Every Child a Light
Every Lesson
Instills Hope
Lights of Wonder Microcenter is a faith‑based learning pod in Toronto offering supplemental, relationship‑based support for children and youth ages 6–20 with diverse learning needs. Lights of Wonder offers educational enrichment programs designed for students who benefit from calm, structured learning environments with predictable routines and explicit skill-building.
All programs are educational in scope. Lights of Wonder does not provide therapy, diagnosis, or clinical intervention. Students remain enrolled in their primary schools while attending the learning center.
Our Mission
We integrate research‑informed practices with a heart‑led, relationship‑centred approach to support children and youth with learning differences. Our nurturing environment encourages growth across learning, emotional well‑being, and spiritual development—honouring each learner’s pace, strengths, and individual journey.
Lights of Wonder operates as the educational arm of a broader ecosystem confounded by educators and the Secrets of Champions Foundation, which also supports research and clinical work through separate, independent arms.
Lights of Wonder provides education only. We offer educational enrichment programs, including the AMUP Educational Curriculum, delivered through Thrive informed instructional routines that shape how learning is structured and experienced.
Lights of Wonder is not a private school, a therapy or clinical service, or an autism treatment program.
Lights of Wonder Microcenter supports children and youth ages 6–20 with diverse learning needs in a faith‑based, inclusive environment that nurtures spiritual, personal, and developmental growth. Our approach integrates evidence‑informed practices with compassion and respect for the whole person. We offer guided learning support, executive‑function skill development, social connection, and sensory‑informed practices within a safe, welcoming community.
Nonprofit Mission Model —As a nonprofit organization, all resources are reinvested directly into our mission, strengthening support for families and learners.
AMUP Educational Curriculum
Sensory-Designed Learning Environment
Our program incorporates sensory‑informed movement activities, calming engagement opportunities, executive‑function skill‑building, social connection, and will-strengthening practices that support self‑awareness and positive decision‑making.
Learning takes place within a thoughtfully prepared environment that values curiosity, dignity, and steady, individual progress.
Structured & Creative Learning Model
Our program follows a balanced rhythm of guided learning support and creative application, typically moving between focused engagement periods and expressive exploration.
This approach supports skill development while allowing learners to meaningfully apply what they are building in ways that feel relevant and motivating.
Our Autism and Neurodiversity Program is grounded in the AMUP Model (Adaptive Multi‑Sensory Unified Program), an educational framework designed for learning‑center settings.
AMUP recognizes regulation as foundational to learning and supports children through purposeful, sensory‑informed experiences that promote engagement, self‑awareness, and readiness to participate.
This model is educational rather than clinical and is implemented through guided learning support within a nurturing, relationship‑based environment.
Meet Our Founder
Sister Solana D’Cunha, C.E., is the foundress and guiding heart behind Lights of Wonder, a faith‑based learning center created to support children and young people who learn, communicate, and experience the world differently. Her vision is deeply personal and rooted in lived experience.
Growing up with Non‑Verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD), Sister Solana learned early what it meant to be capable yet often overlooked within traditional educational systems. Learning environments frequently felt like places where one was expected to “either swim or sink.” This experience shaped her lifelong commitment to creating supportive, dignified learning spaces where individuals are truly seen, understood, and valued.
For more than sixteen years, Sister Solana has worked in the field of exceptional student education, supporting learners across a wide range of profiles and ages. Her work has included roles as a special education educator, executive‑function support instructor, and program founder, with a focus on learning‑center and supplemental support environments.
During her time at Ave Maria Preparatory School in Florida, she supported learners through social‑skills development, conflict resolution, executive‑function skill‑building, and enrichment learning experiences under the mentorship of Sister Gilchrist Cottrill (1947–2025). She also received training in Orton‑Gillingham–based literacy approaches, S.P.I.R.E., crisis intervention, and Love and Logic, grounding her work in structured, compassionate, and evidence‑informed practices.
Sister Solana later helped launch The Epiphany Excel Center for Learning Disorders and Autism, where she served as Founder and Learning Support Tutor. In this role, she provided educational support in literacy, numeracy, writing development, executive‑function skills, social learning, family advocacy, and animal‑assisted engagement. She also helped pilot the AMUP (Adaptive Multi‑Sensory Unified Program), an educational, non-clinical framework created by Sister Gilchrist Cottrill, specifically designed for learning‑center environments.
Sister Solana holds a Bachelor of Arts in Special Education from Western Governors University, post‑secondary training in Exceptional Student Education, and is pursuing ongoing Orton‑Gillingham certification through the Claremont School in Toronto and IDA‑accredited programs.
She has also completed Parent Advocacy training through the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario. She is a recipient of the Florida Step Up for Students Teacher Excellence Award (2018) and a member of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Through Lights of Wonder, Sister Solana continues her mission to build learning environments rooted in faith, dignity, and relationship, where children and young people are supported academically, emotionally, and spiritually—without being asked to conform to systems that were never designed with them in mind.
Meet Our Co-Founder
The Secrets of Champions Foundation was developed in 2012 under the leadership of Dr. George L. Carlo, a world-recognized medical scientist, best-selling author, attorney, and Chairman of the Secrets of Champions Group. The broader Secrets of Champions initiative was founded in 2005.
The foundation focuses on healthy living and a science-based neurodivergent balance program called Thrive.
It employs research-supported protocols addressing features of Autism, Developmental Delay, ADHD, Emotional Disorders, and various neurological disorders.
Since 2012, Secrets of Champions worked with Ave Maria Preparatory School in Florida on a research-based program demonstrating success in reducing symptoms of autism, ADHD/ADD, developmental delays, and emotional disorders. The program operates under the scientific direction of Dr. George Carlo of the Secrets of Champions Academy in Jamestown, New York.
Epiphany educational projects have incorporated Dr. Carlo’s 'Secrets of Champions' principles into instructional practices, showing positive neurological stimulation and repair of inefficient or damaged cells, supporting emotional and intellectual balance.
Overall, the Secrets of Champions Foundation centers on neurological optimization, cellular health, and balanced daily rhythms to enhance learning outcomes for neurodivergent children and individuals with developmental and emotional challenges.
Lights of Wonder operates as an education‑only learning center. We do not conduct research with learners or provide therapeutic or clinical services.
Research supported by affiliated organizations, including Thrive, informs learning‑environment design at a conceptual level only and is not delivered to learners. Learners remain enrolled in their primary educational programs.