Sep 1

Case Study of a Self-Directed Career

Mr. Matt Beaudreau is a leader, mentor, entrepreneur, keynote speaker and two-time Ted talk speaker in the education field. These are only just a few things that Matt Beaudreau represents. 

Background: 

Mr. Beaudreau went to college and then graduate school at California State University-Chico, UOP, Concordia where earned his master’s degree. After college, not knowing exactly what he wanted to do, Mr. Beaudreau eventually landed a job at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he worked with staff, students, parents, faculty, and administration and made many observations about the people he interacted with. On a podcast called The Legacy Minds with Will Ramey Mr. Beaudreau noted that “I don’t see a lot of happy people and I don’t see a lot of people that outside of academics have a whole lot going on.” He realized this “game” is not THE “game” young adults or students should be playing. 

This ultimately led to him to have the idea to try and fix this by being a teacher at a public school. Through being a teacher for a few years he realized that he could not make an impact because all the school cared about was the grades of the students. He then decided to be an administrator at the public school. As an administrator he saw that administration had nothing to do with helping the kids. Ultimately, he tried helping through the private school system but he noticed that private schools are pretty much the same as public schools. As an administrator at the private school he convinced the school to let him do a self-directed project with a group of middle school students, and what he found at the end was the students were able to create big projects in small groups in only four months. For example, a group created a mobile home shelter for homeless people without him telling the students what to do, but instead only guiding them as a mentor. At the end, he got a lot of positive feedback from the parents and kids, but when he showed the rest of the administration they wanted to change it into a public school looking project with a rubric. 

Throughout this journey, he found two things he enjoyed was self-directed education and communication. He decided to part ways with conventional schools and become the founder of the Acton Academy Placer campuses  The original Acton Academy was founded by Laura Sandefer and Jeff Sandefer in 2009. Acton Academy is a network of schools and  an education alternative where the kids control, self direct, manage their learning in the classroom. Their schools are all about individuality and you will often hear Mr. Beaudreau say “a hero’s journey.” What he means by that is they believe that everyone has their own special calling for their life and they will face challenges along the way. According to his Linkedin, Mr. Beaudreau moved on from his position with the Acton Academy Placer campuses in February 2022.

Here are some good resources if you would like to learn more:

What is he doing now?

Taking what he learned from his life experiences and the needs he identified in young men, Mr. Beaudreau founded Apogee Strong with Mr. Tim Kennedy in January 2021. Apogee Strong is a mentor program designed for young men who are looking to challenge themselves through the program in order to learn how to lead and be better men. Within his Apogee Strong programs, Mr. Beaudreau also has created a men’s  mentor program, home education mentor group, and a podcast called The Essential 11. A women’s group is currently in the works as well. Finally, Mr. Beaudreau is in the process of launching Apogee Schools. Apogee Schools will be a network of self-directed learning centers for children. Interested owners will have the opportunity to audition for a chance to become owners and continue fulfilling this important mission of providing self-directed learning schools for children.

Takeaways

Mr.  Beaudreau experienced many different things throughout his career and what he found was that he felt passionate about self-directed education and the impact that it has on children’s ability to succeed and be happy. He found what he loved and pursued it which led him to founding his own schools and mentorship programs. Mr. Beaudreau is continuing to this day to shape young people into leaders while also empowering their parents to support them in the best way possible.

Recently, I’ve reached out to interview Mr. Beaudreau about his life, experiences, and career. I am looking forward to that interview, and what I can learn from it.

Written by Erick Perez-Nagle