In 2003, four experienced educators decided to act on their shared vision to fulfill a vital need: open a school that offered options for at-risk and disadvantaged people that would prove that “alternative” didn’t mean “inferior”—it just meant “different.” Dr. Terrie Suica-Reed, Catherine Mickolay, Patricia McHugh and Susie Harkness believed that these young people deserved a chance to be educated at the same level as their peers.

Their vision became Phase 4 Learning Center, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization that helps at-risk and disadvantaged people earn their high school diploma and succeed in either higher education, the military or workforce. Phase 4’s safe and caring learning environment is focused on four phases of development: academic, social, behavioral, and future employment.

All four founders had worked in public and private schools and witnessed youth falling through the cracks because of many challenges they faced outside of school; situations that were swept under the rug in a traditional classroom due to large class sizes.

In addition, Dr. Suica-Reed, Phase 4’s president and CEO, was a core member of Pennsylvania’s committee to enact legislation for alternative education in the early 1990s. She began the first alternative education program in the Commonwealth based on the original definition of an at-risk child, which led to more than 150 private provider programs to be established across Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Suica-Reed also became a consultant and regional representative for Pennsylvania and helped school districts to establish their own alternative education programs.

In August 2003, Phase 4 Learning Center opened its first location in Century III Mall in West Mifflin at the site of former learning center, which had left behind desks, chairs, computers and big screen televisions. Phase 4 began with five students and one supporting school district.

The first nine months were not easy—convincing area school districts to support a brand new alternative education program with a new approach, but the founders relied upon their vision, qualifications and collective experience to receive backing. In the beginning, there were no paid employees—and it speaks volumes that many of the early staff continue to work at Phase 4.

Within the first year, Phase 4 Learning Center served 80 young people and celebrated its first graduating class—31 out of 32 seniors—in May 2004. By the fall of 2004, Phase 4 had expanded its footprint to Monessen through a partnership with the Douglas Education Center, and also opened a site in the historic George Washington Hotel in Washington, PA.

Shortly thereafter, Phase 4 took over management of the International Computer Clubhouse, located within the Parental Stress Center in East Liberty, Pittsburgh. At Phase 4’s second graduation, 98 percent of the senior class earned diplomas, and the school has maintained that high graduation rate.

In 2005, Phase 4 became a partner of the Simon Youth Foundation, and in November of that year, hosted the National Simon Youth Foundation Conference, Educational Options at Work. The conference proved to be highly successful as educators nationwide who were serving at-risk youth were exposed to Phase 4’s philosophy: at-risk learners are intuitive problem solvers with unique learning styles who deserve the same opportunities as their public school peers. Soon, Dr. Suica-Reed was presenting at national conferences along with her Phase 4 colleagues.



Phase 4 Learning Center, Inc. has grown from a small, grassroots nonprofit into the Pittsburgh region’s largest private secondary school based on enrollment, providing life-changing programs and services to approximately 1,300 students and their families annually in southwestern PA and in Harrisburg.