A strong education is about more than just academics—it’s about preparing students for life beyond the classroom. At Intrepid College Prep, that means integrating financial literacy, engaging families, and ensuring every student has a clear path to college and career success.

Mia Howard is the Managing Partner of Innovative Schools at New Schools Venture Fund and founder of Intrepid College Prep, a network of free public schools in southeast Nashville with a background in finance and law. Mia discusses her plans to shape the future of education and how her work brings innovative school models to communities across the country. 

“Academic preparation is important, but we also want to make sure school is a place where life preparation is happening,” Mia explains. “When I brought the model to Nashville, I wanted to make sure that families weren't learning about financial literacy as an afterthought or only after they had mastered core academics, but that it was treated as core from the beginning.”

Preparing the Whole Family for Life

Mia’s journey in starting Intrepied began as she observed a major gap in public education, with  schools focusing primarily on academics, while students and families needed more to truly succeed.

From the start, family engagement was central to Intrepid’s model.

“There's a myth that low income families struggle to be involved in their children's education, but oftentimes they just need different support,” Mia says, with access to better communication methods and tracking performance at the core. “So we had a model that really was working alongside families to help them create the structures at home to monitor and support academic progress and character development.”

By design, working alongside families, Intrepid helps parents become active partners in their child’s education, ensuring students are supported both at school and at home.

With Intrepid, Mia also wants to make sure to redefine who college is for, sharing her own personal experience. 

“I grew up in a family where my parents both were college educated and had really stable careers,” Mia shares. “But when I applied for college, I remember being stunned that they didn't have savings for college after years and years of telling me how college is necessary.”

Mia believes closing this gap pushed her to focus on the financial aspects of higher education. 

“It was really an eye-opening moment of how I had just blindly trusted that this would all just figure itself out. And then to get brought into this shocking reality that college has a cost, and you have to be talking about that early and often, and setting aside resources for it, inspired me to create a school where we were talking with families about those barriers and opportunities from the very beginning.”

Financial Literacy: Teaching Students & Families to Build Wealth

One of Intrepid’s most unique innovations is its comprehensive financial literacy program, which starts in middle school and continues through high school.

Mia explains this curriculum covers both personal finances starting with middle-school students learning to budget, save and understand the fundamentals of credit. Then for high school students, Intrepid introduces business finance topics, like ethics, debt and equity structures and investment strategies. 

To make this vision a reality, Mia partnered with a Wharton professor to adapt a college-level business finance syllabus for high school students, helping them understand capital, markets, and entrepreneurship.

“I was really proud of that work because I could see it helped not just the students, but their families also think about their relationship to finances very differently as well.”

Coupled with her own personal experience when it came time to apply for college, Mia says she was inspired to create a school where they didn’t just talk with families about financial barriers and opportunities from the very beginning, but celebrated them doing so.

To reinforce this, Intrepid launched a 529 College Savings Program, offering families matching incentives for meeting both educational and financial milestones. “It was a way for us to say, we're not asking you to do anything that we're not going to partner with you in ourselves. And so we're making a financial investment in your children alongside you,” Mia explains. “It was really inspiring to see families turn out in droves for those sessions.”

In her work with the New School Venture Fund, Mia is able to explore and invest in innovative new school models across the country. 

“I am a managing partner over the Innovative Schools portfolio, which means that I went from being a founder to now investing in founders, which has been a really fulfilling evolution in my career,” she shares. “I was able to attribute a lot of the success I had at Intrepid to early investments that were made in my leadership and I believe deeply in the philanthropic sector's commitment to supporting founders to be successful on their entrepreneurial journey.”

Her founding legacy, Intrepid College Prep, continues to serve families in southeast Nashville with a deep emphasis on strong academics, high expectations, parent engagement in college preparation.

Why Parents Should Choose Intrepid College Prep

If you want a school that goes beyond just academics to ensure your student is prepared for college, career, and financial success, Intrepid College Prep is the perfect choice.

• A Proven Pathway to College: Intrepid students graduate prepared for top universities, with alumni attending Vanderbilt, Emory, and other prestigious schools.

• A Financial Literacy Program That Empowers Students & Families: From personal budgeting to business finance, students gain real-world financial knowledge that many adults never receive.

• A School That Actively Engages Families: Intrepid works with parents as partners, ensuring they have the tools to support their child’s academic and personal growth.

• A Commitment to Breaking Barriers: Intrepid redefines who college is for, ensuring that students from all backgrounds can access higher education academically and financially.

How to Get Involved:

If you’re looking for a school that prepares students for success in college, career, and financial independence, Intrepid College Prep is leading the way. Visit them at IntrepidCollegePrep.org or follow them on social media @IntrepidCollegePrep.

Intrepid is currently accepting applications for the 2025-2026 school year.