Unlimited Dreams Gives Laurel Students Another Education Option, Hope

Dr. Amanda Cooley set out on a mission to meet the education needs of the children in her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.  What she didn’t know was just how large that mission was going to be.

Amanda had run a daycare in her town for years and discovered that some of the local youth, siblings of the children in daycare, needed more.  She and her mother, Brendalyn Campbell, a 41-year veteran teacher, began an after-school program.

“We were thinking we could help them with their homework and things like that,” Amanda said, “but we discovered something else.”

Amanda’s mother noticed that the children were struggling.

“Mama didn’t say anything to me, she just called me into her room and told me to watch,” Amanda said.  “I looked at her a day later and said, ‘Mama, these kids don’t even know their A, B, C’s.’”

Amanda’s mother said she had seen it too, but that she wanted Amanda to see it with her own eyes.  Amanda met with the mother of one of the fourth graders in the program.

“She couldn’t read,” Amanda said, “and when I told her mother that, she told me she knew.  She said that her daughter had been pushed along in the public school and that she didn’t know what to do.  This was a mom who was working two jobs to take care of her kids, and she was struggling because she didn’t know how to help her daughter.”

Amanda stepped in, knowing she had to help the little girl learn to read.  What she discovered was that many of the children in her after-school program were in similar situations. 

“These were kids that were being passed on through our public schools,” Amanda said.

Amanda and her mother went to work catching the children up so that they could be successful, and then COVID hit in 2020.

“Nobody was coming to the daycare,” Amanda said. “It was dead.  We went from 85 kids down to zero.”

Starting a School

Amanda took the two weeks in March at the beginning of the pandemic to research how to start a school.  She knew that the children they had been teaching couldn’t afford to lose valuable education time.

“Let’s wipe everything down, and let’s go,” she smiled.  “I called my mama and told her I wanted to start a school but that I needed her help.  I couldn’t do it by myself.”

In August, Amanda opened Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center in a 600-square-foot building just down from her daycare.

“I knew we had about 14 kids who were going to be with us,” she said, “and the first day of school, we had 44 kids show up.  They just kept coming.  We had to call in help, and they were steady letting them come in.”

Amanda’s mission was to serve the kids in her community who are at risk.

“There were so many that came that first day, I looked at my husband, Randall, and he just said, ‘We have to help them. We can’t turn them away.’”

Rapidly Growing

Word of Amanda’s school spread through her community, and they quickly outgrew their small building.  Amanda went to the mall in town to look at space.

“I left that meeting not sure how we would do it,” she said, “and I looked up later in the day, and the mall manager was in my classroom.  He told me he had to come see for himself what we were doing.”

Amanda smiled, saying that through the process of growing the school, it was the Lord who provided a way.  All she had was her faith and a relationship with her banker.

“He’d see me coming and ask what was next,” she laughed, “and he would come through.  I don’t even know how because I had nothing.  When we moved to the mall, I went back to him (her banker) because I needed desks.  The kids were everywhere – on the floor, sharing desks – and they needed a place.”

Amanda moved to the mall and her number grew to 63 students.  She then rented a second space for recreation and eating.

“I was doing it all in that one space.  We were learning, and I was cooking lunch.  We needed room,” she said.  “And the whole time we were in class, people were walking by in the mall looking in to see what we were doing.  They were fascinated.”

Her second year at the mall, Amanda’s school had grown to 73 students. Word was out all over town about Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center.  Amanda’s students were happy and thriving.  They were learning and becoming successful in the classroom – something that some had never before experienced in their previous school settings.

Laurel Neighbors Taking Care of the School

“We’re in Laurel, and you know that Laurel has become famous because of the HGTV show with Ben and Erin,” Amanda smiled.

A tourist found out about Unlimited Dreams and wanted to know more.

“She began asking about us and found me,” Amanda said. “She came and saw what we were doing at the school.”

Several months later, the lady invited Amanda to her house in Laurel for dinner.  Amanda agreed.  When she got there, her husband Randall and their twin sons were at the house.  The lady asked Amanda what she thought of her home.

“I was a little confused,” Amanda said.  “It was a beautiful house that had been redone, and I told her that.  Then she looked at me and said, ‘Do you think it would work for your school?’”

Amanda was overwhelmed that they were given use of the home for the school.

“The tears started rolling,” she said.  “I just couldn’t believe it.”

They moved the school into the house over the summer and began their third school year that August with 93 students.  During that year, Amanda noted, an “angel sponsor” knocked on the door of the school in December.

“That’s really how it happened,” she said.  “We have people who are welcome to stop by at any time and see what we’re doing here.”

The sponsor met with Amanda on several occasions and on one of their last visits, left a large donation for the school.  It was a huge moment for the school because they operate on a shoestring budget.  Amanda, even today, does not take a salary.  They are a tuition-free school for the children in her community who need something different.

Ben and Erin Napier Join the Mission

With over 100 students between the schoolhouse and Amanda’s daycare, one of her friends, Katie, approached her about a house just down the street from the school’s current location where all the children could be under one roof.

“Katie’s on the show with Ben and Erin, and she told me that we should just go look at the house,” Amanda laughed.  “I dragged my feet about going to look at the house because I didn’t have any money, but finally I agreed to go.”

Amanda and Katie walked through the property, imagining what it would be like for Unlimited Dreams to be housed in such a magnificent space.  There was room for a library, classrooms, a cafeteria, a quiet room, and even an office space for Amanda.  She left the meeting having enjoyed fantasizing about something that might be able to come down the road.  Amanda had no expectations of anything coming of it because she knew that the school had no money for such a giant undertaking.

Eventually, Amanda, with the help of five donors in the community, was able to pull together a down payment and money for the renovation of the house in January of 2024.  Work began on Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center in mid-April and was finished in time for classes to begin in August of 2024.  Of course, the project was featured on HGTV’s Hometown with Ben and Erin Napier just this January 2025 and named one of the couple’s largest undertakings.

“We are experiencing a God-given reward here on earth right now,” Amanda said of the new schoolhouse.  “We are walking on faith every day.”

Meeting the Needs of the Students

Today, the 100 percent tuition-free school is made up of 120 children in grades K-12 with 10 teachers.

“Kids learn in different ways,” she said.  “We have kids here from all walks of life, and some of them just needed removal from that public school setting where they were getting passed along.”

The school uses the ACE curriculum and Amanda noted they have standards that they must meet.  Currently, the school’s senior class is made up of seven students who have plans beyond high school, which include college, trade school, and jobs.

“Our goal is to meet these children where they are and get them where they need to be.  A lot of these kids have not been exposed to having to do the work.  In a public school classroom, they just get moved along, but here, they have to do the work.  They are smart, and we let them know that we believe in them, and we are going to work with them until they get the hang of it.”

And the school’s approach has paid off greatly.

“We’ve got kids now who are in Beta Club.  They are being successful.  We are a school of champions where all can achieve.  We are teaching them to know their ability and be the best they can be. These kids needed something different.  

“We want the next generation to be better.  We have lost school along the way and because of that, we have lost a lot of children.  At Unlimited Dreams, we give them a new approach to school, and they are learning they can be successful because of it.”