Marsha Familaro Enright

“If you know 2-year-old children, it’s almost impossible to stop them from learning. But by the time they’re 8 or 9, what happens? They don’t want to go to school. That’s where you have to realize the environment is not suiting their learning needs.”

“In 1990, I founded Council Oak Montessori Elementary, mostly so my own children could have Montessori as long as possible because, in Montessori schools, children continue to love learning. But my own personal interest has always been in teaching young adults.”

“I had the idea for a long time that people on the side of free societies in the classical liberal sense should start their own colleges, because I could see where colleges were heading even 20, 30 years ago.”

“In 2009, I launched a summer program called The Great Connections for the higher education level of development, and I put everything I knew about Montessori education into it.”

“But even I was surprised at the results. From the first year, students were telling me their lives had been transformed. And alumni from 2009, 2011, 2015 in the workforce today have reported to me how they continue to use what they learned.”

We use both the classics and modern works. The classics are actually very empowering. The collectivists don’t want that. They want students to learn just their own specific set of ideas and then live in that same mental universe.”

“These are ultimately Socialist, authoritarian ideas which, no surprise, have led to campus unrest.”

“I have been working to expand our program into a full-fledged college. And in 2020, we got a significant donation that allowed us to move forward with Reliance College. Now I’m developing the team. I have some people for teaching in place and we’re working to build our board and raise the further monies we need.”

“This is a uniquely oriented liberal arts program driven by questions about how to live. How do we know things? What causes civilizations to flourish?”

“The year is split into quarters and every quarter you’re getting history, you’re getting economics, you’re getting literature, science, technology. It’s all integrated.”

“This is a very powerful form of thinking because you’re able to connect what’s going in history with what’s going on in science, what’s going on in philosophy with what’s going on in physics. And life is impacted by all these things.”

“Students also have a self-chosen entrepreneurial project each year with guidance from their tutor. They explore different fields or build up a focus in one area. And they will be connected with mentors in those areas.”

“I hear from employers all the time that they have a hard time finding young people who can solve problems and think for themselves. Our methodology emphasizes reasoning and analytic skills, and teaches how to listen to other people, work in teams, identify the problem and reach a common goal. These are super important skills for the workforce.”

“Part of the idea is to have people in many different professions who are knowledgeable about the principles of entrepreneurship and liberty. We’re not just teaching people to go into politics or economics. We want a population of people who, in many different professions, understand these principles.”

“We always connect our ideas in the classroom with the effects on the real world. Students will come out with the full range of ideas and facts about what causes human beings to flourish or fail. And we teach across the ideological spectrum; we teach Marx and we teach Mises. The facts are very supportive of a free society.”

“We don’t want to be involved with any federal loans, because that ties your hands quite a bit and requires you to follow a lot of federal mandates. We are completely privately funded.”

“We want to start small. Fifty or so students in a rented location in downtown Chicago. There’s lots of transportation, and a private dorm nearby so we won’t have to get involved in residential right away.”

“Our main criteria for admission will be for students to come and try one of our short programs. They try us out and we try them out and we both find out if we’re a good fit. We’re looking for any student who wants to be there and is willing to do the work.”

Marsha Familaro Enright
Founder, Reliance College
Chicago, Illinois