Menlo Park Campus
815 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
WRITTEN BY: MISTY MILIOTO
Lydian Academy, founded in 2006, offers a customized, individual educational program for students in grades 6-12. “The core academic instruction is provided in a one-to-one format between the students and their teachers,” says Jonathan Frecceri, executive director at Lydian Academy. “There is nothing cookie-cutter or boiler plate about our school. We personalize the experience to each individual student based on their needs, goals and unique learning profiles.”
There also is no typical student at Lydian Academy. That’s because the school provides a quality education to advanced students, neurodiverse learners with diagnosed learning differences or health challenges, gifted and twice-exceptional students, and competitive athletes and performers. “At Lydian, students of all stripes become fast friends in an intimate learning environment characterized by relentless positivity, acceptance and support,” Frecceri says.
Over the past two years, Lydian Academy has expanded its footprint from 100 percent brick and mortar services at its Menlo Park legacy campus, to now providing both in-person and online UC-approved college-prep, Honors and AP courses at two campus locations in Menlo Park and Burlingame. “Students progress through courses at their individual pace, and are able to mix and match in person and remote learning opportunities as circumstances warrant,” says Christiana Cassio, principal at Lydian Burlingame.
Each of these educators find it most rewarding to be able to shape authentic success for every unique individual at Lydian Academy. “The Silicon Valley is a hub of creativity and innovation, and there are many traditional definitions of success imposed on students and families living here,” says Josh Bloom, principal at Lydian Menlo Park. “Navigating the educational system can be daunting, especially when pressured to assimilate to prescribed pathways of achievement. At Lydian Academy, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ pathway to success—there is simply ‘your pathway,’ and it’s transformative to see these young people who often come to us defeated and feeling that college might be off the table experience authentic success and achieve their dreams.”
