About Us
Owner / Director
Maysa Fini
Hello, my name is Maysa Fini.
I am the owner and the director of A Step Ahead preschool in Ahwatukee. I am a mother of two girls, 15 and 21 years old. I have been married for over 27 years and lived in Arizona for the past 15 years. My bachelor degree is in business management from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and my master degree is in education with concentration in curriculum design and implementation. I taught elementary and middle school for a year until I gave birth to my little girl.
I took over A Step Ahead in 2009 with a new vision to turn this preschool into a home when my baby was an infant. A Step Ahead soon turned into my family's second home as well as all other parents' second home. We build our foundation on what is available at home, such as love, safety and then education. All of our teachers are certified in early childhood education and most have their own children here too. I travel with my family frequently to learn about other countries, new cultures and methods of education. Every trip, I bring new ideas, new activities, and a little twist to our mission.
Philosophy
At A Step Ahead, we strongly believe in the positive effect an early childhood education has on the blossoming lives of our children. To meet our commitment to quality education, we have built a caring and knowledgeable team consisting of certified and experienced teachers and teacher aides. Equally important for our children is to spend their precious days in the classrooms, where they are loved and receive more of the “one-on-one” attention by the virtue of a smaller ratio in our classrooms.
A Step Ahead's interactive curriculum not only educates our children with their fundamental elements of learning, such as reading and math, it also helps them with their social skills development and their ability to work independently. We have also adopted an inclusive approach to teaching our young children. Based on the fact that “one shoe size does not fit everyone”, it is essential to individualize our lesson plans, and be able to work with all children of different levels and interests. Our students are assessed in the classroom often, and our parents are provided with their progress reports regularly.
We are devoted to having active communication with our parents and keep them informed about their child's progress every step of the way.