A Father’s Love: Helping Ensure Your Child Becomes a Well-Rounded Adult
From an early age, Archie Giles realized his son, Solomon, an 18-year-old student on the Weston campus, had a talent for playing tennis.
“As a sixth-grader, he played on the high school tennis team – the only sixth-grader in the state of Florida at that time,” said Archie. “He wasn’t just on the team. He was playing as the number one or number two player on the team against the number one or two players from the other high schools during matches.”
Solomon had been playing tennis since the age of 5 and by the eighth grade, it was becoming increasingly more challenging to balance athletics and academics.
“Previous to Xceed, Solomon was at a private school that gave him some flexibility but still required him to be at school every day,” Archie stated. “When he had to go away for a tournament, he would have to play catch up with his academics; it was just too stressful.”
Archie tried to work with Solomon’s school to find a compromise that worked, but the administration couldn’t see a way to make it happen.
“They said they couldn’t make it work,” Archie said. “Even though he was bringing positive publicity to the school as a champion athlete, they couldn’t see how they could treat him differently than all the other kids in the school.”
Archie knew that he needed to find a school more suitable to Solomon’s aspirations.
Archie said. “He needed a high-level academic situation that did not interfere with his high level of tennis.”
He asked himself, “How can I help him [Solomon] achieve both goals of playing high level or pro level tennis while achieving a high level of academic success. And I quickly realized it wasn’t going to be in a public school or typical private school; it would have to be a private school that incorporated new age teaching methods and technology for the rest of the 21st century. So, I had to find something that allowed him the opportunity to be the best Solomon he could be.”
That is when he found Xceed.
“I knew of Brent Goldman, Xceed’s CEO, from his previous school, The Sagemont School, back in early 2000’s, so I knew of him, but how I got involved with Brent was that my son practiced at a tennis academy that was owned by a coach named Bill Adams,” Archie shared. “Bill was very good friends with the Goldman family and he introduced us to Xceed.”
“I did my due diligence, investigated the school’s background and everything else and decided that it was the best place for Solomon while still pursuing his athletic career.”
Since enrolling his son at Xceed four years ago, Archie has witnessed how the flexibility of hybrid learning has allowed Solomon to excel both in and out of the classroom.
“Xceed allows him to not only be a world-class student, but also a world-class athlete that has demands related to traveling out of the country, not being able to be in class all the time because you’re playing in a major tournament,” Archie Giles stated. “Xceed affords him the opportunity to maintain his great standard of academics along with being a world-class athlete in tennis.”
Archie has always taught his son Solomon never to put his eggs in one basket because you never know what the future holds and you have to be prepared for any outcome.
“Anything can happen to you. Academically you can find that you don’t like school, so you have to start your own company. You can also find that you have a passion for being a great athlete,” stated Archie. “So, I wanted Solomon to be well-rounded because great athletes and entrepreneurs need to be smart enough and educated enough to learn what school teaches you – school doesn’t necessarily teach you what you’re going to be, but it teaches you how to get to where you want to be.”
Archie has always been a firm believer in the importance of education, but not that education is the end all be all of life.
“Life isn’t just about education,” says Archie. “Life is about taking what you’ve learned and how you’ve learned and use it as a platform to do what you want to do.”
Since Solomon became a student at Xceed, Archie has shared with other parents his admiration for the school and how successful his son has been.
“Enrolling Solomon at Xceed has taken the weight off my shoulders of having to worry about my son achieving high academic standards while pursuing his life’s goal,” shared Archie. “That’s important as a parent, having that worry off your shoulders about putting your child in the right place where they can learn and develop socially.”