In just four years, eight Hillsdale graduates have relocated to Austin, Texas. The reason for relocating down south? Valor Public Charter Schools.
It’s like Hillsdale away from home, said alumnus and fifth grade teacher Nolan Ryan ‘20. And, it’s newer than most schools. Started in 2017 by David Williams, who served as the executive director of the Great Heart Schools in San Antonio, Valor desired to create a meaningful learning community among students and teachers alike.
The school strives to provide students of all abilities and backgrounds with a classical education, leading students to “wisdom through wonder.”
“I think what really struck me immediately was the emphasis placed on the idea of wonder in schools,” Ryan said. “And the idea that you, as a teacher, could tap into that natural wonder in your students and then let them unleash their own wonder.”
The south Austin campus offers kindergarten through tenth grade, while the north Austin campus, which opened at the start of the 2020 school year, offers K-8. Both will eventually expand to include K-12. Students receive a Socratic education in topics like classic literature, the Great Books, Latin, and the natural world.
Joel VanDerWorp ‘10 serves as program director of the Valor Institute in San Diego, which is a center to build the Valor culture through programs, retreats, hiring, and curriculum development. Hillsdale alumni gravitate toward Valor, he said, and there are three reasons why.
“Hillsdale does a tremendous job of forming intellects, and giving an academic program that gets to the heart of what is good, true, and beautiful,” said VanDerWorp. “Second, Hillsdale produces graduates of tremendous character. Third, we want people interested in helping to build a community, not just working a nine to five job.”
At Valor, faculty have the opportunity to find more than just a job: they contribute to a unique community and find meaningful friendships. For example, once a month, faculty gather for a seminar discussion on books like the “Odyssey” or C.S. Lewis’ “Abolition of Man.”
Benedict Whalen, Kingfisher fellow of the Valor Institute, gave the keynote address at one of the faculty retreats. He said he has complete confidence in the founders of the schools and their devotion to cultivating community among both faculty and students. Though each teacher has his own classroom, the faculty partners as “fellow educators” and engages in strong friendships, Ryan said.
“Friendships aren’t confined to the school building,” Ryan said. “There’s a lot of very natural friendships among the faculty of Valor.”
“It’s very hard to find a place to live and work after graduation where you are around people committed to the same ends, who share similar values, who believe in the most important things, and are attracted to the best things,” VanDerWorp added.
The members of the Valor community hold a unified vision for a shared life in close community, and they share this with the students. They are working to create an atmosphere of joy, friendship, and seriousness, said VanDerWorp.
“We take life seriously,” VanDerWorp said. “What happens in the classroom, amongst friends, and in sports has weight and meaning. We try to build this in the faculty, and present it by our character and speech to the student body.”
The culture at Valor Public Schools is very similar to that of Hillsdale, as the faculty enjoy spending time with each other both at work and in their free time. They discard the superficial in exchange for real conversation about things that matter, Gabe Listro ’19, a first grade teacher said.
“There is a familiar feel to the staff,” he said. The whole campus has an air of family and taking care of each other. We also have meals and seminars as a staff.”
The goal of Valor schools is the forming and shaping of souls, and Hillsdale alumni arrive prepared for this mission, said VanDerWorp.
“As a faculty, we build a certain type of shared intellectual life together that we can then share with the students and invite them to participate in as well,” added Steve Gordon, superintendent of Valor Schools.
Ryan recommends working at Valor to future Hillsdale graduates.
“It feels like Hillsdale,” Ryan said. “There’s definitely a shared sense of humbly learning from the past, and learning about what makes us human and how we can live a good and fulfilling life.”
Gordon described the appeal of Hillsdale graduates as teachers at Valor.
“We try to find prospective teachers who are animated by a love of learning themselves. I want them to share their passion and love for the liberal arts with students,” Gordon said. “We also just think of our teachers as being models for young people of what it means to be human, and we think that so many of the students at Hillsdale are the kind of people that we would want to put in front of young people.”
Valor wants to hire individuals passionate about teaching children with an entrepreneurial mindset. What they seek to build is still in progress, and teachers have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of building an institution and community, VanDerWorp said.
Listro heard about the schools at Hillsdale’s classical education job fair, and says that aside from teaching, he enjoys the atmosphere of Austin, from music to good food to hiking.
Whalen said he is not surprised that the founders of Valor are interested in Hillsdale students.
“I think there is a deep harmony and shared vision between Hillsdale and our people.”
