Board Education Member shows continued passion for education

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Educating others and ensuring a quality education for all is something Brady Rhodes has had a passion for long before he was even aware of it himself.

Rhodes, a native of Denver, moved to Hastings two years ago but already is one of the newest members of the Hastings Board of Education. He began his four-year term in January.

"This made sense in a couple different realms," he said. "It was an opportunity to get involved in the community, and it seemed like a good way to impact my kids' education and be a part of that in the community."

Rhodes' wife, Susan Meeske, is Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Hastings College. They have three sons — one in college, one in kindergarten and another in second grade.

Rhodes' passion for education came by accident when he was studying forestry at the University of Vermont after high school. He became a camp counselor and soon realized how much fun he was having with the educational components. So he took on a special pro-gram at the college where he could major in forest biology with an emphasis in education.

"That was just perfect," Rhodes said. "I didn't end up with a teaching certificate, but I got to do a lot with education."

After graduation, Rhodes spent a few years in Omaha working in cooperative education for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During that time, he worked at a Girl Scout camp in Iowa as the nature director. That's where he met his future wife, Susan. They would reconnect years later and marry.

After returning to Colorado, Rhodes worked with a few different camps in Colorado and Wyoming before becoming a science teacher at a charter school in Denver.

"That's when you didn't have to have a certificate. In charter schools, you could be someone who was interested in a topic or had an area of expertise, so I was a science teacher," he said.

Rhodes not only taught middle and high school science but was involved in student government, taught reading and served a stint as the physical education teacher.

"What was really nice was being in the environment of just being involved in the conversation on education," he said.

During that same time, Rhodes became involved in the Colorado Youth at Risk mentoring program that had its office housed in the charter school's building. He volunteered as a mentor for a short time before becoming one of the program managers who helped to create new mentors.

That was in the early 2000s and by about 2004, Rhodes' co-worker in the mentoring pro-gram had found an opportunity to do conflict resolution work with children from Cyprus, an island divided by Turkish- and Greek-speaking people. A group of those kids were taken to Colorado, where they did outdoor adventure activities and created a bond across a language and historical divide.

That program continued to evolve and Rhodes said eventually they branched out to doing similar programs in Kenya and other parts of Africa. Eventually, Rhodes stopped teaching at the charter school and began working full time with Bold Leaders, the program he has served as co-director for the past seven years.

Bold Leaders is based in Denver but provides services, training and products worldwide, specializing in conflict resolution and leadership education.

The family moved to Hastings when Susan took the job with Hastings College.

Rhodes said he took the chance at running for the school board to become more involved in his sons' education along with becoming more involved in the community as a whole.

"And it's been great so far," he said.

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Information from: Hastings Tribune, http://www.hastingstribune.com

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