL specialist · Founder
Built in partnership with Helder Rodrigues, software engineer.
"The system's built for the system's progress, not the individual's progress. We're here for the individuals — these kids, these families."