50 Stories for 50 Years: David (Kirk) Brown, Former ASSIST Representative, Christ School

To celebrate our 50th anniversary year during 2018/19, we collected stories and profiles of people and institutions that have helped us build our organization, which first began as one person's dream in 1968. We will feature one story per week on our blog. Please enjoy these “50 for 50” profiles featuring ASSIST's dedicated board members, dynamic staff, welcoming host families and enthusiastic ASSIST Scholars.

David (Kirk) Brown
Former ASSIST Representative, Christ School

Never has the mission of ASSIST seemed more timely or urgent. What a wonderful model for hospitality and global understanding too often missing in this age of growing nationalism!

Maybe it is because I, too, had a similar study abroad experience that utterly reshaped my perspective. Or perhaps because over the course of some forty years I had the opportunity to see how the ASSIST experience enriched the culture of two boarding schools at which I worked. Whatever the reason, I am convinced that ASSIST is making a critical difference in the lives of our communities and in the lives of our students.

Of all the many roles I was privileged to play during my career, serving as an ASSIST representative and advisor was among the most fulfilling. My memories are of interactions often humorous, often poignant, and always significant.

Just one of those memories:
In the summer of 2004, my wife, two sons, and I were traveling through Austria and Germany. As we passed through Munich, I decided to contact the family of one of our three ASSIST Scholars who would be coming to Christ School later that summer. I had called simply to answer any questions, but they insisted we join them for dinner in their small apartment. The table was crowded with their family and ours, but the sense of hospitality was palpable and overwhelming. Their son had a wonderful year at Christ School, and the following May, his family came to see his new school. We gathered our families again to toast not only his successes, but to celebrate our friendship. And it continues. Those friendships that cross linguistic and geographic borders are what I consider most emblematic of the ASSIST experience.

About Kirk:
Kirk's passion for ASSIST stems from his own study year spent in Germany and Austria. He credits that experience with the worldview he could have gotten no other way. After receiving his A.B. from Davidson, he completed an M.A. in German at the University of Virginia, where he also learned his love of teaching. For the next forty years he worked closely promoting foreign study, first at Virginia Episcopal School as German teacher, Language Department Chair, and College Counselor; then at Christ School as Chaplain and ASSIST representative, as well as advisor to ASSIST scholars.