Thursday Life Skills
The best education doesn't just fill minds — it forms people. On Thursdays, your homeschooler develops the practical wisdom, creative range, and character that make everything else they've learned actually matter.
Thursday Life days at River Tech are built around formation over standardization. We believe education should shape the whole person — not just fill in academic blanks. The skills taught on Thursdays — critical thinking, clear writing, and genuine creativity — are the ones that will determine whether a young person flourishes in adulthood. They aren't soft add-ons. They're the point. River Tech's small, tight-knit community makes genuine formation possible: when teachers know every student by name and know their family, real mentorship can happen.
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At the heart of Thursday Life is a Christian worldview that treats knowledge, character, and faith as inseparable. Students develop an identity rooted in something bigger than themselves — a faith that holds, a community that supports, and a calling that gives direction. Our teachers bring a contagious joy and hopefulness that will send your child into the world with clarity, conviction, and confidence.
Dan Hegelund
Dan Hegelund holds a Master's degree in Political Science and has lived a life that most people only read about — traveling to more than 30 countries, speaking six languages, and founding and running multiple businesses across different fields. He teaches life skills from genuine experience: what it actually takes to lead, to manage money wisely, to navigate unfamiliar systems, and to build something that lasts. Dan's classrooms tend to feel less like school and more like a conversation with someone who has been there — which, in most cases, he has.
Caitlin Relvas
Caitlin Relvas holds a B.A. in English and Classical Civilizations and has spent her career helping students think clearly, write well, and engage ideas with depth and precision. Her background in the ancient world gives her a rich perspective on the subjects that matter most on Thursdays — critical thinking, rhetoric, and the kind of cultural literacy that comes from actually studying how great civilizations were built and why they fell. Caitlin brings genuine warmth and a love of story to everything she teaches, and her students leave her classes not just more capable, but more curious.