The Institute is named for Francis Daniel Pastorius, the 17th Century polymath and founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Pastorius moved to Pennsylvania in 1683 and built a small cabin on which he inscribed a line from Virgil: “Parva Domus sed Amica Bonis, Procul o Procul Este Profani” (a small house but welcoming to the good; keep far away impious men). He filled his notebooks with quotations in Greek and Latin and wrote on everything from beekeeping to religion, while working as a headmaster and lawyer, serving in public office, and campaigning against slavery. He turned to classical literature, especially Virgil’s Aeneid, as a guide for how to live in the New World.
In 1787 Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend: “Ours are the only farmers in the world who read Homer.” Since the beginning of our country, Americans have found ways to reconcile the active life and the life of the mind, the intellectual and the commercial. This is the tradition we draw from in our mission to advance American education by recruiting and equipping the next generation of educational entrepreneurs.
If you want to create something new in education, we want to help you. Email info @ this website.
Executive Director
Donald Antenen is the founder and lead instructor of The Fairhaven Program in Bellingham, Washington. Every week he sees firsthand the power of education that is small-scale, free from digital distractions, and focused on the living ideas in great literature, art, music, and mathematics.
He studied Classics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Liberal Arts at St. John’s College in Annapolis.
Board
Matt Frost is an information technology professional in Bellingham, Washington and a father of five. He serves on the boards of local religious and civic organizations.
Michael Radocchia is the founder of Radocchia Advisory, where he helps entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into thriving businesses. Over the past fifteen years in healthcare innovation, he has guided founders from their first customers to partnerships with the largest players in their industry. As an independent owner himself, he knows firsthand the freedom and accountability that come with running a business answerable directly to the people it serves.
Staci Hetzel is a mother raising and soon-to-be homeschooling her two boys in middle Tennessee. Before becoming a mother, she shaped and increased the reach of interactive ed-tech programs that focused on communication and problem solving skills, first as Head of Academics at Polygence and then later in an operations role at Synthesis (now Synthesis Teams).