Building a School That Changes Lives with Matt DeHart | E244

Season #8 October 14, 2025

In this powerful leadership episode, host Ryan Steuer sits down with Matt DeHart, founder of Teach from DeHart Academy and Teach from DeHart Foundation, to explore what it looks like to build a school model that transforms both students and families. Matt shares how his personal “why” is rooted in generations of educators, how travel and real-world experiences elevate academics, and how his two-generation school model is revitalizing a Pennsylvania community.

🧭 Key Topics & Takeaways

1. The Power of Purpose

Matt’s why comes from his family legacy of service and sacrifice.
“I want to plant as many trees as possible that I’ll never see the fruit of.”

2. Real-World Experiences Drive Real Learning

Students who had never been downtown—or on a plane—learned life skills through travel and exposure.
Simple experiences like ordering at a restaurant became lessons in communication, math, and confidence.
Integrating life skills with academics led to dramatic academic growth in his classroom.

3. Blending Soft Skills and Academics

Students learned to write checks, tip properly, analyze speeches, and eliminate multiple choice tests.
Confidence grew from real success, not false praise.
“We built a culture where students wanted to ‘lock in’ and speak like leaders.”

4. The Two-Generation Model

At Teach from DeHart Academy, both students and parents learn.
Parents can earn GEDs, attend financial planning classes, and grow alongside their children.
Families graduate together—literally walking the stage side-by-side.
“Educate the student, educate the parent, revitalize the community.”

5. Building Community Partnerships

Matt built trust by showing up: town halls, clean-ups, home visits, and local events.
Authentic relationships with city leaders and families fueled the school’s success.
“Be present. Listen first. People follow consistency.”

6. Leading and Funding the Dream

Teach from DeHart Academy opened debt-free through grassroots fundraising and persistence.
Matt worked multiple jobs to keep the vision alive.
Fundraising tip: “Don’t just share what you’re going to do—show what you’ve already done.”

7. What’s Next

Expand the model globally to serve communities in South Africa, India, and Cameroon.
Launch a college scholarship fund for students past and present.
Spread the curriculum and model to empower other schools.
Continue using speaking engagements to fund student scholarships.

Resources and Links:

whatispbl.com

Get Matt's Book

Matt's Website: teachfromdehart.org

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the PBL Simplified podcast for administrators brought to you by Magnify Learning, your customized PBL partner. From over a decade of experience with you in the trenches, we are bringing you this top rated educational podcast designed for visionary school administrators seeking to transform their schools with project-based learning. Launch your vision, live your why, and lead inspired. Here's your host, Ryan Steuer. All right, PBL Simplified audience. Uh, welcome back to the podcast. Hey, if it's your first time, I want you to go to whatispbl.com. What ispbl.com? Get some free resources for you as the administrator or your teachers. Either way, they're for you to get started. Jump in. Today's episode is a leadership episode, which means we're going to bring on, in this case, a leader in the trenches doing the work so that we can reflect and have a great conversation about what Matt's doing and you can reflect on that and figure out how it relates to you. So, let me give you an intro on Matt and then we'll jump in. Matt Deart is a gamechanging educator and founder of Teach from Heart Academy. He's been pushing the boundaries of what school can be. Matt launched the Teach from Deart Foundation to give students trans transformational experiences through travel exposure and a chance to see beyond their everyday. Teach from Deart Academy launched this year in Arnold, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. Fifth through 8th grade academy Uh, and in fact, Matt had to run right to this podcast. Like, he is in the throws of being open for just a week or two as we're recording this. Uh, so he's in the work, my friends. Uh, let me give you Matt's mission to in ignite passion in students and educators alike, build a future where learning not only changes lives, but strengthens communities.
Yeah, that's why Matt's on the program. Super excited to share what you have. Matt, thanks for being here. Oh, man. Ryan, thank you for the introduction. Um, and yes, I am still catching my breath. So, literally went from teaching history class, I thought we were good to go. And as I'm going down the hall, I get stopped because we have a student discipline issue and I was like, we'll handle that. And then I realized my laptop's on the other side of the building. So, I had to run to the to the other side and grab it and come down. But Ryan, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Um truly is a blessing to get to share not only what we do, but hopefully be able to share some tidbits about things that have made me successful, but then also made our mission successful as well. So, really appreciate the opportunity.
Yeah, I want to share all that uh with our audience. Super excited to share and just to learn from you. So, uh we start every podcast guest with the same question and that what that's what Sorry. What that is what is your why for the work you do? Oh, my why stems back to my family. So, I'm a third generation educator. Um mom, dad, grandparents. Um and so, honestly, this is the running joke in our family. Uh my the gym where my grandfather taught and coached is named after him. The gym where my mom taught and coach is named after her and my dad's in two hall of fame. So I had to buy a building and put my name on it to be accepted. That's the running joke in our household. Um but that why doesn't just stem from the fact that their names on buildings. It's the fact that they put their whole heart into what they did which was serving other people's children. And that to me was mimicked every single day. It was shown every single day. We literally lived that life. My my bedroom was used as a spare room if somebody from my mom's basketball team or my dad's basketball team, had issues, got kicked out of the house, whatever. This was the life we lived. So, my why stems from my grandfather who is an immigrant son who dedicated his life to bettering a community in South Carolina. My mom did the same thing in a different community in the same area. And then my dad has taught in multiple states as well as internationally, coached basketball as well. And so, all that to be said, my why comes back to them
because they showed me what it meant to be sacrificial in leadership. They showed me what it meant to give your life to other people's kids while never making me feel unloved or unwanted. They showed me what it was like to be a leader and to live a life for other people. So, my why is to give as much as I possibly can to this world before I die. To plant as many trees as I possibly can that I know I'll never see the fruits of, but I'm going to plant those seeds as much as I possibly can as I move forward. And That's my why.
Love it, man. Love it. Let's let's start moving into kind of where you serve, right? And uh you're you're in a great place to to be servicing kids. So, it as I was researching for the podcast, here's the question that came out that kind of intrigued me. So, so do you remember the exact moment that you realized that your students that are just outside of Pittsburgh had never actually been downtown? Yeah. So, funny enough, the and this actually happened in two different areas, right? So, When I was in South Carolina, the first time I realized that students needed to really take trips and have opportunities was when I was in South Carolina, I was teaching a group of students who we lived about 20 minutes from downtown Greenville. Um, if you ever Greenville, South Carolina, that's where I was born and raised. And I was teaching starting off. And of the 28 kids, only three kids had seen downtown Greenville. It was a 20 minute drive, Ryan, straight down the highway. And I went,
"What?" And so I realized something needed to change and then as I speak to the students here I realize it's the same concept guys we go right down what is route 28 it is a easy route to the city so many of our students have never seen a Steelers game have never been downtown have never seen they don't even know what I'm referring to when I speak about it and so those travel opportunities really started and stemmed in South Carolina which built the foundation of what we're doing um but I realized because of my family and the trips that I took what kind of life change it was for me. And so I want to give that back to those kids because when my mom um they saved all the way up through elementary school. Both my parents were teachers. Um and so they saved and saved and saved. And then when we got into middle school, she started taking me on trips places. And I'll never forget going to New York City for the first time. We land and you see the welcome to New York at LaGuardia airport. You see it all. I'm like, "Oh man, this is so cool." And we get in the taxi cab and the guy definitely charged us way more money than we were supposed to be charged to get to our hotel.
Part of the experience. Part of the experience. Okay. And we get to the hotel which is in the middle of Time Square. And I get out of the the car and I just was in awe, right? The energy, the lights, and I said, "I'm going to live here one day." 10 years later, I took an internship in New York City and I got to live there. All because my mom dedicated that money, those resources to taking me on that trip, right? And so, I saw the difference that it made for me and then the difference it made in my students in South Carolina and the difference it's making in our school up here in Arnold, Pennsylvania.
Yeah. Let's let's dive down that a little bit or pull the thread. U because you we talked about, you know, kids that are 20 minutes away, but you're also talking about getting kids on planes, right, as a as a teaching tool. Yeah. Or getting them into a restaurant, right? Like outside the textbook, these experiences. So, why is that such a big part of what you do? Yeah. So, this that actually stemmed back again whenever I said, "I want to take my students on trips." Um, the district and the school that I was at, I was like, "No way."
Right. Every administrator listening is going like, "No, that's not that's impossible." 100%. And and to I get it, red tape. I understand why. So, I said, "Well, I'm going to do it myself." And started the Teach from Deart Foundation, which it sole goal, recruited a board, everything. And I literally told the biggest lie I've ever told. I told the board members, I said, "This will only be for my school, my students in South Carolina. That's all it's for is to take these kids on trips. That's all this will ever be biggest lie I've ever told because then three years later we're opening up the Dart Academy, right? And so in that,
you know, we go out and I took I'll never forget my first pod trip. The students called it that where I would take a group of two, three, four, um we'd pack into my F-150 with my wife. Parents would gladly sign the release forms. Listen, the moment they heard there was free dinner and free daycare basically they said take them. Sometimes I was like they might not come back. They might leave them with me. Um but in that, right? We go out and I I remember going to a restaurant because like we need to feed them and we go we went we went to play mini golf and then we went to feed them and I told them the things my dad had told me when we were at a restaurant my parents didn't order for me there was the expectation you're going to order you're going to address the waiter waitress you're going to remember their name
so I remember as a kid being like Miss Lisa can I have and and you know Miss Lisa loved it she's like oh sweet baby yes all that so I told them the expectations And the waitress goes, "So, what would you like to eat?" And the student looked at me. And I went, "Oh, no. I'm not mama." I said, "If you don't order, you don't eat." And he went, "Yes, sir." I said, "Can you give us a minute?" And then I realized this kid who was 10 years old had never had that experience. So, I talked them through how does that look? What does that look like to engage the waitress? So, she comes back and they're like, "Uh, Miss Tanya was her name. Miss Tanya, can we please have this and they were like of course would you like this? Uh yes ma'am please thank you so much. The next thing you know our check gets covered.
Ah because they were so impressed by these students. Somebody overheard from another table and they covered our bill. And I thought okay this is a part of the process. We need to take them out and show them not only how to dine properly but at the end I said yes they took care of our bill but we need to give her a tip. What does that look like? And so We talked about decimals and tied in the math lesson on how to tip properly, what that looks like. And then it just started to blossom. And we were every weekend I was taking students in my class on trips, whether it was rock climbing or basketball games, a movie, and we would go out to dinner. And then our academic score skyrocketed.
This school was considered unsatisfactory by the state of South Carolina. My students that came in had the lowest testing percentage in the school and by the end were outscoring the district average. And people were going, whoa, what's happening in this classroom? And it I realized very quickly that these two came together to build an excellent student. So the soft skills, the speaking properly, that tied its way into class naturally, then from class to the outside naturally, and we got to the end of the year, and you listen, if there's any people on here that pray, let me tell you, pray for my wife because she has to deal with this all day long. We get to the end of the year, Ryan, And she says, "Good job, babe. Proud of you. Um, you took those kids." And I said, "I think I want to take them on an airplane." And she goes, "What?" And I'm like, "Yes, I think I want to take on an airplane." She goes, "Why? Why? Like that's a lot of work. There's a lot of travel, all that." I said, "Yeah, but the first time I got on a plane, it changed my life."
Yeah. To be able to lift off, to feel the popping in your ears, to land in another location somewhere. I said, "I want to take them on a plane." And so we flew 20 students to Atlanta. Georgia that year, which was only a 30inut flight, right? But we did it right because we wanted to give them that opportunity. And the coolest piece about it, Ryan, was that most of our parents, it was their first time on a flight. And I realized we're not done with mom and dad. Yes, we prepared the next generation, but they have a role to play in this as well. We need to impact them, too. And that spurred the model. And funny enough, at the end of that trip, parents cornered me in the airport. I thought something wrong had happened. I got scared and they said, "You need to start a school where you do all of these things you're doing with our kids, but in a school somewhere." And I was like, "Yeah, right." Like, whatever. Thank you so much. Yeah, right.
Eight months later, we purchased a building in Pennsylvania and we said, "This is where we're going to go." But that's where it started was really to see they needed those experiences. And to this day, those students call me every year, text me every year and they're like, "We're rooting for your school. We're rooting for your students. You're going to change their world like you changed mine." And all of those things because all we did was show them a different part of life. That's there for everyone,
but sadly not everyone gets to experience. So, I want to make sure we hit the whole family piece with the academy that you've opened up. That's a big deal. But I also want to go back to the academic gains that your kids made. I'm going to guess that it's not because your expert workshop at a restaurant on decimals, right? So like correct, right? Not that you didn't have best practices in the classroom, but there's a major jump, right? That I'm sure other people in your school were using similar curriculum and those types of things.
So how do you marry that idea of somebody says, why was that class so successful? Yeah. It's the merger of the soft skills and and it's like life skills and academic skills. We so often put them in silos. Yeah. Right. We we we treat them that way because so for instance, We taught students how to write a check. That's a very important skill that I have adults who don't know how to do. Okay. In that teaching them how to write a check. I blended that with our math units. Y So when we were talking about balancing a checkbook, how does that look? We tied it into our math units or looking at ways that we speak properly. We broke down leaders like Ronald Reagan's speeches, Barack Obama's speeches. And I said, "What did he do well?" And then how can we mimic that to where students would say, "I'm speaking like Obama today," right? They felt that energy, right? What we did and what we do, Ryan, is we blend the two together.
So, the way that our classrooms work is that students are constantly speaking to one another, speaking in front of the class, answering questions with full sentences. And it's not that they don't know the answers by saying one word, but we're teaching them how to go deeper, how to get that thought process further than A, B, C, or D. And one thing that I eliminated during that school year was multiple choice. Okay. I had done some reading on the Swedish system and they don't use they said the number one flaw in American education was multiple choice
and so I started to do it right off the rip. I said, "Let me go ahead." You know, I got really excited. I said, "I'm going to do it." And I'll never forget the first time I did it. We took a test and the kids' brains were about to explode. They were like, "Oh my goodness." But one of the students struggled the most said, "Mr. Dehard, I know exactly what was on that test." Because they wrote it. They had every answer they had. to write out their reasoning and it opened the door for conversation, dialogue. Why was this right? Why was this wrong? Right? Where did you miss the point? And the next thing I know, these things flowed and our classroom took off. But it is the blending of that soft skill and the academic together, making those two one. Then those kids gained confidence. And the confidence is not false confidence. Because Ryan, you know just as well as I do right now. We're dealing with a generation of false confidence. They think because nobody was honest with them like no baby that wasn't your day or no that's not a great thing right you know you didn't do your best here right
yeah their confidence is coming from true proven success they're speaking in front of people are rooting them on hey let's go for instance in our class today discussion we're talking about current events actually in one of the classes and one student broke down the uh Zox which is Amazon's new um self-driving cars They broke down how it works, why they're doing it. I mean, it was perfect. And so I said, "He's what?" And the class was like, "He's clocking." Which is their term for he's doing well. Okay. That student's grin went from ear to ear.
Sure. Right. Because they know they locked in. When I chant he's what, that means that you delivered a fire answer. That was exactly what I want. So the blending of the two really builds an excellent student. Yeah, I think it's a big deal. And as we bring project based learning to schools or districts. I think sometimes leaders think it it's like one or the other, right? But it's really the combination of those two and they build on each other. So, it's a big deal. Let's get into the academy that you are in right now. Like you're in the building. It's moving. You've had a lot of dreaming and visioning. I'm sure I know some long days I've been following on Facebook. So, you're, you know, you've got concrete mixers and electrical issues, all this stuff. Um, but I really want to talk about your model more, I think, because you've got this two generation model where you've got parents and kids learning side by died and it's a big deal and I would think the first response from our listeners stick with us is like that doesn't make sense. How would you make that work?
Yeah. But can you start with why it's so important and then kind of go into how you get it to work? Yeah, of course. So, I saw this in South Carolina. We were in a in a title one environment and a lot of the families were not engaging with school. Sure. So, you know, they would come on like meet the teacher day and then we wouldn't see them for the rest of the year, right? Um and so what I decided to do was make home visits. I decided to go door knocking one Saturday and I literally showed up at every student's home, knocked on the door and was like, "Hey, I'm your teachers or I'm your student's teacher. Um, would love to talk with you." Started talking with people, all of that. And I realized their lack of engagement wasn't because they didn't care about their kid. Their lack of engagement was because they had a terrible experience with school.
Like some of these families were like, "Mr. Jr., when I go into the school, I want to vomit." Like that's how visceral of a reaction they feel. Yeah. Right. And so I said, how can we flip the script on school for the parents? Because if mom and dad or mom or dad, whoever's involved with the education and they believe in the education, the kids's going to do better. And so I started thinking, how can that work? And and then once I saw this building in Arnold, honestly, Ryan, it hit me in an instant. Educate the student, educate the parent, educate the whole family, revitalize a community.
It was right there. And what I saw was, okay, let's hit the kids with the academics, the soft skills, build them up into excellent leaders, and then the parents, let's provide GED programming, financial planning courses, give them the skills to be successful. And we just had a family interview, Ryan, two weeks ago, one of the last families we had in. And we were talking about our model, and the mom started crying. And I said, "Did I upset you?" She said, "No, I just want to get my GED so I can be be there with my daughter and I just it hit me in the gut. We've got five of our families signed up to get their GEDs. So, the dream is that the student and the parent walk the stage together at graduation.
Yeah. Being able to say, "Look what we've done together." And now that their families now they have a GED that opens job opportunities. Now they have financial planning which now they know how to handle the financial gain that they're getting with those job opportunities. Because between a GED non-GED job and a GED job, you're seeing a couple dollars difference off the rip in an hourly position. And so with that, now we're giving them the tools to be successful. And that goes right back to the student. And so mom gets to say, "Oh, no, baby. We're both on this together.
We're doing this side by side. You don't think you think I want to be I want to give up, too, but I can't because we're going to do this together." Right? And so it's a really beautiful process. We've had three GED graduates so far before the school even opened um and their lives were forever changed. Um they each got job improvements after that. Some of them are going to nursing school now because they had high school diploma. All of those things have changed for them and it's because education is the tool. We just flipped the way they saw it and that's what it comes down to. It's a mindset.
Yeah. I I love it. I mean that's a vision. I mean I've got goosebumps, right? So uh you know that that's the work that we're in and it's it's easy. It's almost it's too easy to get cynical and just say the parents don't care that's why they're not coming in and I said that's not a judgmental like I've said that right in my classroom there are people Ryan like let's be honest there are sometimes where that is the case it breaks your heart but there are there are and and that's where I try to tell whenever people have conversations with me they say oh I bet you think this about this situation or this scenario guys I'm not judging anybody listen I'm a hot mess express like let me tell you to that I just have a way that I see the world and I pursue it in that lens, right? Just because they think that way doesn't mean sometimes they're always wrong either. And there's times where I'm not right,
but I'm going to keep pushing forward for these families. So, yeah, it it really does come down to a lot of times is finding out why they're not engaged. And it might be because they don't like education. It might be because they're working three jobs. You just don't know. Sometimes it is the simplicity of just going and asking, right? So, I love that you just took action to do that. But also, as I listen to this like this is not an easy school implementation that you've had here, right? Like you've got a lot of layers, right? Yes.
But there's also it's also I' I've been around enough to know that Matt can't do this on his own, right? So there's got to be uh the city has to be involved, I imagine. Right. I don't know if the mayor is involved, the communities. So how do you do that part as the leader and Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about that. This when when you started when we said we were going to launch and I mean I'm telling you I decided like When my wife was like, "You can't make anything easy on yourself." And I was like, "Apparently not." Because if I would have done this in South Carolina, we would have had a lot more funding success off the rip, probably had a building,
but there was a bit of it that I said, I want to go somewhere where I'm not Cindy Dehart and Glenn Dehart's child. Sure. And it's not that there was I I love the legacy that's been laid out before me, but I wanted to go somewhere where I was Matt Deheart, the individual. And so, moving up to this area, it's where my wife is from. Um, I brought her back up here. And when we started, I literally went door-knocking. So I would fly up once a month while I was still teaching in South Carolina and go to events, go anytime there was an event, I would fly up for it. I would be there, communicate with families. I met with the may former mayor Joe Beia. I met with the current mayor Shannon Sanuchi. And both of them were like, "If you pull this off, we're all in." Because what we're used to, fair warning, is people saying, "I'm going to do this great thing in this town." That's that was formerly a very successful area
and then they just walk away because it gets difficult, right? And we delivered and so with that it was it's constant meeting. Um I don't get extremely political with things because for us our our job is not to get political. Our job is to educate and change a mindset. And so I am engaged in the sense of having conversations. Um but mostly it was just showing up, right? That's 90% of the battle. is being there. We had families I met two years ago, saved my little brochure that I gave them for two years to enroll their child and they're like, "We remember you spoke to us at this event and your energy and it was infectious
because I showed up. I was constantly around." And so when we moved up here, I involved myself in anything that was going on in Arnold. If there was a trash cleanup day, I was there. If there was a community town hall, I was there. If there was any, we would put event on to build that community to where now our building we call it sacred ground like people don't mess with our building we've never had issues people watch it I got a lady Missy Raa across the street she calls me if any kids are on the she's like I told them I told them to go on right all of those things being said the town is behind us because we're behind the town
sure and we've said we're going to do this we're going to deliver we have delivered and we're going to continue to be here. This is our home. This is where we set up camp and we're not going anywhere. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I love that. And I love that the steps that you're laying out, I could see those working in other other schools, other districts that we work with, right? Like go out, be present, go to the town council meeting, like go to those things and be present
Yeah. Right. That's where it it falls flat. Correct. Well, and and I think you've hit on the head. It can be This is not just something. So, our model, which is actually being pushed out to other places across the globe, um it's truly just about, it's going to sound corny to heart, right? And it's being intentional. I mean, it that's what it comes down to. Everything in our building, the way we designed it, is intentional. Everything about our curriculum is intentional. Everything we do has a reason and purpose. There is nothing in our our are steps that I couldn't say this is why we do that right and showing up to events it doesn't have to be a difficult thing I show up I smile I talk to people I might be there 10 minutes but I'm going to be there
yeah right and I'm going to talk with people I'm going to listen to them 80% of the time Ryan I'm just listening and I love it I just sit there and listen and my wife is like so you do listen to people right you I'm like okay okay like you know got to bring that home brother come on 100%. Um, yeah. So, so really and truly, it's just about being intentional with the time that you have.
Well, I appreciate that, too, cuz I, you know, as we've got new leaders that are listening as well, like, well, what do I do when I show up, right? It's like, listen, right? Ask a few questions. Be reflective, right? Share your vision. Share your heart.
Yeah. And I mean, and just say, you know, what brings you here? Right. That's the that's the first thing is I'm like, hey, I'm at what brings you to this? And they'll start telling me and the next thing you know, I find out their uncle had cancer and their cat died the other day and all these things and I'm listening and then the next time I go to an event I will see them and I'll be like hey how's your uncle doing right hey how are you feeling because and they're like you remembered I'm like well not a whole lot of people give me that information right off the rip so yes I remember right but those conversations it truly is just how are you what's your name what brings you here and then I just let it roll from there
yeah super good um so trying to figure out where we go next you've got a ton kind of amazing outcomes for your kids. U people need to come visit you for sure. I love the I love the leader story that we're giving people. Um what what's next for you? Like what do you what do you two things like what is what's a need that you have? Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? And then you know what's next? Yeah. So needs for us you know we are we're a privately funded institution. Um we don't receive federal funding. And in that um we need act we need monetary support, people to sponsor our students, people to sponsor our lunches. We have trips coming up in 2026, people to help sponsor those trips and and a lot of those are listed on our website, opportunities to help. Um that's a big piece for us that we need um is that monetary support as we build this this this academic institution, you know, this this this lifechanging institution as we continue to build it. We just need people to come in and support and then spread the word about what they're seeing and reach out, right? Like reach out to our team. We are here to spread our excitement elsewhere. Um I love I get chances to speak at conferences um and share not only my leadership but our story, ways of being intentional, things that I do. So if you ever have people that say, "Hey, we'd love to have you come speak," we will be there. And actually what we do is we put those fees right back into the student scholarships.
So that's how we help fund the school. Um through those opportunities. Um, so that would definitely be a need for us for sure. And when you first started the school, I'm sure you did a lot of fundraising to begin with because did you open debtree? Is that right? Yes, we have opened debtree. That is correct. That's awesome. That's amazing. So, as you know, we people in a similar boat that they're raising money looking for funds. Um, what I don't think there's a secret sauce and I think you've hit most of it that you are active out in the community. You've got a great vision that you can speak too. But but when you look back at that journey,
what are some of the big steps you took to to open up debtree? Um you know, I was blessed to be surrounded by the right people. Um and you know, we had we had certain people that had been a part of Teach from to Heart as a um as the foundation when it started. And so whenever we said we wanted to launch this school and I pitched the vision, they were like, "Hey, um if you can basically prove to me that you're going to get to this point, we'll help fund XYZ to the next step." And so that's just consistently happen. is we've said, "Hey, we're still moving. We're still alive." And sometimes literally by the skin of our teeth. Um barely gotten to the next step, but we've gotten there. And so really the biggest thing is when you're giving a pitch to people or you're talking with people, especially about supporting you, you need to show the steps that you're going to take. Yes. But you need to show the steps that you've taken.
Yeah. Because people don't want to support me included. Like, oh, great idea, great vision, but what have you done to get that started? Yep. Right. What have you done to make that happen. And so we're able to provide those those steps and say, "Look what we've done." I mean, now I say, "Look, we're open." Yeah. Right. Like we have kids in seats. We have families in GED classes. We're open. Okay. And that's been the big piece now as we're developing our relationships and financial support and funding support is saying, "Look, we fought for three years to make this happen. I worked third shift at a Planet Fitness. I have bartended. I've worked three jobs up until past month to make sure that we could get this place open. My wife taking second jobs, our families supporting us and making sure we were taken care of. It has been it has been a beast. It has t taken a village. Um and so just share what you've done, right? Don't be afraid to brag on yourself. You have to people need to know, look, we've accomplished these things. We need your support to get to the next stage. That's when people want to come in and help, right? But if you're saying, "I need your help to get started and I haven't done anything for it." Good luck. Because that's just that's not how how it functions out in the real world.
Yeah. And we've got some partners listening that are that are founders. They've got that founder name tag and it gets all the things. The joy is you get all those things you just mentioned, right? To to make it all happen. But man, congratulations on on being in the building. It's such a big deal. Um I I have two more questions for you. I do want you to go down this trail again of five years from now, maybe. what is what's it look like for you and and the academy and the foundation? Yeah, so for us, um, one big thing in 5 years, we would like for our foundation to be able to have a scholarship fund for students to go to college that have been a part of our school system, but not just a part of this school system, but from those students back in South Carolina,
right? We want to be able to help support. Listen, I'm constantly reaching back out and being a part of their lives, even though I'm up here now. Um, we want to be able to have our foundation to be able to have a piece of it, a chunk of it to support scholarships for college and get those students in college to help with that. Um, and then for the school standpoint, we want our curriculum to get spread. We want schools in other countries that wouldn't normally have access to this type of rigor, this type of this type of engagement. They don't they by no fault of their own, they don't have access to the tools to learn these things. We want to partner with those schools in South Africa, in India, Cameroon, other parts of the globe where they aren't able to receive those teaching tools. We want to be the teacher. We want to impact those schools. So, in five years, I would love to see hundreds of schools using the Dehart Academy model um and being able to be a part of our system and then building partnerships so that our students can travel to those schools. Because one thing, Ryan, when we travel,
our students their eighth grade trip, we go to a partner school and they teach for a week. So, those students in eighth grade will be teaching second first, second, third grade helping those teachers. They have to go and serve for a week as a part of that trip. So that could be in Cameroon, that could be in South Africa, could be to India, wherever those partner schools are, we find a partner school and they go and they serve for a week along with the fun, right? We have the fun on the Yeah. But they serve earn it a little bit or give back, you know, however you language that, that's important.
So when you say you kind of mentioned two words, curriculum and model. Yeah. Which one fits best? Like do you have a curriculum people use or a model that they kind of build their school or maybe both. So I would say it's a combination of the two. Our curriculum is where you blend in that non-academic and the academic piece and then the model would be more of someone saying hey we want to build a actual Dehart Academy in this area and that would include the adult learning right how do you engage those adults the curriculum is is more student focused student centered and that's the blending of the two coming together and how do we build that we give those lessons we give opportunities for those teachers actually to reach out to us and like be like, "Hey, I watched your lesson on this.
How did you get this across or what did you do?" Or, "I'm having a trouble with this." And our teachers who are displaying this are actually the ones able to communicate with them and building that community. Cool. Love that. Right. You get to talk to the boots on the ground educator and correct. That's powerful. Hey, hey, Matt. Is there a book coming? Actually, there's a book already out. So, um, you can look it up on Amazon. It is on Amazon. Teach from Deart: From Surviving to Thriving as a First year teacher. Uh it really just breaks down what the tools that I used in my first year, the successes, the failures, and hopefully will inspire those coming into education or those that need about a little bit of a revamp, right? Um but hopefully it'll inspire you to chase greatness. Um and you can definitely find it. It's on Amazon. Type in my name, Matt Deart, and it does pop up. That's a pretty cool thing. I I geeked out when I called.
Yeah. Perfect. We'll put that in the show notes as well. So, last question, then I want I also want you to give your details. We'll put them in the show notes of how people can reach out. But so former student from Teach from the Heart Academy 20 years from now comes back. What do you hope they say that that it meant to them? You changed my life. That's that's the simple that's the simple truth. All right. We have three pillars. Creating opportunities, developing goals, and changing lives.
If they come to me and say, "Mr. Dehart, my life was changed because of you, because of this school." That's all I need to hear. The other pieces will come the det will, you know, get ironed out, but if their life has changed, we've done our job. Love it, man. Thanks for being on, Matt. Where, um, we'll put your details to the website, but where specifically would you point people to? Yeah, definitely hit our website of teachtotheart.org. Um, we've got information about our curriculum, our education group, which is the two together, our education group. We've got information about how to fund, how to help support, um, as well as more information about our model in general. Seeing different trips, you'll see all the photos of past trips. Um, and then we got our current trips getting started. So, you'll get to see all of that. And then our social media handle, if you just look up Teach from Deart Academy on Facebook and on Instagram, you'll be able to see that as well. We our social media marketing direct, uh, coordinator is excellent. She does a great job of pushing out our content. So, um, we're very, very grateful for her. So, yeah, definitely check out our social media. Feel free to reach out. My handle is teach. So, it's about as simple as we're get on that one. Um, feel free to reach out. Anybody wants to know anything, um, would love the opportunity to share what I do elsewhere and and see impact made. I say impact always in all ways. And that's what we would like to see.
Super good. I'd agree you guys are a good follow. So, we should we'll put all those details in the in the show notes uh, wherever people are watching this, whether it's on YouTube or on the podcast, so we can get people connected to you. Matt, thanks for sharing your heart and your vision. We appreciate it. Ryan, thank you for the opportunity. All right. All right. Listeners, you um just got inspired, but you also got some boots on the ground tactics that you should be following. If you're an educator, a leader going in this direction, uh you should probably give this podcast another listen, honestly, and then go out and and visit Matt because you've got a master's course in how to build these things out very practically. Um and if you're not ready to go knock on doors and start asking questions, you should go see Matt and get inspired again because that that is what it's going to take, right? That's part of the journey. So, thanks for listening everybody. Go out and lead inspired.
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