Welcome to Classical Mentoring!

Hello, my name is Andrew Smith and I’m an aspiring genius.

This isn’t, of course, the way I would have imagined beginning a description of myself. Growing up in Alaska I always had a hard time feeling like I belonged. I think that’s the way a lot of kids view themselves growing up, and I was no exception. I wasn’t very comfortable in my own skin and I just wasn’t sure if I fit in anywhere. I just wanted to be cool, and to the younger me, “nerd” was just about the worst thing I could possibly imagine being called. I wanted to be cool! However, with a little perspective now, I recognize that there's more to life than feeling cool. Life is about discovering what your talents and good attributes are and then developing them into your inner genius. 

I grew up heavily involved in many different schooling programs, from a Christian school, to homeschool, to public school, to private school, I did just about everything. Throughout all of this my parents had my siblings and me immersed in a “Thomas Jefferson Education,” often referred to as leadership education. The philosophy of this essentially is that the purpose of education is to help develop an individual’s inner genius. There are many historical examples we can look at, most notably Thomas Jefferson, who were educated in this manner.

It was in the midst of growing up with my parent’s helping me to seek after my genius that I discovered two things I really enjoyed: Theatre and Shakespeare. Oh, boy. I was like a kid in a candy store, I loved those things so much. I was begging my parents to let me audition for local shows and rent all the Shakespeare films I could from Blockbuster. It wasn’t long before I was seeking more and more opportunities that eventually led me to be trained to teach Shakespeare, theatre, and public speaking classes to teenagers.

Me as a missionary in upstate New York

I taught and mentored for a few years locally in Alaska before deciding to take two years off to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in upstate New York. May I just say, if you have an opportunity to go on a service trip of a similar nature I would highly recommend it! I learned so much about working together as a team, helping those who were struggling, and essentially to be a good neighbor, (not like State Farm. Well, maybe like State Farm). I loved it and I wouldn’t give back those two years for anything!

I returned from New York in April of 2015 and am currently studying theatre arts education at Brigham Young University. I love teaching and working with teenagers! I had several incredible mentors growing up who helped me stretch and always strive to be better and to this day I look up to and seek advice from these men and women. These men and women are who I now strive to be; I want to help people find their genius, and I want them to understand that knowing and developing their genius is the coolest thing of all. 

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Check out the blog right below this post to see info on class happenings, my activity and more!