Alison Rini brings expertise in gifted education as well as helping students overcome challenges and disabilities from her 20+ years teaching in public and private schools. She taught at P.S. 6 (Manhattan), St. Croix Country Day School (U.S. Virgin Islands), and Island Village Montessori (a public charter school in Sarasota). She has led in several Sarasota schools, serving as assistant principal in two schools and as principal at Island Village Montessori. She has degrees from Columbia University in neuroscience and behavior (B.A.), elementary education (M.A.), and education leadership (M.Ed.). Alison is committed to fusing the best practices she has learned from both research and experience to create a school that launches students on a trajectory of greatness. She is designing a lab school, which will explore methods to optimize learning and joy. Star Lab’s vision is a true collaboration between teachers, families and students, offering self-paced progress in each subject area and real-time feedback. The curriculum optimizes learning conditions through exercise and self-awareness training and fosters children’s intrinsic motivation through an emphasis on mastery, autonomy and purpose. Star Lab will open in the Newtown neighborhood of Sarasota in August 2024 with its first cohort of kindergarten students. At maturity the school will serve students in grades K-5 in a socioeconomically diverse environment.