Alumni Spotlight: Evan Townsend '06

For the month of October, our alumni spotlight is Mr. Evan Townsend, a 2006 graduate of Notre Dame, who currently resides in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Upon graduation, Mr. Townsend went to East Tennessee State University on a full scholarship. While there, he majored in art and loved every minute of it. He truly cherishes his memories of working late nights in the studio and seeing his ideas come into reality. When thinking about his professors and the impact they had on him, he cannot help but think of one professor who had the strongest impact, his dad. Although his dad was a professor at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and he was never in his class, he saw first-hand how much his dad cared for his students and the knowledge he had for his classes.

Upon completing his undergraduate degree, Mr. Townsend took a break from the art world and joined the AmeriCorp. It was his years of service for the United States, not carrying a gun but a shovel and pickaxe, which shaped his service orientation. That is exactly what launched him into the career he is in today, a high school principal. Mr. Townsend says his favorite part of his job is when he sees the lightbulbs go off. Not just for academics, but emotionally. He stated, “When a student spills their guts in my office and we cry together and we come to a conclusion and accountability plan and I make sure all the teachers are on the same team, it is powerful to see a student who thought the world was out to get them realize that the world is actually whatever they want to be.”

The advice he says he would give to current students as Notre Dame is to trust the process.

He says students think that a lot of the work they do in classes today does not feel relevant to their life, and they could be right. The point in doing math problems or English problems or whatever, is not so that you will remember the quadratic equation for the rest of your life, it is to build knowledge and to do hard things. Life is about who uses their brain the best, not who has the biggest muscles. He wishes more students trusted the process and school.

When asked about finding his passion, Mr. Townsend says that he would tell himself to loosen up a little bit. He did plenty of the things that everybody does in college, including staying up late both academically and socially, and getting in trouble and all the things, but he did take school seriously. He says he would tell himself to chill just a little bit on being a perfectionist and worry a little bit more about the big picture.

Some interesting facts about him, he says, is that most people do not know he is a closet hip-hop dancer – but he does not want his students to know! His favorite book is called Humankind. It is a history of humanity through the lens of optimism, and it changed his life. When life and anxiety get to be too much, Mr. Townsend takes to the rocks and goes rock climbing to still his mind.

Mr. Townsend says while not directly involved with Notre Dame at the time, he does believe it is important to stay connected with any community you have been a part of because communities are important for the human mind and soul.

 Lastly, Mr. Townsend’s favorite quote is from a principal he heard speak at a recent conference. The principal said, "it is not that AI is going to replace jobs, it is people who know how to use AI that will replace you." That really has him thinking about the state of education and what he wants to do at his school.