Our Story

I started Virtú to promote total well-roundedness in students. Today, in an increasingly competitive environment, people feel the pressure to meet the expectations of employers and are often forced into narrow interests or lifestyles as a result. They focus on specific skills or talents in hopes that it will benefit them professionally. While this strategy may achieve its desired outcomes, it often comes at the expense of growth on a personal level. People struggle to grasp alternative ways of thinking and therefore struggle to understand others, or even learn new skills that are too unfamiliar. The lost art of the polymath, or the “Renaissance man” as Da Vinci labeled it, is considered obsolete, and being well-rounded is stigmatized as a euphemism for mediocrity.

Throughout my time as an educator in both the grade school and post-secondary levels, I have noticed how frequently students feel this insecurity, regardless of their levels of talent. I too had these insecurities throughout school and often contemplated the benefits of being good in a variety of fields without achieving a level of exceptionalism and notoriety in any. The greatest insight I received was from “The Art of Learning,” a book by chess prodigy and world martial arts champion Joshua Waitzkin. In it, he discusses the ways that subjects relate to and inform each other, and how the lessons of one field benefit the understanding of another. This perspective helped me to succeed in my professional and personal pursuits by having my different skills enhance each other in the learning process, and showed me that well-roundedness is itself a form of exceptionalism. It was then that I realized something I had implicitly known for a while—that everything we learn is interconnected, and by learning various fields and skills, we are able to not only learn better but also understand how others think.

In a world that is increasingly polarized by thought, it is more important than ever for young people to learn and think through issues from multiple angles. Therefore, the pursuit of well-roundedness benefits the student as individuals as well as in their communities. It is more important than ever for us to practice and foster these virtues—and that can begin at Virtú.

-Ramsey Reyes, Founder