GradeLeap was a site that started in the early 1980’s — about 10 years before the world wide web.  I say that, because it started based on my own experiences in middle school and high school.   I wasn’t much of a student.  I didn’t get straight A’s.  In fact, I don’t think I ever made honor role, and I do recall begging one teacher to give me a D so I could graduate.   It took a great deal of time after graduation to develop the confidence to believe that I could be a good student.

Fast forward to late 1998.  I was 27 years old, a flight instructor, and was just finishing a degree in Aerospace Engineering.  In a few months I would be hired as a an airline pilot for a mid-sized regional airline.   My father, who died earlier that year, did not get to see me graduate.  He didn’t get to see me get a job that he knew I dreamed of for years.  Although I do think he knew it would all happen, he just wasn’t around to witness it.

The road I took was much longer and much more difficult than it needed to be.  And the price of taking that long road was not having my father in the seats while I graduated from college.   I still think of that today.

Why GradeLeap?

To understand why GradeLeap came into being, you need to understand a bit more about me.  Because my grades in high school were so poor, the only way for me to attend college was via community college.  I recall failing an entrance exam to one of the community college’s basic math courses.  When I began community college, I was by all means, a blank slate.  I had huge gaps in my education that needed to be filled.

It was 1990.  One year before the first website would even become reality.