Team Magdalen
Anna Barber | Founder & Director
Anna Barber is the founder and Director of Magdalen Classical Academy. She holds a BA in Psychology and English Literature from Biola University and is a graduate and Perpetual Member of the Torrey Honors College. She has fifteen years of experience as a classical education humanities teacher and curriculum developer, and she was herself a classically educated homeschooler. She lives in LA county with her husband and two kids. In founding Magdalen Classical Academy, she sought to envision the ideal academy she would want to eventually send her own children to: a place where they can find joy in learning and discovery, encounter the beauty, truth, and goodness of their Christian faith and heritage, grow as whole souls, and be raised up into mature Christian adulthood surrounded by peers and teachers who think deeply, love what is good, live joyfully, and cultivate virtue and beauty.
FAVORITE TEXT IN THE CURRICULUM (BESIDES THE BIBLE): Athanasius’s On the Incarnation OR C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces
Timothy Lawrence | Teacher
Timothy Lawrence is an educator and writer who has been teaching great books in the classroom for six years. When he was a student, the Socratic discussion of classic texts with fellow Christians changed his life; now, as a teacher, he is deeply invested in the work of inviting students to have transformative encounters with Jesus Christ through communal engagement with the Great Conversation. An alumni of BIOLA University's School of Cinema and Media Arts and a perpetual member of the Torrey Honors College, he is also a prolific writer who loves to integrate faith, film, and classics through his work.
FAVORITE TEXT IN THE CURRICULUM: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Gabriel Choo | Teacher
Gabriel Choo has been a teacher since 2015. He graduated with a double major in Business and Philosophy from Biola University in 2013 and from the Torrey Honors Institute in 2014. He is passionate about helping students deepen their faith through a robust engagement with the great books tradition. He runs a financial advising practice managing more than 70Million dollars. He lives in Orange, CA with his wife Angela and their two dogs, Potato and Pickles.
FAVORITE TEXT IN THE CURRICULUM: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri