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I graduated from West Warwick High School in 1991. After being accepted to Bridgewater State College and completing summer football camp. I quickly learned college simply was not for me at the time. After my struggle, I decided to walk away from the whole idea of college. I knew I needed a path, and I knew I needed to find out who I really was. After soul-searching, I decided to join the United States Marine Corps. The training that the Marine Corps offered me was exactly what I needed at the time; after training was complete, I settled into the Marine Corps Reserves and I joined the civilian workforce. I worked as a laborer for multiple construction companies. I worked over the road as a professional mover. I also learned the trade of sheetrock and plastering. I worked these types of jobs most of my 20s. Every so often, I would have the inkling or the desire to go back to school and I would take classes part time depending on the class and the situation. Work was first and most important.

I soon realized my passion was in the field of education. I moved to the state of New Mexico where I joined Highlands University. At this school, I attempted to organize all my credits into a credit scrub and see how close I was to any type of a degree. I even walked on their Division II football team. After graduating, I returned to Rhode Island with a college degree. Soon I became aware of the dire crisis that we have in Rhode Island to hire qualified teachers willing to work in the city of Providence.

I began to pursue evening classes in the field of education. I held jobs as bus-monitor, teacher assistant, and school custodian. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into an accelerated credit program that Providence College was offering for folks willing to become special educators. I was hired as a special educator with an emergency certification at Hope High school. I pursued full-time certification while I was a Providence Public School District (PPSD) employee and young father. This struggle was very real for me. I took the Praxis test multiple times, failing multiple times. Finally, I was able achieve proper scoring to become certified. With that obstacle now in my rearview mirror, I realized my passion for leadership outside the classroom.

After several years and multiple leadership changes, a small group of like-minded PPSD educators and I, worked together to create the A-Venture Program which is housed at 425 Branch Ave. This program was written and created by PPSD teachers to serve PPSD students. Our goal was to keep the students in our city's schools with PPSD teachers. In order to lead this Program, I needed to take administration classes.  I secured an emergency certification for building administration.

This became a monumental challenge for me as I was by now a father of four having to go back to school nights, and, once again, facing standardized test; this is a one-size fits all model test. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, I finally reached the top of that iceberg achieving full certification status from RIDE. I am now the Executive  Director of A-Venture. 

A-Venture Academy services all students in the district with IEPs that qualify them for such a placement. A-Venture also services students who are deemed to be over-aged and under-credited and find themselves in need of alternatives pathways to their diploma moment.

My educational philosophy is very different than most. My philosophy is that of a Japanese art form called Kintsugi.  You see, in Japan they create masterful pieces of pottery out of out of broken pots. The artist melts gold and bonds the broken pieces together rather than sweeping the pieces up for garbage. Bonded together in gold, these new pottery vases are priceless. This is what education should look like; no matter how students come to you, no matter how many pieces in their lives are apparent, no matter how much trauma they face, we the citizens of America should accept our obligation to educate them wisely.  We should and must educate them with gold, that is, love, understanding, compassion and patience. We should and we must put them together again, stronger, longer lasting, and more beautiful than before. My wish for all is to be peaceful, restorative, and mindful of each other.  Education is a long winding road of experiences that when put together yield a satisfying life.