I loved everything about being a student at Baymonte. But in looking back, what I appreciate perhaps most of all is the fact that everyone at Baymonte was truly attentive to my growth, providing fitting challenges and opportunities for me. It isn’t necessarily something one perceives at the time, but it really stands out in retrospect.
I think I could probably pick several highlights for each of my years from kindergarten through eighth grade. But there was one experience that ran through so many of those years. I was often dropped off for school fairly early in the morning, where I’d read or do work for a while. As the start of school day approached, I excitedly greeted all my friends – perhaps playing four square or chatting with them depending on the year – while looking forward to a new day of lessons.
Baymonte was an essential foundation for my future studies. It was a perfect school for an intellectually curious child, providing opportunities for learning both in and outside of the classroom. I look back on its exceptional faculty and staff, who were and are almost family, as models for teaching. But “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom” and Baymonte built upon that most important of foundations even as it prepared me for the world.
After Baymonte, I graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in 2008, earned my A.B. from Princeton University in 2012, and earned my Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018. While at Berkeley, I met my wife, Aimee, who is a park ranger with the National Park Service. I’m currently a visiting lecturer at Berkeley, teaching courses on European history and revising my dissertation into a book manuscript.