Built from the heart, for Coastal Carolina
We're an intentional community in Holly Ridge, NC, founded by families committed to raising children with character, responsibility, and real-world experience, and to protecting the environment where that happens.
To deliver self-paced, project-based learning in Surf City, NC, that integrates academics, movement, and hands-on experiences—fostering curiosity, creativity, and community connection.
The values that run our school
These are the values that run our school. They are not for everyone, and they are not meant to be. Families who share them thrive here. Families who don't will be happier somewhere else—and that is okay.
Real Work, Real Stakes
Growth lives on the other side of difficulty. Our students take on real work with real consequences, and they are allowed to struggle, fail, and try again. We do not shield kids from frustration, because the struggle is not a problem to be solved. It is the point.
Earn Your Place
Respect, responsibility, and standing are earned through what you do, not what you are owed. The standard is the standard, and it is the same for everyone. Nothing here is given. Everything here is earned.
Lead Yourself First
Before you can lead anyone else, you have to govern yourself: your attitude, your effort, and your word. We build students who take ownership of their choices instead of assigning blame. Accountability is not a punishment. It is the foundation of leadership.
Carry Your Own, Carry Each Other
Every student is responsible for their own ruck, and no one gets left behind. We build strong individuals who make the people around them better. Strength is personal, but it is never selfish.
The people behind Apogee Topsail
Shana Keller is the Director and Lead Educator at Topsail Apogee, where she brings together a lifelong curiosity about how the world works with a passion for innovation, exploration, and educational excellence. Her interest in science began early: as a child growing up in Middle America, she was endlessly fascinated by questions as simple—and as profound—as how clouds could stay in the sky. That instinct to ask why and how has remained at the center of her approach to education and continues to drive her commitment to cross-disciplinary STEM and STEAM learning.
An award-winning children’s author, Shana has built her career around making complex ideas accessible, engaging, and meaningful to young learners. Her books include Do You Know Them?, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and Bread for Words: A Frederick Douglass Story, an Irma S. Black Honor recipient. Her book Ticktock Banneker’s Clock was named a Best STEM Book by the Children’s Book Council. Through her writing and teaching, Shana is especially interested in showing students that STEM is not simply a collection of subjects. It is a way of thinking, questioning, testing, designing, and discovering.Shana’s academic foundation began at the University of Miami, Florida, and includes screenwriting studies at UCLA and songwriting courses at Berklee College of Music. Her experience as a substitute educator with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) further developed her ability to adapt to highly transient school communities and reinforced the importance of flexibility, leadership, and service in education.
Shana’s goal is to help students become confident, curious thinkers who are unafraid to ask big questions—and equipped with the creativity, analytical skills, and persistence to pursue the answers. At Topsail Apogee, she believes every child should have the opportunity not only to learn about the world, but to investigate it, understand it, and ultimately build something extraordinary within it.
Nick Koumalatsos is a Marine Raider veteran, entrepreneur, author, and fitness advocate who has built a career around one idea: that people are capable of far more than they've been told. He and his wife Alison started Alexander Industries in 2015 and have been building businesses together from the ground up ever since. Nick is co-founder and CEO of Johnny Slicks, founder of the Agoge, and author of Excommunicated Warrior: 7 Stages of Transition. He never finished high school, yet holds three degrees—one a Master's—and is working on his doctorate. That gap says everything about who he is.
What people see is a giant of a man—former special operations, serial entrepreneur. What they don't expect is how big his heart is. He's a father of four: Ella, Anna, Dimitri, and Louka. There's always time to play, always a project to pull them into, always an expectation to show up and work hard.
Apogee Topsail is something different for Nick—work from the heart. He believes the right environment, the right people, and the right values can change everything.
Alison is a competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt, she believes athletics are about far more than becoming stronger, faster, or better at a sport. They are one of the most powerful environments for young people to develop discipline, resilience, confidence, leadership, and the ability to do hard things.
Her philosophy is simple: kids are capable of far more than we often give them credit for. The role of a coach isn’t to remove every obstacle from their path, but to give them the tools, encouragement, and opportunities to learn how to overcome those obstacles themselves.
Outside of Topsail Apogee, Alison is the Chief of Marketing and an owner of Johnny Slicks, co-owns Alexander Industries alongside her husband, Nick Koumalatsos, and is the author of How Not to Be a Miserable Cow. She holds a degree in film from Full Sail University and has spent more than 20 years building brands, leading teams, and communicating ideas that move people to action.
As an athlete, coach, entrepreneur, and mother of two boys, Alison brings those worlds together at Topsail Apogee. Her goal as Athletics Director is not simply to create physically capable students, but to use movement, competition, teamwork, and challenge to help develop capable human beings.
She believes strength is something we build in our bodies, our character, and our communities and that one of our greatest responsibilities is passing those lessons on to the next generation...
Tim is a former MMA fighter and Boxer, who now is shifting his focus to traveling the country playing flag football and competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, where he currently holds his blue belt, as well as helping build a love for health, fitness, and movement with our students. He views fitness and athletics as more than a physical outlet, but as a tool to build mental stability and creativity.
Growing up his love for sports and fitness helped create a confidence and work ethic he can now pass onto to a new generation of athletes, including his young son, which makes this especially important. He views it as another way to build independence, while at the same time creating leaders.
Coach Tim also has been running his own Coaching business, Byrd Health x Performance, for over 5 years where he specializes in youth and adult sports performance and remote fitness and nutrition coaching.
This opportunity is a dream come true for Coach Tim as he looks to create a Fitness and Athletic Program at Topsail Apogee that will not only create healthier, more athletic students, but students that can lead by example and navigate life with mental strength and confidence.
Dimitri Koumalatsos (Mitri) is 6 years old, insanely well-spoken, and already knows exactly who he is. He's a force on the jiu-jitsu mats and at the gym, quick on his feet, and perceptive in the way that catches adults off guard. He's also the kind of kid who packs extra toys so he always has something to share with his friends. His perfect night: a Nerf gun battle, Legos, burger night, and a movie in that order.
Mitri is also the reason Apogee Topsail exists. The school was built around a simple belief: kids are capable. So Mitri works alongside the adults to make sure we stay centered on the needs of the kids. His perspective matters here—and that's the whole point.
See if Apogee is right for your family
Apply to join our founding cohort—or book a 30-minute call first if you'd like to talk through your child, your hopes, and whether this community is the right fit.