Venture Academy: Madisen Hart found her place, and stability, at Venture

For senior Madisen Hart, success at Venture Academy in Coeur d’Alene runs in the family.

Hart was on her way to an unsuccessful high school career, failing classes, starting arguments, and being disrespectful to teachers, she said. She recalls that she passed only one class in two semesters at Coeur d’Alene High School.

“I was horrible there,” she said. “I had terrible anxiety and didn’t do any of my work. I was skipping classes, just hanging out or going to another teacher’s classroom. I had already been in several schools by the time I started high school, and moved back and forth between Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Kellogg.

“I didn’t have much stability at home, and I felt like everybody was against me so I was angry at the world. But at the end of my freshman year, my brother Isaiah talked to me about Venture, how it was a lot smaller and there were people to talk with there. Honestly, I didn’t mind transferring there because I wasn’t hanging around with good people then.

“As soon as I got to Venture, I had teachers who helped me in class and with my anger issues. It took a while, but I’m a lot better person now than I was my freshman year.”

Hart intends to enroll this fall in the Certified Nursing Assistant program at North Idaho College, and hopes eventually to become a pediatric nurse. She likes helping people, she said, and has wanted to become a nurse ever since she was a child.

“I will miss the teachers and the people I’ve been in school with at Venture. They have become my family,” she said, calling Skyler Mantz, the Venture assistant principal, her favorite person. “I was caught up in credits by my junior year, and at Venture I’ve had lots of classes that I’ve never seen before, practical classes that will help me after high school. The last thing I had to finish was my senior project, on pediatric nursing, radiology and cosmetology.”

Hart won’t forget the role that her brother, Isaiah, played in her success: “He and I had the same struggles, and he wanted me to be successful instead of a brat.”

Mantz echoed Isaiah’s importance in his sister’s life.

“He was a constant for her,” Mantz said. “He would come to me when he was concerned about her and ask me to check in. And we checked in through a lot of different circumstances.

“After she started at Venture there were some ups and downs. Madi was angry, and she struggled when people told her what to do or when she perceived that she was being wronged. There were times I didn’t think she would make it, but she came in every day when she was having a hard time with math or English.

“She’s a great kid who’s had some ups and downs, but I am so proud of her for getting to the finish line.”