Grounded Grit: How a Homeschooled Teen Built a Life That Soars
Katrin and Anastasia Mitsky at The Dalles Farmer’s Market.
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., Oct. 20, 2025 — When 17-year-old Anastasia Mitsky lifted her glider almost eye-level wit the top of Mt. Hood this summer, it marked more than a personal milestone. It was the culmination of an upbringing built on self-reliance, curiosity, and an education that favored experience over convention.
Born in St. Martin in the Caribbean, Mitsky moved with her parents, Anton and Katrin, to the United States in 2014 after Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Her father, a medical practitioner from Novosibirsk, and her mother, a native of Crimea, left behind their professions and began again. Anton became a long-haul truck driver. His work brought him through the Columbia Gorge, where he discovered The Dalles.
“He called my mom and said, ‘We’re moving,’” Anastasia said. “He loved how calm and friendly the town felt.”
The family rented a house from longtime residents Ann Marie and Sam Woolsey, who welcomed them with small-town generosity. From there, they began building a new life one project at a time.
Learning by Doing
Mitsky has been homeschooled for several years through a curriculum shaped by her father. Lessons extended beyond textbooks to projects and shared family work. Together with her mother, Anastasia operates The Gorge Bakery by KA, using the Columbia Gorge Community College commercial kitchen to produce breads and pastries for local markets.
You have likely seen their goods at the The Dalles Farmer’s Market.
Her education also included hands-on mechanical work. The family purchased and restored several sailboats, including a 27-foot Newport and later a 30-foot Hunter capable of sleeping eight. Weekends were spent repairing, sanding, and learning the systems needed to make them seaworthy.
Each project, she said, taught patience, planning, and precision — qualities that would later carry over into flying.
Finding Flight
Mitsky’s interest in aviation began when her parents bought her a flight in a Cessna at age 11. “It was really fun,” she said. “The pilot let me grab the yoke and steer for a little bit.”
Two years later, she joined the Hood River Soaring Club, attending meetings and learning about gliding. Her early enthusiasm slowed as the family focused shifted to sailboat projects, but she returned to flying seriously this summer.
She spent more than two months at the airfield training daily from early morning to late evening under instructor Brian Hart. Her goal: solo and earn her glider pilot’s license.
That process required passing a written test, completing the club’s pre-solo evaluation, and passing an FAA check ride with both an oral and flight exam.
“Nerve-wracking? Yes,” she said of the testing process. The FAA examiner, she recalled, added new challenges, forcing her to think through navigation and safety planning on the spot. “It was tough.”
Lift Born of Work
This summer, Mitsky completed her solo flights and secured her glider license, culminating in the remarkable August flight that carried her above 9,800 feet.
The result it seems was not luck but the product of a steady accumulation of skills — learned in the bakery, at the boatyard, and in the air.
Her path has been anything but ordinary: a family rebuilding from scratch, a homeschool curriculum built around work and curiosity, and a teenager who learned that mastery comes through repetition and patience.
