Scholars Online Teachers

Mrs. Susan L. Dennis

Instructor ♦ Latin

Mrs. Susan Dennis lives in Texas, north of Dallas. She has been teaching Latin classes (online and in person) for over twenty-five years, in California and now back in Texas. During this time and prior, she has taught piano (private and class) and is currently a collaborative pianist at Collin College. As the pianist for a small Iranian congregation, she is beginning to learn Farsi -- it isn't easy!

She studied liberal arts at SMU and received a B.A. in English with a minor in French, and a M.M. in piano performance at Texas Tech University, and subsequently taught at Sam Houston State University. Three of her four children took classes with Scholars Online, and the hope is that grandchildren will, too!

Mrs. Dennis highly recommends (from personal experience) all courses offered at Scholars Online.

Mr. John M. Hogan

Instructor ♦ Mathematics and Programming

Academic Years 2009-2012, 2015-2016

John Hogan pursued a double major of Mathematics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois. He obtained the newly available Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree from the College of Engineering there. At the time of his graduation, he had 75% of his mathematics classes completed. He has taken graduate courses in Education with an emphasis in Mathematics from Seattle Pacific University to help prepare for teaching. He has previously taught the Introduction to Programming and Algebra I classes at Scholars Online. He is retired from the IT field. He currently lives in the Phoenix, AZ, area. His interests are quite varied, but he is particularly interested in playing and studying the Asian board game of Go.

Miss Cynthia C. Liu

Instructor ♦ Greek

Cynthia Liu returns to Scholars Online as a second-generation teacher. She was enrolled in the Latin and Greek sequences throughout high school and was a student of Dr. Bruce McMenomy and Sarah Esposito. She received her B.A. in Classics and Linguistics from Baylor University in 2018. In 2019 she completed her MSt. in Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford with a thesis reconciling the varying traditions of the Phaethon myth via parallel Near Eastern mythology. She is currently a third year doctoral candidate at Oxford, finishing up a dissertation on the literary afterlife of mystery religions in Latin and Greek poetry from the sixth century BC to the Augustan era. Her other research interests include the performance of ancient texts, women in epic, and E.S. Piccolomini.

Cynthia’s teaching experiences include five years of teaching Latin and Greek to undergraduates at Baylor University and at Oxford as well as two years of teaching Latin with the active method through Oxford Latinitas.

Dr. Rachel A. Lott

Instructor ♦ Mathematics

Dr. Lott earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in the history of philosophy. She has taught formal logic and algebra at the secondary level since 2021. Though her first love is philosophy (in a round-table “great books” setting if possible!), she is impressed by how much young students can benefit from both logic and math at an early age. Dr. Lott teaches math the way she teaches logic, by presenting puzzles that enable students to discover the laws of thought and use them creatively to solve real problems.

Mr. Art Mabbott

Instructor ♦ Mathematics

Mr. Mabbott, M.S., is a mathematics teacher with more than 40 years experience. He has taught in grades 4-12 in both public and private schools around the Pacific Northwest as well as at the university level. Mr. Mabbott retired in 2015 from Seattle Schools where he served as a mathematics specialist for secondary schools. He earned a Master Degree in Mathematics and continues to deliver and engage in professional development and advanced training thru the Northwest Mathematics Interactions, the University of Washington and the Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute.

Mr. Mabbott is a perennial presenter at Northwest, Regional, National, and International Mathematics Conferences, offering back to his professional peers his years of experience. In addition to being a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, he is the past president of the Puget Sound Council and service on PSCTM’s board in various capacities.

Dr. Bruce A. McMenomy

Instructor ♦ Literature — Latin — Greek — History — Writing

Dr. Bruce McMenomy received his B.A. from Pomona College, an M. A. in History and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from UCLA. His field of specialization is Mediaeval Latin, and his dissertation an editio princeps of the first part of Claudius of Turin's (ca. 815) commentary on the Gospel of Matthew — the completion of which was somewhat delayed while he was homeschooling his own three children.

Dr. McMenomy taught online courses in history, literature, Greek, Latin, and Old English through the Scholars' Online Academy from 1995-2005, and since through the reorganized Scholars Online. His literary thought has largely been molded by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and he enjoys literature ranging from the ancient to the modern, but he has yet to discover a subject that is not somehow interesting. His chief joy in teaching is in exploring the various ways of understanding with his students, and he admits that in the process he has probably learned at least as much from his students as he has taught.

A partial reflection of some of what he’s learned while teaching is in his book Syntactical Mechanics (Fall 2014, University of Oklahoma), which attempts to clarify a number of areas that have proven murky for students of Latin and Greek. You can read Aislinn Melchior’s review of Syntactical Mechanics in the January 2016 issue of The Classical Journal(PDF), published by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Dr. McMenomy was awarded an SDB Fellowship through the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in 2005. The essay submitted for that occasion is linked here. Dr. McMenomy is a member in good standing of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and of the American Classical League, has frequently presented at recent ACL institutes, and is a member of the Editorial Board for Classical Outlook.

Dr. Christe A. McMenomy

Instructor ♦ Science — History — Writing — Programming

Dr. Christe McMenomy received her B.A. from Scripps College, studying Physics as a Joint Science student at Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pomona, and pursued a masters in astronomy for a year before changing majors and schools to complete a Ph.D. in the history of science at UCLA, concentrating on the organization and transmission of scientific knowledge in the Middle Ages. She has practiced science actively at NASA'’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (where she was using MILNET to post to online bulletin boards in 1973), developing image processing and cataloguing techniques for the Landsat, Viking, and Voyager missions, and at the Rand Corporation applying computer simulation technologies to policy analysis. She retired from Boeing in September 2015, having spent 25 years supporting software development across the corporation as a systems integration analyst and systems architect.

Over the years Dr. Christe has taught or assisted teaching courses at the college level in Western Civilization, history of technology, history of science, physics, and astronomy, as well as professional training courses in database design and programming for Boeing. Together with her husband, she homeschooled their three children through high school. Through Scholars’ Online Academy (ISLAS) and Scholars Online, Dr. Christe has taught science courses over the Internet since 1996. In previous years, her biology, chemistry, and physics courses have been certified as meeting all AP requirements. She remains particularly interested in the history of science and in teaching science within the context of the liberal arts, and presented a paper at the 2014 American Classical League Institute on using Cicero’s translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena in intermediate Latin courses as an example of scientific literacy in the ancient world. She also works on developing curriculum materials, including animations for the Scholars Online YouTube channel, dynamic and interactive simulations, and innovative methods of data representation for all her courses. She is a member of the Americal Classical League, the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and the National Science Teachers Association.

Ms. Alexandra Dascalu Nelson

Instructor ♦ Modern Languages: French; Literature

Alexandra Dascalu Nelson has been teaching online and tutoring for the last four years, privately and through Scholars Online. She hails from a homeschool background, having attended classes both at the local community college, Santa Monica College and through Laurel Springs Online. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with an Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature. Alexandra then attended Pratt Institute in New York and received her Masters of Science in Information and Library Science. She studied French both personally and through school programs during these years. She is currently working towards a Teaching Online certificate through the University of California, San Diego.

She enjoys introducing students to novels that have a deeper subtext, that are applicable to the inevitable transitions during their teenage years and, in some cases, an awareness to social structures in the world at large.

Alexandra has held many different occupations but finds teaching to be the most enjoyable and rewarding thus far. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, though her heart longs for cooler climates.

Mr. Karl F. Oles

Instructor ♦ Philosophy

Karl F. Oles received a B.A. degree from Pomona College, an M.A. from the University of London, and an M.A. from UCLA, all in philosophy, as well as a J.D. degree from the University of Washington. Since 1986, Mr. Oles has practiced law in Seattle, Washington. He is currently head of the construction and design group in the Seattle office of Stoel Rives LLP, where his practice includes both complex litigation and transactional work. He has represented clients in state and federal courts and in arbitration and mediation proceedings.

Ms. Emily D. Pearson

Instructor ♦ Writing Program

Emily Pearson earned her B.A. in History and Classics from the University of Tulsa and her J.D. from the University of Virginia. In her second year of law school, she received a fellowship to assist in teaching the first-year legal writing program. She also served as Articles Editor of The Journal of Law and Politics, founded by United States Supreme Court Justice Scalia. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Gregory K. Frizzell in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

In high school, Ms. Pearson studied writing and literature with Bruce and Christe McMenomy and was a National Merit Scholar. Ms. Pearson’s hobbies include languages (Latin, Greek, and Japanese) and music. As a part-time violinist, she periodically performs with the Tulsa Signature Symphony. She currently practices law as an associate with the firm of Franden, Farris, Quillin, Goodnight, Roberts and Ward, where she specializes in employment issues and legal research and writing. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband and son, a toddler with a passion for trains and the “Triumphal March” from Aida.

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