An Introduction

Welcome to Summit Crest Institute of Autodidacts and Scholars!

Summit Crest Institute is the name of the academic institution created by Melissa and I, and this blog serves as a forum for the foundation and organization of it. It is our public channel, where our readers may expect to find news, narratives, essays, opinion articles, and other engaging and informative writings.

For my part, I would like to provide a bit of background as to what led us to establish Summit Crest Institute, why it is so named, and our vision of its purpose and future.

I have always loved to learn, and frankly I have been very successful at it. I was fortunate to study under very diligent and proficient teachers up through my secondary education that provided a strong knowledge base whereupon I could expect to improve with more in-depth study. Unfortunately, I was also free-spirited, and a bit lazy, so my otherwise promising academic career was halted, and I instead pursued a myriad of other engagements. I served an LDS mission to Argentina, and returned home and immediately began to work in my father's vocation, as an electrical worker. I was driven by a passion for flight at that time, one that had always driven me to stay busy in the available and lucrative construction industry. I poured my money and time into aviation, but this, too, met a rapid end when I married Melissa, and my money no longer belonged to me.

At length, I began to weary of the intellectually oppressive construction industry, and I sought a college education as a means of escape. I enjoyed learning tremendously, but I was disillusioned by two troubling observations. The first was that college was ridiculously, and inexplicably expensive. The second was that, helpful that my professors were, I was able to learn nearly all of the coursework from a textbook, and the internet. In fact, I frequently surpassed my classmates who were learning that which was "going to be on the test" and I enriched my mind with additional and pertinent knowledge for the sake of learning it. I determined that the learning isn't a gift from a college. It is a gift of the soul. This philosophy pushed me finally from college, and I concluded that I shall learn these things on my own, and just as well as if I had gone to school.

One of the things that I love about my beautiful wife, Melissa, is her firm commitment to personally oversee the education of all of our children. As I, like any parent, desire the best for my children, I proposed a vehicle for this end: Summit Crest Institute of Autodidacts and Scholars. As an institution of learning (a school, if you will), it is not unlike a university in its goals and objectives. On the one hand, it is an institute of scholars (students) and on the other it is an institute of autodidacts, those who are self taught. We have seen that learning is present as much in the teaching as it is in the completion of classes, and this way we limit no one in the promotion of his or her own education. While Summit Crest Institute will be the school which our children attend, it will simultaneously be the school that we attend. The only difference is, that school is never over, and graduation is only from one level to another, without finale. Like cresting a mountain summit only to find another peak to conquer, Summit Crest encompasses the idea that education is a lifelong journey, rather than a one-time event. The goal is to persevere in learning and discovery.

This is Summit Crest Institute of Autodidacts and Scholars.