About Us
ENRICHri was founded in 2009 by 10 homeschooling families in Rhode Island who gathered weekly for support and fun. By 2010, the group was quickly expanding and saw that there was a growing desire for the secular homeschool community to come together.
The following years brought rapid growth and a more formal structure, along with an Executive Board. The Board worked to create a vision and mission statement, policies, and bylaws and started meeting monthly to organize and develop programming. Today, with a strong foundation in place, our group continues to thrive with parent support groups, seminars, and connections in the community.
ENRICHri is financially supported through its yearly membership fees, cooperative programs and donations. These cover a variety of expenses such as insurance, building rentals, administrative costs, technology costs, special events and annual state filings.
Non-Discrimination Policy
ENRICHri is an inclusive group and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, citizenship, status as a disabled veteran, or past or present honorable military services and/or other challenges or home education philosophy or methodology in any manner and with respect to access to, or the provision of, its educational services, programs, and activities.
Our Leadership & Key Volunteers
President
Sonja lives in RI with her husband and two daughters. She’s been homeschooling since 2020 and are loving their homeschool life! She enjoys finding creative ways to inspire her children to learn about the world around them. She is grateful to meet many wonderful people along the way and enjoy finding new ways to help support and take part in the ENRICHri community.
Vice President
Emily lives in Rumford with her husband, daughter, two passive aggressive cats, and dog– Gracie. She has volunteered in several capacities through ENRICHri since starting her homeschool journey in 2019, and loves the community that she’s built here. Emily is passionate about homeschooling, and can probably be found researching curriculum in her spare time. Her professional background includes directing youth and children’s programming, communications, and is currently pursuing her Master’s in clinical counseling. She also enjoys painting, her most recent library haul, gardening, beach combing, and drinking decaf iced coffee.
Treasurer
Innis lives in Coventry with her wife (who handles most of the homeschooling) and their five children (and occasional bonus baby), along with a small zoo’s worth of animals. Innis never envisioned herself as part of a homeschooling family, but as it did for many others, covid (and distance learning) revealed how the traditional school model was not working for their oldest son. That launched them into homeschooling and they haven’t looked back. In her day job Innis works in health care operations, and in her down time she can be found crocheting, tending to the animals, playing Hogwarts Legacy, and trying mightily to keep up with the kids.
Secretary
Executive Director of Programs
Amber lives in Northern RI with her wife and two children. She began her homeschooling journey in 2020 and loves it! She is excited to be part of ENRICHri to build community for her family as well as provide opportunities for social engagement and fun learning opportunities. Amber is a programmer and enjoys all things techie! She loves figuring things out and fixing things.
Amber is also a part of our ENRICHri Technical Team.
Membership Director
Tricia has been part of ENRICHri since 2020. She only found herself here thanks to Covid and never planned to homeschool. After having experienced co-ops and the amazing community and inclusive families she could not imagine sending Will to school. She is so glad to have found ENRICHri and looks forward to being an active part of the community.
Tricia lives in Johnston with her husband, Sean and 7 year old son Will. By night she is a postpartum doula, newborn care specialist, and pediatric sleep consultant. By day she is a mom trying to figure out if she’s doing it right.
Communications Director
Kayla grew up in rural WV before moving to RI where she currently lives with her wife, daughter, and many pets. She’s passionate about her daughters education and building a community she can thrive in. She looks forward to helping other families bridge that gap through communications and outreach. When she’s not homeschooling she’s either caring for an animal, in her garden, mixing up herbal remedies, or reading a good book.
Member Benefits Director - Sarah McGinnis
membershipbenefits@enrichri.org
Sarah has been on an ever-evolving journey to find the best educational fit for her unique kids for ten years – from forest schools and a Buddhist co-op to public school distance-learning and unschooling at home. Professionally she has worked for educational nonprofits as well as in sustainable film and commercial production. She is passionate about backyard farming, genealogy, and advocating for late-diagnosed autistic adults like herself. She and her partner share their home with three amazing kids, three guinea pigs, and many fish.
Director of Public Relations
Lauren Kasz has been an ENRICHri member since 2020 when her daughter began Pre-K. She is excited by how much their homeschool community has grown and flourished recently, which inspired her to co-found Woodland Wanderers, an elementary co-op through ENRICHri.
With her background in journalism and communications, Lauren hopes to help spread the word about the amazing things that go on within the ENRICHri community and to open up more exciting opportunities for its families.
Lauren lives in Coventry with her husband, daughter and fur babies. Her downtime is spent reading fantasy novels, gardening and exploring the woods.
Member Advocate
Melissa Robb – The ENRICHri Advocacy Team supports our members by keeping on top of any potential threats to our current homeschooling rights in Rhode Island. Taking action before a problem occurs is key. This is true at a state level but especially important at a district level, yes, we monitor all 36 school districts in our little state. I am proud to lead this hard-working team of 9 (including me!) dedicated homeschool parents.
I live in Warwick with my husband, son, and the 2 most adorable cats in the world. My son, Ian, was homeschooled since birth and is now a pre-law student at Roger Williams University. We chose to homeschool for many reasons but maintaining our scrumptious family lifestyle was certainly right at the top of the list. It was, in part, a selfish decision because I loved being with Ian so much that sending him to school seemed unimaginable. I have no regrets!
I was almost a founding member of this group, joining very soon after the first mamas gathered together in a backyard to create what would become ENRICHri (my family was membership #27!!). Since that very beginning, I have served on the ENRICHri Executive Board in various positions before moving to the Member Advocate Director position. Since 2015 I have been happy to support the incoming military families as Homeschool Liaison for the Newport Naval Base. In that role, I am able to use my experiences as a native Rhode Island homeschooler and advocate to smooth their transition to our state.
Homeschooling led me to my “paying job”.. Druidawn! Druidawn is an RPG (think Dungeons and Dragons) but with a creative writing element at its core. I first experienced Druidawn by Ian’s side at an ENRICHri class. I was hooked, fast forward 10 years and now I have the best job in the world as a teacher/gamemaster (I don’t mind being called Druidawn Master of the Universe) running Druidawn adventures on Outschool.
I enjoy traveling (most often as part of Ian’s extensive Pokémon TCG tournament schedule) with my family. I dabble in paper and fiber arts (I learned to use a spinning wheel!), board games (if you have to ask “do we own too many games?” the answer is YES!), and taking daily walks (in ALL weather) with my husband. And, yeah, I enjoy helping homeschoolers in Rhode Island, it’s a very enriching part of my life!
Assistant Member Advocate
Donna Wedge lives in Coventry, RI with her husband Richard, grandson, and a menagerie of animals. Their family joined ENRICHri in 2013 to build community when their grandson was three, having decided homeschool was the path they would choose for his education.
She has always had a passion for advocacy having served on Federal Women’s Rights Committee, as a Rape Crisis Center Advocate and now on the ENRICHri’s Advocacy team.
Donna is a work-from-home pet groomer and enjoys all things homesteading.
Assistant Member Advocate
Melinda Pichette Price lives in Cranston with her husband and three kids. Aside from homeschooling, she loves traveling, making things on Canva, and spending time with her two dogs.
Melinda is passionate about advocacy and keeping homeschooling in RI easy and accessible to all. She is an Assistant Member Advocate and co-founder of the Woodland Wanderers co-op. She strongly believes that the key to homeschooling success is having a village. If you’re in need of a village, reach out! She’ll help you find one, or help you create one.