Trevor Muir came to Aquinas after completing his undergraduate degree in English and creative writing at Florida State in 2009. After spending time at a larger institution, Muir found that Aquinas’ smaller campus suited him well.

At Florida State, each class had around 600 students, a teaching assistant taught every class and Muir rarely had contact with his professors. At Aquinas, all of this changed for Muir. He created individual relationships with his professors that allowed him to develop professional contacts and connections.

“Because of Aquinas, I can help my students build relationships with each other and with professionals,” he said. Two individuals who inspired Muir and helped him through this journey were Associate Professor of Education Julia Reynolds and Director of Field Placement Dan Diedrich. Muir credits them with helping him discover who he wanted to be and how he wanted to conduct himself as a teacher.

“From the time when I first met Trevor, I knew that he would be a fabulous teacher,” said Reynolds. “He embraced the pedagogical information he was learning and was excited about working with students. He volunteered in classrooms to teach spoken word poetry. In his student teaching, the students and his cooperating teachers were impressed with his openness to try new things.”

Muir earned his Michigan teacher certification from Aquinas, as well as a minor in history, in 2012. He is currently in his third year teaching freshmen students at Kent Innovations High School. Kent Innovations is project-based learning environment where students learn through hands on lessons. Students do not use textbooks or sit in rows in the classroom. “In his current teaching at Kent Innovation High, [Trevor] continues to learn with his students and has found a perfect place to call his professional home,” said Reynolds.

Muir has found that if his students have something to work towards or are helping people they are even more motivated and learn better. Every project his class works on has a community aspect. When his students were learning about the Industrial Revolution, they worked with refugees from Rwanda and helped create tools that better informed the Grand Rapids community, as well as helped the refugees.

While studying imperialism, his students created microfinance loans to help individuals in Burundi, Africa. Starting a small business in Burundi is one of the only ways to get out of poverty, however, loans can be difficult to get. Muir’s class was given the assignment of helping improve an individual’s chances of getting a loan. Each student was given $10 - total of $300 for the class - and by applying the lessons they had learned, Muir’s students ended up making a $600 profit, which they then loaned to individuals starting small businesses in Burundi.

When it came time to learn about World War II, Muir’s students interviewed WWII veterans on their experiences so they could learn firsthand about the war. The class was awarded a $500 Aquinas Alumni Educator Grant for the project, which was used towards the making of a documentary. The film will premiere in spring 2015 at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids.

Muir is passionate about this method of schooling and has delivered several presentation on the topic. He wrote and performed a spoken word piece at TEDx San Antonio (Texas). His speech, titled “School Should Take Place in the Real World,” focused on how children are being schooled to work in manufacturing, but that isn’t how the world works anymore. In his speech at Ignite Talk in 2013, titled “Coming Alive at 14,” he further endorsed this new style of education.

Muir deeply believes in this type of learning, because not every person is able to learn the same way. “Trevor's new work doing talks locally and around the country push everyone's thinking about students and the role of school,” said Reynolds. “I use videos of Trevor's various talks in my college classes to spark discussion and inspiration. We are proud to have Trevor Muir as an alumnus of the School of Education."