Pastor Adam and Cleta Riojas are a husband-and-wife team whose life together has been built around faith, family, ministry, entrepreneurship, and a deep conviction that the next generation is worth investing in.

Their backgrounds are different, but their calling has always come back to the same place: Christ first, family first, and ministry woven into everyday life.

Together, they believe parents have been given a sacred responsibility to raise, disciple, and educate their children. Freedom Generation was built to come alongside parents in that calling—not to replace them.

Their vision reaches beyond creating successful students. They want to help raise courageous young men and women for Christ and future leaders of America who know what they believe and why, can think for themselves, recognize truth, communicate with conviction, work with excellence, and have the courage to stand when the culture around them moves in another direction.

They also believe God has uniquely designed every child with gifts, abilities, interests, and purpose. Through academics, mentorship, enrichment, athletics, the arts, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and real-world experiences, Freedom Generation seeks to help students discover those gifts, cultivate them, and ultimately use them for God's glory.

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Pastor Adam Riojas

Co-Founder & Spiritual Director

School Pastor | Bible Educator & Student Mentor

Pastor Adam Riojas is the founder and Senior Pastor of At The Cross Oceanside, the church and ministry home where Freedom Generation is located.

With nearly 40 years of pastoral care and ministry experience, Adam has devoted much of his life to walking alongside people through every season—teaching Scripture, counseling families, discipling believers, developing leaders, serving those in need, and helping people navigate life's hardest moments through the truth and hope of God's Word.

His ministry has never been confined to the pulpit.

Adam believes faith is something we live. Ministry happens in the church, but it also happens around a dinner table, in a workplace, through a business, on an athletic field, and anywhere God gives us the opportunity to invest in another person's life.

That philosophy has shaped his professional life as well. For many years, Adam owned and operated his own handyman business, bringing together entrepreneurship, craftsmanship, problem-solving, hard work, and service. He understands the dignity of working with your hands, keeping your word, doing a job well, and taking responsibility for what has been entrusted to you.

Together, Adam and Cleta also launched a coffee venture serving the Oceanside community, creating another place where business, relationships, and ministry could naturally come together.

At Freedom Generation, Adam brings all of those experiences with him.

As the school's spiritual leader, pastor, Bible educator, and mentor, he helps guard the biblical foundation of Freedom Generation. Christianity isn't meant to be confined to a Bible class or a statement of faith. Scripture should shape how students understand truth, character, work, relationships, leadership, culture, and ultimately their purpose.

His years of pastoral care also give him a perspective that cannot simply be learned from a textbook. He has seen firsthand that intelligence and achievement alone do not build a life. Character matters. Integrity matters. Faithfulness matters. The choices a young person makes when no one is watching matter.

His heart is to see students become young men and women who know Christ personally, understand God's Word, honor their parents, work hard, serve others, lead with humility, and have the courage to stand for biblical truth.

He wants them prepared not simply to enter the world, but to become strong Christian men and women capable of influencing it.

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Cleta Riojas

Founder & Head of School

Classical Christian Educator, Mentor & Dual Enrollment Professor

Cleta's path to education was not traditional. It moved through coaching, management, corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, real estate, ministry, and ultimately motherhood—and every part of that journey influences the way she leads Freedom Generation today.

Early in her professional life, Cleta worked as a fitness instructor and coach with LA Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness while simultaneously building a career in management within the automotive industry.

Coaching taught her how to motivate people, build confidence, develop discipline, set goals, and help people recognize abilities they didn't always see in themselves. Management brought another dimension—leadership, operations, accountability, customer service, problem-solving, and the responsibility of leading people well.

Her experience in automotive management eventually opened the door into corporate America.

Cleta went on to work with major retail organizations, advancing through corporate leadership roles and traveling across the country as her responsibilities grew. She was successful in that world and spent years building a career that taught her invaluable lessons about leadership, communication, business, management, strategy, and people.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University San Marcos and later her Master of Arts in Strategic Communications from National University.

By traditional measures, she was building the kind of résumé many people spend their lives pursuing.

Then she became a mother.

And the trajectory of everything changed.

For Cleta, motherhood brought a clarity that professional success never could. The degrees still mattered. The experience mattered. Everything she had learned mattered. But none of it mattered more than the children God had entrusted to her.

She made the decision to walk away from the corporate path she had worked so hard to build and intentionally restructure her life around being present for her children.

She pursued her California real estate broker's license and built work that gave her greater flexibility. She and Adam launched their coffee venture together. She served alongside her husband in church and ministry. She continued working, building, and serving—but she did it around the life of her family rather than asking her family to fit around a career.

Being a mother became her first ministry.

That conviction eventually changed the way she looked at education too.

As her oldest daughter reached school age, Cleta wanted to remain directly involved in her education. She began homeschooling through the public charter school system, believing it would allow her to teach her child at home while still benefiting from the resources available through the charter.

But over time, she began encountering curriculum and assignments that did not align with the Christian worldview being taught in their home.

The tension became impossible for her to ignore.

She realized that simply bringing public education into the home was not the same as providing a Christ-centered education.

In 2020, Cleta made the decision to break away from the public charter school system.

For her, it wasn't about running away from something. It was about taking responsibility for something she believed God had already entrusted to her as a mother.

If God had given Adam and Cleta the responsibility to raise their children, then their children's education could not be separated from that calling.

That conviction would eventually become part of the heartbeat behind Freedom Generation.

When families began needing another place for their children to learn in 2021, what Cleta had experienced personally as a mother gave her a very different perspective on what those families needed.

They didn't simply need another educational program.

They needed a place that respected the authority and responsibility of parents.

They needed educators who would come alongside them rather than attempt to take their place.

They needed academics that didn't ask children to separate what they learned on Monday from what their family believed on Sunday.

And they needed an environment where children could be known personally and where their individual God-given abilities had room to grow.

That remains at the heart of the way Cleta leads Freedom Generation today.

Parents Are the First Educators

One of Cleta's deepest convictions is that Freedom Generation does not replace parents. We support them.

Scripture places the responsibility of raising and instructing children first within the family. Parents know their children in a way no teacher, administrator, or institution ever can.

That understanding shapes the culture Cleta wants at Freedom Generation.

She consistently points students back toward their families, encouraging them to honor their father and mother, respect the authority God has placed in their lives, and recognize the sacrifices their parents make for them.

Teachers are important. Mentors are important. Excellent schools matter.

But parents remain the child's first and most influential educators.

Freedom Generation exists to come alongside them with academic expertise, biblical discipleship, mentorship, community, and opportunities that strengthen what families are already building at home.

Cultivating What God Has Already Placed Within Them

Cleta also believes education should never treat children as though they are all meant to become the same person.

Every child has been intentionally created by God.

Some students come alive through literature. Another may discover an extraordinary ability in mathematics or science. One may lead naturally. Another may create through art, photography, or film. Some will build things with their hands. Others may become entrepreneurs, engineers, pastors, teachers, athletes, scientists, tradesmen, or public leaders.

Part of education is giving children enough meaningful experiences to discover those abilities.

That is why Cleta's vision for Freedom Generation intentionally brings together rigorous Classical Christian academics with enrichment and real-world learning.

Students encounter Scripture, literature, history, mathematics, science, logic, critical thinking, and communication while also gaining opportunities in leadership, entrepreneurship, engineering, technology, media, photography, videography, fine arts, athletics, practical skills, and college-level learning.

Sometimes a child's gift emerges while reading a great book.

Sometimes it happens behind a camera.

Sometimes it's discovered during a science experiment, an engineering challenge, a debate, an athletic competition, a business idea, or the first time someone trusts them enough to lead.

The goal is not to decide a child's future for them. It is to help cultivate what God has already placed within them.

As a Classical Christian educator, mentor, and dual enrollment professor, Cleta continues to work directly with students while leading the larger vision of Freedom Generation. She wants students challenged academically, but she also wants them to become confident thinkers who can communicate clearly, take responsibility, recognize truth, and walk courageously into whatever God calls them to do.

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Family Is Our First Ministry

Adam and Cleta bring different strengths to Freedom Generation.

Adam brings nearly 40 years of pastoral care, biblical teaching, discipleship, entrepreneurship, craftsmanship, and leadership. Cleta brings the perspective of a mother, educator, coach, communicator, corporate leader, entrepreneur, and mentor who personally chose to restructure her life around raising her children.

But the foundation beneath both is the same.

Family is our first ministry.

Freedom Generation does not exist to take children away from the influence of their parents. It exists to strengthen families by coming alongside them.

Adam and Cleta want students to be known personally, challenged academically, discipled spiritually, mentored intentionally, and given opportunities to discover what God has placed within them.

And their vision goes beyond serving one school or one community.

They believe America and the world desperately need another generation of men and women who are grounded in biblical truth, capable of thinking for themselves, willing to work, courageous enough to lead, and unwilling to surrender their convictions simply because the culture changes around them.

They want to help raise warriors for Jesus Christ—not young people defined by anger or conflict, but young men and women armed with truth, wisdom, courage, compassion, discernment, and an unshakable faith.

Future pastors. Parents. Entrepreneurs. Scientists. Engineers. Artists. Educators. Tradesmen. Business owners. Public servants. Innovators. And leaders whose influence may reach places none of us can see yet.

Whatever their calling, Adam and Cleta want students to understand that their gifts belong to God and their lives have purpose.

For Cleta especially, Freedom Generation carries the heartbeat of something motherhood taught her years ago:

A résumé can tell people what you've accomplished. A degree can tell them what you've studied. A career can show what you've built.

But none of those things can replace what we pour into our children.

They are the next generation.

And helping parents raise them to love God, know truth, discover their gifts, and have the courage to lead is at the heart of why Freedom Generation exists.