Hidden Gems: Meet Jasmine Cason of Sproutify Academy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Cason.

Hi Jasmine, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
God has a way of bringing things around full circle. As a child, I always loved school and couldn’t wait to come home and teach my parents everything I had learned. By middle and high school, I found myself quietly critical of some of my teachers because I felt like there wasn’t enough actual teaching happening. Many teachers would simply write assignments on the board for us to complete instead of teaching us the content, and that bothered me.

It also bothered me that many of my peers still struggled with decoding and reading. At the time, phonics was not heavily emphasized in Georgia schools, and I believed that was the missing key to the reading problems I was seeing around me. I didn’t have any formal training or educational background at the time, but my God-given intuition told me that phonics was necessary.

As I got older, I became more in touch with my creative side. I developed interests in music, fashion, and creative writing and began writing poetry. By my senior year of high school, my plan was to attend Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), major in Fashion Design, and minor in Creative Writing.

However, between my 10th and 11th grade years, my dad, who was the sole provider for our household, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Because of SCAD’s high tuition, that dream was no longer realistic for me.

In 2008, I moved with my mom to her hometown of Louisville, Georgia, and attended what was then called East Georgia College. The school didn’t have a fashion program, so I initially chose business as my major because I always knew I wasn’t called to the standard 9-to-5 life. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and create something of my own. However, once I saw all the required economics and math courses, I changed my mind—and my major—immediately!

I prayed about it, and God led me to English, which had always been my favorite subject. I didn’t choose English because I wanted to become a teacher. In fact, teaching always scared me. My goal was to become a writer. I dreamed of writing books, poetry, spoken word, and screenplays and traveling the world speaking.

I earned my associate degree in English and later matriculated to Clayton State University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in writing.

After college, I quickly realized how difficult it could be to break into the writing industry, and I knew I needed a regular “big girl” job. I ended up working several unfulfilling, dead-end jobs in customer service. During that time, everyone—including random strangers—would ask me if I was a teacher or wanted to become one. My answer was always a firm no.

For one, I never really wanted a traditional job. Secondly, I secretly didn’t think I had what it took to be a teacher. I took the profession seriously, and I feared that I wouldn’t be successful at it. So, I kept saying no. I ran from teaching like Jonah ran from Nineveh!

But the idea of teaching kept coming back over and over again. It simply would not leave me alone.

Finally, in 2019, I said yes to the call. God had also given me a much bigger dream to one day start my own school, and I knew becoming a teacher was the first step toward that vision.

I began as a preschool teacher at a daycare in 2019. The following year, I took a leap of faith and accepted a sixth-grade ELA position. I taught sixth-grade ELA for two school years before transitioning into elementary education. Along the way, I earned my master’s degree in education and my elementary teaching certification.

Although I had finally answered the call, teaching was not a walk in the park. I worked in several stressful environments, but I believe God had me planted in each one for a reason. I was learning skills and gaining experiences that I could one day take with me into my own school. I was also learning what not to do.

By the fall of 2023, I had reached my breaking point. It was an extremely stressful school year, and I was dealing with a lot in my personal life as well. So, I made the executive decision to leave teaching mid-year.

During that time away, I drew closer to God, did a lot of soul-searching, and wrote my first book, *The Nature of God*. After believing I would never return to the classroom, God sent me back.

In the spring of 2024, I returned—this time as a Pre-K teacher, something I had never seriously considered before. But God is intentional, and I believe there is a reason for every move.

As a Pre-K teacher, I received extensive training in phonics and early literacy. That training awakened something in me and reminded me of the passion I had for phonics all those years ago as a child. Suddenly, everything started coming full circle.

It felt as though God had taken me the long route to Canaan. I had to go through the wilderness and make quite a few pit stops along the way before realizing, *This is what I’m supposed to teach. I am an early literacy instructor.*

In the spring of 2026, I completed my Science of Reading training, which helped lead to the launch of my business, Sproutify Academy. In the summer of 2026, I launched my first Summer Literacy Camp for rising Pre-K through rising first-grade students, and this fall, I am expanding Sproutify Academy with Early Literacy Hubs.

When I look back now, I can see that the pieces were there all along—from the little girl who loved school, to the teenager wondering why phonics wasn’t being taught, to the writer who insisted she would never become a teacher. God simply had to bring me full circle.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has been far from smooth! There have been bumpy roads, dirt roads, hills, and valleys—oh, and let’s not forget the potholes and detours!

Some of the biggest struggles for me throughout this journey have been needing clarity, being impatient, and lacking confidence. It’s challenging knowing you’re called to do something huge but not being able to fully see the route to get there. It has also been difficult knowing for years that I wanted to be a full-time entrepreneur while having to endure long seasons of working for other people.

Confidence has probably been one of my biggest hurdles. I cannot say that I am the most confident person. I tend to second-guess myself, and because of that, I haven’t always been the best at putting myself out there or marketing what I have to offer. But those are things I’m actively working on.

I finally feel like I’m in a season where God is slowly leading me away from my job and into entrepreneurship full-time. Now, the challenge is having the confidence to fully go forth, believe in what God has given me, and boldly promote the business I’ve worked so hard to build.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My business is called Sproutify Academy. Our mission is to cultivate a generation of strong believers, confident readers and writers, critical thinkers, and world-changers. Through faith-centered education and a strong foundation in literacy, we equip children with the knowledge, wisdom, skills, and confidence they need to understand the world around them, think for themselves, and boldly walk in their God-given purpose.

Currently, Sproutify Academy specializes in early literacy instruction for young learners. One of our primary offerings is our Early Literacy Hubs—small-group learning experiences consisting of approximately 4–8 students. Within each Hub, students receive explicit instruction and hands-on practice in foundational literacy skills such as alphabet knowledge, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, early reading, and writing. Students meet twice a week for one hour, allowing us to provide consistent, targeted instruction in an intimate learning environment. Our Hubs run for 11 weeks during the first semester and 12 weeks during the second semester. We also offer our Summer Literacy Camp each summer.

What really sets Sproutify Academy apart is our emphasis on building strong literacy foundations before children begin to struggle. Because we start with children at such a young age, our goal isn’t simply to help students catch up—it’s to reach them before they ever have to play catch-up.

I believe strong readers are grown from strong roots. When children develop a solid foundation in alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing early on, we are planting seeds that can impact their entire educational journey.

Our small-group model is also very intentional. While one-on-one tutoring can certainly be beneficial, I love what happens when children learn alongside a small community of their peers. They collaborate, build confidence, learn from one another, and build upon each other’s ideas. At the same time, keeping our groups small allows us to provide individualized attention without many of the distractions that can come with a traditional classroom of 20 or more students.

As a classroom teacher myself, I also understand the reality of traditional education. Teachers are doing their best, but there simply isn’t enough time in the school day to provide every child with the amount of targeted, small-group literacy instruction they could benefit from. Sproutify Academy helps fill that gap by providing children with additional opportunities to practice, grow, ask questions, and receive instruction tailored to their needs.

Our home-based learning environment is intentionally warm, welcoming, and personal. I want children to feel like Sproutify is a place where they are known, supported, challenged, and excited to learn.

What I’m most proud of, however, is that Sproutify Academy is being built with a much larger vision in mind. We are building the vision in phases. The long-term goal is to expand Sproutify Academy into a private school, beginning with preschool and growing from there, with an emphasis on faith, literacy, hands-on learning, creativity, and nature.

Ultimately, Sproutify Academy is about more than helping children become better readers. We are planting seeds. We want to help children develop deep roots in faith, literacy, knowledge, wisdom, and confidence so they can grow into critical thinkers, strong leaders, and world-changers.

We’re starting small—but we’re growing something big.

What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is ensuring that every child leaves me knowing more than they did when they came to me. But even before academics, I want every child to leave with the assurance that they are loved, valued, and important.

I want each child to leave as a stronger reader—one who can not only decode words, but truly comprehend and think critically about what they are reading. I want my students to develop a genuine love of learning, a love of reading, and a curiosity that makes them want to explore, discover, and ask questions.

Somewhere along the way, I think education has lost some of its joy, creativity, and wonder. I want to help bring that back. Children are naturally curious, imaginative, and eager to discover the world around them. Education should nurture that, not diminish it.

At the end of the day, I want every child who comes through Sproutify Academy to leave knowing more, believing in themselves more, and excited to keep growing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sproutifyacademy.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sproutifyacademy