People whizzing down East Grand Avenue may think they see an apartment complex on the north side of the road as they approach Giant City Road. Actually they are driving past Brehm Preparatory School, a nationally acclaimed school for students with learning disabilities.

People don’t know about us, Lisa, an 18-year-old student, said. There have actually been people that come in and ask how much rent is.

The place is hardly an apartment complex; Brehm Prep attracted students from 19 states and around the world to attend the institution this year, Executive Director Rich Collins said.

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He said students from France, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Malaysia are attending the school.

Collins said all the students at Brehm have a neurological disorder such as Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia that do not affect their intelligence, but do make the students learn differently than other teens.

Brehm was started in 1982 when Carbondale resident Carol Brehm sent her son to a boarding school on the east coast, Collins said. The boy hated the stuffy suit-and-tie atmosphere of the east coast school and returned to Carbondale.

His mother then decided to start a similar school with a lighter atmosphere. After consulting with four SIUC professors, Brehm Preparatory School was born.

Ten years later school officials were at the White House attending a reception for the Blue Ribbon Award Brehm received from the U.S. Department of Education.

Brehm teaches a basic high school curriculum along with a post-secondary program that helps students past high school prepare for college.

Collins said there are 52 students in the high school curriculum and said about 10 other students live in townhouses near SIUC and commute for the post-secondary instruction. There are also four students from the Carbondale area that attend day classes.

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Collins said one alumnus of Brehm is the daughter of the commander of the space shuttle Endeavor. He said the commander invited students to Houston to witness the shuttle’s takeoff.

Brehm takes a different approach to educating their students than many schools, Collins said.

We use more hands-on, applied methods, Collins said.

With the help of the Buckminster Fuller Foundation, pupils at Brehm constructed a small Geodesic Dome, that will become a greenhouse for science classes.

The students are also involved in business ventures. Collins said students design and sell T-Shirts, mugs and Christmas cards they design on computers.

Collins said one group of students took out a $6,000 loan from the school to upgrade Brehm’s computer facilities. One stipulation of the loan was that the students had to present a business plan that detailed how the group was going to raise money to pay the loan back.

Such real world ventures are part of Brehm’s teaching strategy, Collins said.

We know that in order for our students to make it they have to be able to access services in the community, he said.

The classes are small. The learning cognition sessions, which teach the students how to learn, have a maximum of eight pupils. Seventeen-year-old Ryan said this is what he likes best about the school.

Everyone’s allowed to work at their own pace, he said.

One day a week the students work on an area they are behind in or a specialty interest, such as computer animation.

The school days of Brehm students are highly structured, Collins said. They get up at 7:50 a.m. and do not have any down time until about 9 p.m. Between those times, pupils attend classes, study and do assigned chores.

Brehm’s environment is cozy. The students live in two small dormitories and are in constant contact with each other. The dorms are staffed by live-in dorm parents who keep the students in line and cook family-style meals for students. The kitchens and dining rooms look more like those in an average home instead of school cafeteria.

Everybody here is like family, 18-year old student Lisa said.

Living and working at Brehm can be a rewarding experience, dorm parent Britt Sorenson said.

When you live with them for 10 months you form a lot bonds, Sorenson said. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve sacrificed a lot, but I can still say I love it.