About Prep
Our Purpose, Mission, & Vision
Purpose
Our purpose is to offer a world-class education with the flexibility that allows students to also focus on their extracurricular passions.
Mission
We are dedicated to leading students to success through a well-rounded education that fosters resilience, and intellectual, and physical growth. Our international backgrounds create compassionate global citizens.
Vision
Empowering students to excel academically and pursue their passions through individualized attention and a flexible, supportive learning environment.
Our History
Giammalva Prep opened its doors in 2021 and is located in Houston, Texas, and hosts grades 6th - 12th.
We are a hybrid facility designed to be flexible to accommodate athletes and artists. We believe in having individualized attention for each student, so we try to keep the student-to-teacher ratio to 10:1.
We have partnered with AESA Prep Academy’s online program due to their excellent educational program. In addition to the online program, Giammalva has two in-person teachers who will help facilitate and monitor the students on their journey to success.
Meet The Giammalva Prep Educators
Meet Our Chief of School I Makaila Schellhaas
Makaila is from Houston, Texas. She is a certified teacher with nearly a decade of experience. Her university degree is in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in Math, although she has always enjoyed studying all subjects.
Her appreciation of all subjects allows her to help the students in all their courses.
Makaila has 2 daughters, and a dog. She enjoys reading, decorating, swimming, traveling, and tutoring on her spare time.
Meet Colomba Jimenez
Colomba is an international educator from Santiago, Chile. She is bilingual and brings five years of experience teaching at a rural elementary school in her home country. At Giammalva Prep, she teaches Spanish, History, and Science!
Colomba holds a Bachelor of Education degree with a minor in Spanish Language and Communication. She also participated in a Student Exchange Program at the University of Santa Barbara, California, and completed a Certificate Program in Children’s Literature. Passionate about languages, she enjoys learning Italian, French, and has a hard time with German.
Outside the classroom, Colomba enjoys yoga, Pilates, traveling, and baking banana bread—often for the tennis/soccer and golf students she hosts as a host parent. She is expecting her first daughter and shares her home with a lovely Belgian Shepherd dog named Duncan and her husband Sebastian who also works at Giammalva as the Full Time Academy Director.