About

The Rebel Academy was founded by Dr. Lauren Zavrel, a former GED instructor with 15 years of experience teaching GED classes at community colleges and correctional facilities. Frustrated with the low graduation rates (especially for BIPOC students and those with learning variances or disabilities) and institutional barriers that college bureaucracies create for pre-college students, she launched The Rebel Academy in 2024 to bring GED instruction and tutoring to students rather than asking students to go to a campus and register for classes. Unlike colleges, The Rebel Academy is able to deliver fully student-centered instruction, uninhibited by any institutional agendas, policies, or schedules.

Also recognizing the caste system that the American prison system perpetrates, but inspired and moved by the heroic work of incarcerated peer tutors, Lauren and the founding Board also made it part of the mission to hire justice-impacted and BIPOC tutors.

In the interest of meeting students where they are, The Rebel Academy has a three-fold approach to providing services to students, all of which are available in English and Spanish:

1. Online Math Courses – Coming soon to Udemy, we will offer GED-specific math courses for purchase in geometry, Algebra, and other math concepts on the GED test. These courses are available to anyone, anywhere, and will come complete with downloadable, custom flash cards and practice worksheets.
2. Agency Partnerships – we partner with Portland-area nonprofits or agencies that work directly with clients who could benefit from our services. We bring our tutors and learning materials to the agency site where clients can then receive services from the agency and The Rebel Academy simultaneously.
3. Private Tutoring – we offer online and in-person private tutoring to any student who requests this service. Rates vary, but scholarships are available for students who demonstrate financial need. Profits from the online courses, agency contracts, grants and donations help create these scholarships.

Our vision is to create pathways to foundational success.

Our mission is to create and deliver meaningful and affordable instruction that empowers our learning community, and create living-wage tutoring jobs for formerly incarcerated people.

Our purpose is to address the limited access to 1) person-centered, affordable, foundational education and 2) meaningful work for formerly incarcerated people.

We obtained 501(c)3 status from the IRS in 2024 and are a registered charitable organization in both Oregon and Washington.