Always a Teacher

Teaching is part of Scott Smith’s DNA.
That said, Smith doesn’t actually teach these days, not in the traditional sense, anyway. Hasn’t for five years going on six. Doesn’t matter, though.  Regardless of his role or where he hangs his hat, he’s instructing, guiding, and mentoring, just as he set out to do when he answered the call to education almost four decades ago.
 
“I’ve always thought of myself as a teacher,” said Smith, who came on board July 1 as Collegiate’s director of admission and enrollment management. “I still see myself as a math teacher who does a lot of other things.”
 
Smith’s professional journey began when he accepted a high school math position at Charlotte Latin School following his cum laude graduation from Davidson College. His duties also included coaching middle school football and varsity wrestling plus a variety of other assignments that go with the territory and set the tone for his career.
 
After nine years, one of which he spent earning an MEd at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he moved to Ravenscroft School in Raleigh where he chaired the math department for two years while continuing to teach and coach. He then served as academic dean at The Lovett School in Atlanta for 11 years, during which time he completed coursework in a PhD program in instructional technology and also taught classes as an adjunct at Georgia State.
 
His next stop was Bolles School in Jacksonville where he served as associate head of school and academic dean for 12 years and, for five more years, as dean of admission and financial aid, a position which, because of the travel involved, prevented him from teaching for the first time in his career.
 
“My thought was to teach in college,” Smith said of his venture into higher education. “I really found that the K-12 environment was where I wanted to be. You build relationships where you can really get to know children and influence them in positive ways. The potential impact we can have on them is significant.”
 
A former high school and college wrestler, Smith took a fledgling wrestling team at Charlotte Latin and, through industriousness, encouragement, and a focus on esprit de corps, built it into a strong, well respected program that produced high school All-Americans and successful college athletes.
        
“Like at any independent school where you may not have the best natural athlete, we had kids (at Latin) who worked hard,” said Smith, who won upwards of 70 matches during his four years at Davidson and was seeded first at 134 in the 1981 Southern Conference before a knee injury ended his season. “Wrestling is challenging on a lot of levels. The kids approached it in the same way they approached other things in their lives to become successful. We benefitted from that.”
 
Smith’s raison d’être translates easily to the classroom.
 
“In either case,” he said, “you’re influencing children – students and athletes – by who you are more than anything you might teach them. The more opportunities you can give a child to be successful, the more opportunities you have to build great relationships.”
 
How does he maintain a connection with students now that his focus is administration?
 
“You have to be present,” he said. “You have to get to know students where they are. Talk to them. Attend their events. When I interviewed here, I went over to the (Reed-Gumenick) library and introduced myself to some Middle School students. I walked the Upper School hallway and introduced myself to students there. They will meet you where you are, but if you’re not where they are, you won’t get that opportunity. I enjoy being around students. I went into teaching to be around them.”
 
A sequence of connections brought Smith to Collegiate. He had worked with head of school Penny Evins at Lovett. He was a college friend of Keith Evans, who led Collegiate from 1999-2014. Through Jim Hendrix, his head of school at both Ravenscroft and Lovett, he knew Rob Hershey, who headed Collegiate from 1988-1998. Ned Fox, head of Collegiate’s Boys School from 1972-76, hired him at Charlotte Latin.
 
“Collegiate,” Smith said, “has always been in my mind as one of those schools that’s special because it didn’t just say what it believed. It actually did it in the lives of students. I’ve always heard about the strong community. There’re only one or two schools I would have left Bolles for. Collegiate is one of them. I’m a person of faith. Any opportunity I’ve considered, I’ve really searched to see if it’s right. I really feel that my 35-plus year career in independent schools has prepared me to feel that this is the right place for me now. I’m overjoyed to be here.”
 
Now that he’s here, what does the job entail?
 
“Working with a great team that was already in place and helping that team coordinate our admission processes,” he said. “Looking at the larger picture of not just our current enrollment but where we want it to be five years, seven years from now, overlaying that with the demographics of Richmond, and being aware of trends and where we need to spend our time and energy.
 
“Part of this role is retention of students. Collegiate has done an amazing job with retention. Part is to help coordinate the JK-to-12 enrollment of current students, making sure that we’re consistent in our message that they’re in one school even if they’re changing divisions. This is not to imply that any of that hasn’t been done well. My past administrative experience has allowed me to have a JK-to-12 perspective that I hope will be complementary to the talents of people who are already here.”
 
Even with the COVID-created challenges and uncertainty, Collegiate’s retention rate is just over 96 percent.
 
“That’s a great bar to shoot for,” Smith said. “The school continues to look at its mission in Richmond with its focus on being representative of the world where children will go when they graduate. How will we draw the most robust, vibrant, inclusive, diverse applicant pool from which to make admission decisions? That’s part of the charge.”
 
Smith arrives early – actually 6:30 a.m. early – and, as he has done at his other stops, stays late. There’s joy in his voice and a smile on his face when he speaks of his calling, his career, and the latest stop on his journey.
 
“Most days,” he said, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this. Then, there’re days I can’t believe I do this for what they pay me, but those are the huge minority. I feel very fortunate that it’s never been drudgery to go to work. I don’t see this as a 9-to-5 experience. It’s what I love to do. It’s who I am.”
 
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