Leilani Mueller

Master Teacher

BA, Biola University

Long familiar with homeschooling, Leilani Mueller was homeschooled through high school. She went on to receive a BA in humanities, with a minor in English and Bible, from Biola University. She is also a member and graduate of Torrey Honors Institute, the Great Books program run through Biola. One of her fondest university memories is the year she spent studying English and history at Oxford.

After graduation, Leilani taught high school for seven years through Torrey Academy, a classical Great Books program resourcing homeschooled families in the Southern California area. She understands the expectations of homeschooling families, having experienced firsthand the joys, difficulties, and privileges that come from a homeschool education.

Teaching literature is one of her joys. She loves to engage high school students with challenging, classic texts (such as Dante’s Divine Comedy, a favorite work to teach) and watch them joy in the experience. Leilani is convinced that studying literature enables students to become more emphatic, loving Christians as they read and consider the experiences of others.

Leilani is a native of California and a recent transplant to Texas. She lives with her husband Nathan, daughters Felicity and Emmaline, and son Gabriel in Waco, where Nathan is pursuing his PhD in philosophy. Since her early days, Leilani has spent much of her free time with a book and a pen (or a keyboard as the case may be).

Leilani has been teaching with the Academy since 2017.