We’re passionate about creating space for children to grow, explore, and belong.
WELCOME AMY MADDOX
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NEW YOUTH ENRICHMENT LEAD
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WELCOME AMY MADDOX ✳︎ NEW YOUTH ENRICHMENT LEAD ✳︎
About Mesquite Bosque Academy Foundation
Mesquite Bosque Academy Foundation was created from a shared belief that children thrive when learning is rooted in curiosity, community, and connection to the natural world.
Based in Tubac, Arizona, we offer enrichment programs and learning experiences that support children’s academic, social, emotional, and developmental growth through cognitive, somatic, and nature-based programming. Our small cohort model provides weekly sessions where children can explore, create, build skills, and grow meaningful friendships in a supportive environment.
Inspired by Montessori principles and the rhythms of the Sonoran Desert, our programming blends hands-on learning, gardening, art, practical life skills, movement, and outdoor exploration. We are committed to creating an inclusive space that embraces diverse identities, abilities, and ways of learning, and we strive to serve children and families with care and respect.
Like the trees in a bosque, we believe children grow strongest when rooted in their individuality—while supported by the community around them.
A bosque (/ˈboʊskeɪ/ BOH-skay) is a gallery forest or wooded habitat located along the riparian flood plains of rivers, streams, or lakes, particularly common in the arid Southwestern United States. Derived from Spanish for "forest," it functions as a crucial oasis providing, habitat, food, and water for diverse species.
OUR FOUNDERS
Meet Marla
I am a mother and a passionate advocate for education that honors the unique spirit of every child. I believe learning should unfold organically, creating fertile ground where curiosity, confidence, and independence can take root and grow strong.
I grew up in Ensenada, a coastal town in Mexico near San Diego, and was raised between Mexico and the United States before moving permanently to the U.S. at sixteen. My paternal grandparents were French, and my upbringing was a blend of cultures that valued curiosity, travel, and openness to the world. Growing up in a home facing the open ocean, I learned early to find inspiration in nature. The rhythm of the waves taught me about the natural ups and downs of life, while the horizon invited me to imagine what lies beyond and to look toward possibility. Surrounded by the outdoors, I developed a deep appreciation for beauty in everyday life. I later lived in Europe as a student, spending a year in Italy and another in France—experiences that further expanded my creativity and broadened my perspective on the world.
I am naturally persistent and deeply passionate about the things I believe in. When something matters to me—especially children, community, and education—I stand for it wholeheartedly.
Today I am an Organic Intelligence coach, a somatic approach that recognizes the body’s innate capacity for healing and resilience. This work follows our natural impulses toward connection, simple human pleasure, and meaningful living. It reflects what I know to be true about children: when supported with care and respect, they naturally move toward growth, confidence, and wholeness.
At the core of my values is authentic self-esteem. True confidence is built through lived experience, through moments when a child can say, “I can,” and truly feel it. I believe kindness is part of our nature and that we thrive in community—like trees in a bosque, each rooted in our individuality while strengthening the whole.
Creating spaces where curiosity, capability, and compassion flourish is both my purpose and my promise at Mesquite Bosque Academy.
Meet Viviana
I was born in Arizona and raised along the U.S. Mexico border, a place that shaped me long before I understood how powerful it was. Growing up between cultures taught me that identity is not singular, it is layered, fluid, and deeply personal. That upbringing gave me my why: a belief that diversity, curiosity, and expression are not luxuries, but necessities.
By title, I am a Mechanical and Aerospace engineer. At my core, I am an artist, an inquirer, and a seeker of freedom in how we think, move, and create. Music and dance have always been my refuge, my way of processing the world and staying connected to myself. No matter where life has taken me, those forms of expression have remained constant.
I have lived in five different countries and traveled extensively, yet none offered the depth of multicultural richness I experienced growing up on the border. My upbringing taught me how to listen, how to adapt, and how to honor multiple perspectives at once. That early education continues to inform how I live, work, and raise my family.
Life eventually brought me to Tubac, where art lives at the center of the community and creativity is part of everyday life. Santa Cruz County is my home, not just for its beauty, but for its deep roots and resilience.
Today, my greatest inspiration is my daughters. They are the reason I think more intentionally about the spaces we create and the values we pass on. I want them to grow up rooted in culture, confident in their voice, and unafraid to move between worlds with curiosity and strength. Surrounded by strong women and guided by community, my purpose is to help cultivate environments where they and others feel a deep sense of belonging, resilience, and freedom, close to the U.S.-Mexico border that first taught me who I am.
YOUTH ENRICHMENT LEAD
Meet Amy Maddox
I am a Montessori lower elementary guide with 11 years of teaching experience and 15 years of working with children. I was born in Southern Arizona and raised between two cultures. I spent the first five years of my life in Sinaloa, Mexico, where my grandmother played a central role in raising me. I continued to spend my school breaks in Sinaloa throughout my childhood, which created a lifelong connection to my grandmother, my family, and the beauty of both cultures that have shaped who I am today.
Teaching was not originally part of my plan. As a young mother, I chose a career that would allow me to spend more time with my children and unexpectedly discovered a deep love for teaching and for the children I worked with. I began my career in special education, working with students in preschool, elementary, and high school settings. Those early experiences taught me to see children as individuals with different strengths, needs, and ways of learning. This became an understanding that continues to shape my classroom today.
My path to Montessori was just as unexpected. After working alongside two close friends and fellow teachers in a traditional public school, the three of us eventually found our way to the same Montessori school, one after another. It was there that I discovered an educational philosophy that felt deeply natural to me. I was drawn to the way Montessori honors a child’s curiosity, imagination, independence, and individuality while allowing children to learn through hands-on experiences, meaningful materials, and at their own pace. Most importantly, I found a community that supports both children and teachers. I knew I had found where I belonged.
I believe that children deserve to be cared for and supported as whole people, not simply as students. I often remind myself to be the teacher I would want my own children to have. I love working with lower elementary children because they are still wonderfully curious about the world; everything can be new and exciting, they are eager to explore, and they haven’t yet lost the freedom to be silly, imaginative, and completely themselves. In my classroom, I bring creativity and diligence to creating an environment where children feel ownership, joy, and a genuine connection to their learning.
One of the greatest rewards of teaching for me is seeing my students years later and hearing them remember their time in my classroom with genuine affection. A simple “Hi, Mrs. Maddox!” from a former student or hearing that they loved being in my class, is a reminder of why I chose this work in the first place.
Outside of the classroom, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family. Together we have come to appreciate the beauty of Southern Arizona. Working in a Montessori environment has given me a new appreciation for the landscape, sunsets, and the close-knit, neighborly spirit of the community I call home. I am grateful to be part of a place that encourages children to respect and care for the natural world around them.
OUR PARTNERS
Meet Santa Fe Ranch
Santa Fe Ranch Foundation is a key partner in supporting our youth programming by providing access to open land, ecological learning spaces, and hands-on experiences that encourage curiosity, confidence, and connection in children.
Owned and operated by the Paula and Cabot Sedgwick Family Foundation, Santa Fe Ranch is a 3,400-acre working cattle ranch located along the upper reaches of the Santa Cruz River and near Las Lagunas de Anza—a 9-acre desert wetland within the city limits of Nogales, Arizona.
The ranch is recognized as a national model for best practices in balancing fragile desert ecology with the production of high-quality beef. It also serves as a hub for educational initiatives and community-based projects.
Las Lagunas de Anza was acknowledged in 2012 as the Outstanding Wetlands Project in the United States. Today, it continues to serve as a vibrant space where people gather to birdwatch, participate in community activities, and experience the miracle of water in the desert.