Leah’s unconventional journey to teaching Latin at Wilson Hill began with her younger son’s struggle with reading. The family launched into home-education where Leah stumbled upon Latin and immediately fell in love with the beauty and benefits of studying this ancient language. While teaching her own children, she became determined to master Latin for herself, employing hours of self-study, university course work and much mentoring and encouragement from Wilson Hill’s beloved Joanna Hensley. Based on Leah’s own experiences of working through the struggles to understand Latin concepts, she brings empathy and hope to her students—along with fun and laughter—as they practice their forms, compete as teams and complete “Coll Polls” to achieve mastery.

Leah began teaching Latin at Wilson Hill in 2016 and brings 20 plus years of combined teaching experience from home, homeschool co-op and formal classroom settings. She graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and spent the first ten years of her working life as a critical care RN. 

As transplants from Ohio to Pennsylvania, the Colls have lived in State College long enough to call it home, but not long enough to transfer their football allegiance from the Buckeyes to the Nittany Lions. When not writing lesson plans for school, she prepares for children’s ministry at her church, where she gets to spend time with some of her favorite people— children. She loves to read, share Scripture, run, swim, tutor anyone in reading, share a good cup of coffee with a friend, watch meteor showers in the middle of the night and nap.

“I only took Latin 2 because I had to and was dreading it. Now Latin is my favorite class, and I can’t wait to take [Latin 3] next year!” —Former student

Courses taught by Leah Coll