Hello! I am the Spark Studio guide. I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia. I have a big sweet tooth and love strawberry ice cream. I have a passion for decorating cakes. I love hearing the sound of the ocean waves, playing board games with my family and reading books with my children ages 11, 8, and 6. I work with younger elementary aged children for many years now and am thrilled to be a part of CHOICE! We have so much to explore together this year!

JeVonne McDonald Tanner was born in Seattle, Washington. She was raised as the oldest of six children in a tight knit family and learned the priority of family early on. She loves meeting new people, experiencing different cultures, volunteering with humanitarian groups, and traveling the world. She loves early mornings water skiing with her dad and brother and enjoys playing basketball whenever she can. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology education at Brigham Young University. For five years, she thrived as a mentor to her middle school and high school biology students. She is talented at finding creative ways to engage students in the learning process – especially those that are not too interested.

After she married her best friend, Paul Tanner, and they began having children, she was blessed to be home with them. She loves being a mother and this has been her passion for the last 10 years. Paul and JeVonne have five children ages 12 to 5. Their family loves adventures, books, camping, board games, and people. She is very grateful for the role traditional education has played in her life and in the lives of her children – but she knows her family and society now need something different.

Jeanette Hughes graduated from BYU with a master’s in history and a minor in Russian teaching. She also earned a master’s in education from the University of Washington with an emphasis on resource room special education to help struggling readers. After marrying Zack, one of the most brilliant self-taught people she’d ever met, she began to see education as so much more than school and more as a way of life.

“I had a passion and conventional schooling could not take me where I wanted to go. I was studying at the University of Utah, and one day I found a pamphlet that advertised a self-tailored major. I went home and was consumed with the possibility of taking any class at the university! I read the entire course catalog and found the classes I thought would best prepare me for my dream job. I was able to design the best education I could to pursue my passion. As soon as I had the freedom and choice, I had a desire to learn. I had passion and a path to pursue my dreams. I excelled in school, and I have not stopped studying since. After twenty years in my dream job, I feel on top of my game. The sky is the limit. I continue to invest in my education and hope to never stop. My passion (which is also my profession) has taken me all over the world, and I’ve been able to change thousands of lives for the better as an anaplastologist (someone who makes realistic prosthetics).

Everyone has passions, and everyone can change the world in their own unique way! Some people need some guidance to find their passions and figure out how to use them for good in the world. I want my children to find their own passions the way I did – but much earlier. I want them to believe that they can do anything and the sky is the limit. I want them to become people that are capable of tackling any problem that arises and any obstacle that stands in the way of them pursuing their passions.”