Monthly Archives: August 2024
Yutaka Tamura, Owen Stearns, & Seth Reynolds On The Founding, Crisis Point, And Ascension Of Excel Academy Charter Schools
In a Pre-Made Podcast first, I have not one but three guests. They were Amherst College classmates who became colleagues in the creation of a charter school, and they have a remarkable story to tell.
Yutaka Tamura (Amherst Class of 1994) founded Excel Academy in 2003. He recruited classmates Owen Stearns and Seth Reynolds to join him on his board. Serving primarily lower-income households in East Boston, Excel nearly collapsed after its first year. This episode reveals not only how and why Yutaka created the school. It takes us inside its first tumultuous year and explains how, with the support of Owen, Seth, and others, he laid the foundation for the academy to become one of the top performing public schools in all of Massachusetts. I learned so much about the importance of culture – what it is and how to build it right. You will, too.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why a crisis of culture nearly doomed the school – and what we all can learn about how to build and nurture a distinctive, healthy culture in our own workplaces
How Excel Academy pulled itself back from the brink to become one of the top public schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in just a few years
The ways in which the Amherst College liberal arts vision informs Excel Academy even to this day
The Amherst classmates Yutaka, Owen, and Seth want me to interview next
To learn more, visit:
Excel Academy (excelacademy.org)
nXu (nxueducation.org), Yutaka’s latest endeavor. According to their website, nXu “helps young people explore the unique set of joys, strengths, and values that intersect to drive each of us in a meaningful direction.” In doing so, participants “learn to see our identities as powerful and essential for charting fulfilling future pathways.”
Dr. Aki Hosoi Brings Warmth And Wisdom To Mental Health Therapy
If you were thinking of becoming a therapist, you’d be hard pressed to find a better instructor and mentor than Dr. Aki Hosoi.
Now a senior staff psychologist and the director of training at Colorado State, where she oversees a graduate-level training program that provides clinical training master’s and doctoral level clinicians, her career path is winding and varied.
After graduating from Amherst College in 1994, Aki spent a year doing internships, including working with endangered cranes and conducting whale research. While completing her dissertation in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she began volunteering at the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center. That’s where she found her true calling.
She went on to earn a second PhD, this time in Counseling Psychology, at Colorado State University, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the San Francisco Veteran’s Hospital. For the last 13 years, she has worked as a therapist for university students at the Colorado State University Health Network.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Aki’s take on the state of mental health on college campuses today
How the tactful introduction of clinician authenticity and vulnerability can improve care and results
How the mental health market, including both the supply and demand-side, has evolved post-Covid
The surprising and most memorable professional feedback she ever received
The Amherst classmates she wants me to interview next
For more information on Aki and the work she does, click this link to her training website. You also can email her at aki.hosoi@colostate.edu.
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