At Seashore Academy, we develop healthy, creative, intellectually curious students in an ethical and nurturing environment.
1011 Camelback Street, Newport Beach CA 92660
We offer a structured, accelerated curriculum across all subjects tailored specifically to the needs of each individual student.
About Our Founder
Marlene Sheehan Dandler graduated from the Lakeside School in Seattle WA in 1994 and Dartmouth College in 1998. During her time at Dartmouth, she studied at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany as well as at the Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China.
While at Dartmouth, Marlene worked as a German language instructor for Professor John Rassias, the creator of the Rassias Method, a unique, intensive language immersion technique used by the Peace Corps to learn a foreign language in 10 days’ time.
This revolutionary method of rapid, effective language acquisition impressed Marlene greatly and became the foundation of Seashore Academy’s language immersion philosophy.
When her own three children were ready to start school, Marlene visited over 2 dozen public, charter and private schools searching for an academically intensive, nurturing school in which her children would be immersed in a foreign language.
She and her husband decided to immerse their three children in Mandarin Chinese to best prepare them for future business and work opportunities. As there were no Mandarin immersion programs in Orange County at the time, Marlene spearheaded a successful effort to launch a public Mandarin immersion district school in Orange, CA, which operates to this day. While building the program, she homeschooled her children with a private Mandarin tutor. Word of the homeschool group spread, and the other children started joining. The group moved to a Boys and Girls Club in Costa Mesa for 2 years, then to Irvine, CA.
Today, all of the children at Seashore, including Marlene’s own three children, speak, read and write Mandarin Chinese in traditional characters. They work in an academically accelerated environment and enjoy plenty of free time to read and play as they have no homework.