Toronto, Ontario
Lights of Wonder Academy
Lights of Wonder Academy
Location
Microschool Founder
Sister Solana D’Cunha, C.E., is the Foundress and guiding heart behind Lights of Wonder, a microschool created for children who learn, communicate, and flourish differently. Her vision is deeply personal. Growing up with NVLD (Non-Verbal Learning Disorder), she understood early what it meant to be capable yet overlooked. As she reflects, “Growing up with a learning disability… school often felt like a world where I had to either swim or sink.” This lived experience became the foundation of her lifelong mission: to build learning environments where every child is truly seen.
For more than sixteen years, Sister Solana has served in exceptional student education, working with children across a wide range of learning profiles. Her career spans roles as a Special Education Teacher, Executive Functioning Strategies instructor, and program founder. At Ave Maria Preparatory School in Florida, she taught social skills, conflict resolution, elementary art, geography, and executive functioning under the direction of the founder, Sister Gilchrist Cottrill (1947–2025), while also receiving training in Orton-Gillingham, S.P.I.R.E., crisis intervention, and Love and Logic.
Her leadership helped launch The Epiphany Excel Center for Learning Disorders and Autism, where she served as Founder and Tutor under the Director, Sister Gilchrist Cottrill (1947–2025). There, she provided Orton-Gillingham reading instruction, math support, cursive writing, social skills development, executive functioning coaching, parent advocacy training, and pet therapy, while co-piloting a new autism program (AMUP). AMUP was created by Sister Gilchrist Cottrill (1947–2025).
During the pandemic, she expanded the center’s reach by helping develop its online classroom, ensuring continuity of care for families during a time of profound disruption.
Sister Solana holds a B.A. in Special Education from Western Governors University, post-secondary training in Exceptional Student Education, and ongoing Orton-Gillingham certification through the Claremont School in Toronto. She is a recipient of the Florida Step Up for Students Teacher Excellence Award (2018) and a member of the Council for Exceptional Children.
At Lights of Wonder, Sister Solana brings together structured teaching, creative exploration, sensory-friendly design, and life-skills development. The school’s model—20 minutes of direct instruction paired with 20 minutes of creative application—reflects her conviction that children thrive when learning is both guided and expressive. Unique experiences such as pet therapy, project-based learning, and multi-age classrooms help students build confidence, leadership, and emotional resilience.