01·About us

From a community mission to a flagship school.

Peace by Piece is the institutional home for a long-term commitment to Kissimmee's students: what we've built so far, who leads it, and how it's governed.

Students from Edgewood Jr./Sr. High School in Merritt Island, Florida, in their robotics shop
Edgewood Jr./Sr. High, Merritt Island, FL. Photo: NASA
01Our storyAn organizational evolution

Our story

Beginning

A community-centered mission.

Peace by Piece started with a simple belief: a child's ZIP code shouldn't decide how far they can go. The work began in Kissimmee, close to the families it serves, with education at the center.

Kissimmee Lakefront Park at dusk, lights on along the water under the palms
Photo: Miosotis Jade, CC BY-SA 4.0

Growth

Peace by Piece Academy.

The mission became a school. Peace by Piece Academy put the idea into daily practice, with classrooms, teachers, and students showing up every morning.

Two high school students building a test tower together at a STEM event
Photo: U.S. Navy, Women in STEM event

Today

Lake Toho Prep, a focused model.

The Academy evolved into Lake Toho Prep: smaller, sharper, and built around biotechnology, laboratory science, and purposeful instruction.

We narrowed to high school, grades 9 through 12, on purpose. Those four years, right before college, are where earlier access, better guidance, and real mentorship change the most, and where students earn college credit on the way to excellent colleges and universities.

Active
A student looking through a microscope in a teaching lab
Photo: USDA

Next

Education connected to work.

Now Peace by Piece is reaching further: workforce development, career pathways, and partnerships with institutions that can take students from the classroom into a career, starting with a long-range vision for a Medical Arts education campus.

Long-term concept
An instructor guiding students at computers in a lab
02MissionPeace by Piece

Building opportunity through education.

Our mission

We expand opportunity through innovative education, career-connected learning, strategic partnerships, and community investment, helping learners build pathways to meaningful futures.

We don't have to run every program. Where good work exists, we strengthen it; where a piece is missing, we bring the partners to build it. We connect the pieces.

03Leadership & governancePeace by Piece

Accountable by design.

Peace by Piece is governed by an independent, expert-led board of community leaders: specialists in public health policy, accounting, law, medicine, biotechnology, and education, many with doctorates. The brains of this community, helping build the next ones.

  • Expert-led board oversightAn independent board of professionals sets strategy, approves budgets, and oversees leadership.
  • Public financial reportingAnnual reports and IRS Form 990 filings, published as they become available.
  • Clear separation of resourcesNonprofit resources are kept fully separate from any individual political activity.
  • Verified claims onlyWe publish only confirmed results, and photography and stories shared with permission.
04Why “Peace by Piece”Peace by Piece

Why Peace by Piece

  1. One student discovering biology at a lab bench.
  2. One teenager earning college credit before graduation.
  3. One family finding a shaded place to play.
  4. One young adult choosing a career in healthcare.
  5. One partner turning an idea into a program.

Communities aren't transformed all at once. They're built piece by piece.

Help write the next chapter.

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