ing your heart. He grew up in St. Pete, drawing,
n't really a consistently motivated student until he
entered Shorecrest in sixth grade.
me on academics in a way that I wasn't focused before.
Charla Gaglio and Janet Root helped me hone my skills
as an artist. I would be really inspired one day, then I
would kind of fall off. Janet told Charla to sit on me and
make me do the work--that strategy was what got me
through AP Studio. It was wonderful."
"His (Italy and Greece) trip showed me there were
options--that I didn't have to stay in the U.S. That I
could go other places. That made me branch out when
I got to college."
and religious studies major, but after two years, he need-
ed a change.
needed to get away." He studied in London for first
semester junior year; and then accompanied some other
students and human development professor, Nancy Janus,
to Malaysia to do a month-long youth culture study.
ers did some traveling, which included a visit to
Baanurak Children's Home in Thailand.
be for a while. I grew up as a very spiritual person and
my dad is a spiritual person, and the eastern philosophy
of the home really resonated with my upbringing. I felt
spent about a year at the home teaching English to the
children and some of the caregivers. When he returned
to Eckerd, he was surprised by the realities of the eco-
nomic crisis.
"What is going on?" This curiosity prompted another
detour.
motions, but not with emotion. So I decided to challenge
myself and major in economics. I wanted to understand
what was going on in the world, and I wanted to give
myself a reason to work hard. I had just been coasting."
ic research at Boston Asset Management in Clearwater
and worked there long enough to learn that he didn't want
to work in an office. "I tried to make myself like it, but it
wasn't where my heart was." Shortly thereafter, a golf
game with a former Academy Prep administrator led him
to an AmeriCorps teaching opportunity there.