Built from the heart, for Coastal Carolina
We're an intentional community in Holly Ridge, NC—founded by families who believe kids are capable of far more than they've been told, and that the job of the adults around them is to protect that.
To deliver self-paced, project-based learning in Holly Ridge, NC, that integrates academics, movement, and hands-on experiences—fostering curiosity, creativity, and community connection.
The values that shape every day
Self-Paced Learning
Project-Based Experiences
Physical & Creative Engagement
Community & Family Integration
Accountability with Safe Failure
The people behind Apogee Topsail
Bethany grew up in Metro Detroit, where she learned early that the best leaders aren't always the loudest in the room—they're the ones who see potential in others before those others see it in themselves. She earned a degree in Elementary Education from Grand Valley State University with an emphasis in English, along with her middle school Language Arts certification.
Her coaching career started at thirteen, when the director of the Detroit Pistons Academy spotted her—not for her stats, but for the way she showed up for her teammates. That internship became seven years leading the Red Division. As a teacher, she took over a seventh-grade girls basketball program and found her favorite version of coaching yet: cheering her girls through a lesson in the morning and pushing them through a defensive drill in the afternoon.
She spent years believing deeply in her kids while wrestling with a system that kept telling them to sit down, stop moving, and stop asking questions. When Nick approached her about wanting something better for his sons, Apogee felt less like a new direction and more like a permission slip to do what she'd always believed education should be.
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 Capra has been outworking the room for decades. She's the Chief of Marketing for Johnny Slicks, a certified fitness and nutrition coach with over 25 years in strength training, a competitive BJJ purple belt, and author of How Not To Be a Miserable Cow. She has built her life around helping people—women especially—discover what they're actually made of.
She holds a film degree from Full Sail University and has put those tools to use in marketing for over 20 years. Ali is always busy, yet somehow always makes time to really listen, to share her wisdom, and to pour into whoever is in front of her. As a mom she is the full package—fierce and a force to be reckoned with, and also the soft place to land.
Ali brings her passions for fitness, nutrition, and whole-person wellness into the Apogee community, and she's the living embodiment of what Apogee invites everyone to do: show up, share what you love, and pour it into the next generation.
Dimitri Koumalatsos (Mitri) is five years old—almost six—wildly confident, 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.
A letter from our co-founder
Nick and Ali became our friends before they ever became my business partners. My husband had leaned on Nick for years—through preparing for the Marine Corps, through the hard years of early adulthood, through the kind of mentorship that became more like father and son. So when they moved near us and needed someone they could trust with their kids, I was already family. I had just stepped away from teaching, and the timing couldn't have been better.
I didn't leave teaching because I stopped loving kids. I left because I couldn't keep showing up to a system that had all the data and none of the will to use it. We know how kids learn, and we have known for a long time. Place a child's hardest subject after physical activity and it stops being their hardest subject—because their brain is awake, alert, and ready to make connections. The data is there. And still, schools are eliminating recess, cutting PE to once a week, and implementing silent breakfast, silent lunch, working recess. We know better, and we keep choosing otherwise. I couldn't get behind it anymore.
A few weeks into working with Nick and Ali's kids, Nick came to me with an idea. He wanted to launch an Apogee school because he wanted something better for his sons. He said he didn't know educators, didn't know schools—but he knew what he believed, and he believed his kids and his community deserved more. He asked if I would build it with him, and I said of course.
We chose Holly Ridge because this is home. Nick and Ali are raising their kids here. My kids will be raised here. There was never a debate about whether we'd do something for this community—only about how.
Apogee Topsail exists for families who believe that learning is innate. That curiosity doesn't have to be taught—it has to be protected. That kids are born to try, to fail, to get back up, and to try again, and that the job of the adults around them is to create the conditions for that to happen. We're building this for families who want their kids working the project alongside them, not staring at a device. Families who want to hand their kids the tools to go change the world.
That's Apogee Topsail. And we cannot wait to meet you.
See if Apogee is right for your family
Book a quick 30-minute call and let's talk about your child, your hopes, and whether this community is the right fit.
Schedule a 30-Minute Call