ABOUT O.E.I.
O.E.I. Onsite Education Inc. was started in 2016 by Matthew R. Lawrence and his wife Andrea Hertach Lawrence. Andrea is a retired elementary school teacher with 31 years of classroom experience and she has been helping her husband develop programmes and concepts to bring his passions to the field of education for over 20 years.
Matthew has a formal education in marketing and advertising as well as radio & television broadcasting, has been a professional actor, and started his own comedy improv troupe in 1997. The Canadian Improv Showcase has travelled the world representing Canadian talent for 20 years. Andrea brought a new market to the company by helping him create educational programming for all grade levels. Since then the troupe has visited more than 400 schools across Ontario.
In 2010, Andrea urged Matthew to explore his newest passion, historical martial arts, in a similar fashion, and the Knights in the Classroom was born! Here they bring excitement to a whole new area of the curriculum and are thrilled to offer students and groups authentic, hands-on experiences such as fencing, archery, dancing, drumming and so much more! To date, they have visited almost 500 schools.
Together they also have plans to add more programmes exploring their other areas of interest, while keeping their work on the pulse of education.
The decision to combine their passions into one educational charity was not a difficult one. Upon working with the local Chamber of Commerce, Matthew was introduced to the concept of not-for-profit business and realized that he was already essentially running his companies the same way. The formal process took some time, but it affords them some benefits otherwise not available to them. It is their hope that the charitable corporation status will allow them to bring their programmes to a greater audience. To make their charitable dreams a reality they assembled an amazing team to take on the role of Board of Directors. Made up of educators, experienced business people and retired educators, O.E.I. Onsite Education Inc. is well managed and able to offer the very best programming to every audience they serve.
Matthew has a formal education in marketing and advertising as well as radio & television broadcasting, has been a professional actor, and started his own comedy improv troupe in 1997. The Canadian Improv Showcase has travelled the world representing Canadian talent for 20 years. Andrea brought a new market to the company by helping him create educational programming for all grade levels. Since then the troupe has visited more than 400 schools across Ontario.
In 2010, Andrea urged Matthew to explore his newest passion, historical martial arts, in a similar fashion, and the Knights in the Classroom was born! Here they bring excitement to a whole new area of the curriculum and are thrilled to offer students and groups authentic, hands-on experiences such as fencing, archery, dancing, drumming and so much more! To date, they have visited almost 500 schools.
Together they also have plans to add more programmes exploring their other areas of interest, while keeping their work on the pulse of education.
The decision to combine their passions into one educational charity was not a difficult one. Upon working with the local Chamber of Commerce, Matthew was introduced to the concept of not-for-profit business and realized that he was already essentially running his companies the same way. The formal process took some time, but it affords them some benefits otherwise not available to them. It is their hope that the charitable corporation status will allow them to bring their programmes to a greater audience. To make their charitable dreams a reality they assembled an amazing team to take on the role of Board of Directors. Made up of educators, experienced business people and retired educators, O.E.I. Onsite Education Inc. is well managed and able to offer the very best programming to every audience they serve.
