Please give a current update on yourself (college/graduation year, major, grad school, work/career, family, other interests, service or hobbies).
I graduated from Geneva in 2014, then attended Sewanee: the University of the South in Tennessee. I graduated in 2018 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Currently, I’m 28 and living in San Antonio where I teach Honors Latin at a Title 1 Classical Charter School. BUT, God knows I was never bound for a ‘normal trajectory’ (thank you to all faculty and staff for your patience). The quick list of work that I’ve done between 2018 and now is as follows: barista, carpenter and theater tech, front of house and storyteller at a museum, journal clerk for the State of Texas House of Representatives and artist/project manager for Variance Biophilic Design Company.
As mentioned, I now teach Latin, but I also run our school’s Student Council and serve as the Department Chair for our Language Department. I am a member of the Vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and School in San Antonio and next fall, I will begin a part-time graduate program in Psychology with the University of Glasgow. I’ll still be in San Antonio and plan to continuing teaching as well.
In what ways did your Geneva education/training prepare you for the work you are doing now?
Of the many gifts given to us by our education at Geneva, there is one that I think about all the time. Our teachers and school leaders set an incredibly faithful and loving expectation of how adults should treat children, specifically teenagers. We were given autonomy with a high expectation of behavior and performance, but were held to that standard with love and patience. We were expected to be respectful while being shown respect in return. You would be amazed at how many people who serve in education and mean well, but think that teenagers are either meant to be broken and controlled or just left to do whatever they please. The way we were raised at Geneva was the product of hard-working adults doing the tedious daily work of tending both to our adolescent hearts and minds without spoiling us or giving us platitudes. This built within us an internal model of respect and love for both ourselves and anyone else we meet in life. I am currently friends with and work with many Geneva graduates. All of us share this quality. We also view politely debating each other simply as a form of communication
How would you encourage a Geneva Rhetoric School student to make the most of their Geneva years?
Stop skipping classes, tuck your shirt in, quit rolling your skirt, wear your blazer when you’re supposed to, and take your airpods out! Give yourself the gift of being present with your own mind and the people around you, and give your community the gift of looking presentable and respecting their time. Private school isn’t magic and no one is entitled to success. You are currently enrolled in an intellectual playground designed to make you the best version of yourself, but only if you’re willing to do the work!
Describe Geneva in one word.
“Ludus, -ī” is the Latin word for playground, classroom, and gladiatorial training camp!
Please share one or two of your Geneva extracurricular activities and then contrast that with one or two of your current non-work activities.
Back in my day, we could do it all. Just like everyone else in those first four graduating classes, I played just about every sport offered. I also did theater, choir, speech and debate and newspaper (before it was Magazine). And I still do most of that now. I play sand volleyball with a local recreation league, I’m obsessed with film photography, and when I’m not inventing weird Latin projects for my students, I’m inventing weird projects for myself at my house. For example, I got really interested in “kennings” and the runes of Elder Futhark. I discovered the Old English word “banhus” is a kenning that means ‘Bone-House’ which they would use to mean ‘body’. Well, masking tape makes the perfect negative reveal of rune lines when you paint over them in spray paint, so I bought a bunch of old shirts from Goodwill and made a mini line of ‘BanHus’ shirts with spray paint and tape in my backyard. The rector of my church liked them, so now I’m making more of the same style with our church name for our parishioners.
What are your future career goals and how do you feel prepared for them?
One of my favorite quotes is from George Bernard Shaw who said, “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” That is my only goal, career or otherwise. I am humbled by the love and education I received so early in life, and it is through those two things and the Grace of God that I could ever be prepared for that calling.
How are you impacted by your work now? What is something you have learned/are learning about yourself and God’s world?
I could write an entire book on the impact that occurs while educating kids. I won’t do that here, but just know that it is exhausting, way harder than you can imagine and fundamentally life changing. Only do it if you’re ready to die unto yourself and release any concept of ego. Currently, I’m learning and relearning what it looks like to actually live with a consistent group of people and loving your neighbor as yourself. It turns out that God doesn’t care who your neighbor is, and He also doesn’t care if you don’t like them. You are expected to love them. This involves a lot of being awkward, saying the wrong thing and showing up at the next function anyway. It also involves watching other people be awkward or say something that makes you angry and then making sure they too show up for the next function anyway.