To honor all the work Patrick put into developing a successful tutoring business, we decided to continue the operation of PBA Ventures.  Patrick was known for his caring and professional service and we strive to uphold his legacy.

 

Patrick started school at Davidson Elementary and finished his education at Davidson College, earning a B.A. in English. During his middle school years he began babysitting and realized that he enjoyed developing meaningful relationships with kids and their families. Knowing that Patrick was a student in the North Mecklenburg High School International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a parent of one of these families asked him to do some academic tutoring for her child. This student proceeded to do well on tests and improve his grades, and Patrick realized how much he loved serving in the educator role, wielding the power to stimulate intellectual curiosity and inculcate confidence. 

 

After college, Patrick worked for a couple of years to earn enough money to depart on an 18 month journey through Mexico, Latin America, and the northern parts of South America. In Guatemala, he took a weeks-long Spanish course to finally learn the language that he had struggled with during high school and college. After returning to Davidson, he welcomed the opportunity to become the site manager for Davidson College’s Perú Semester Abroad program from 2011 to 2014. He also spent considerable time volunteering in Cusco, Perú, at an after-school program as a counselor and instructor. Ultimately, Patrick would spend nearly half of his time between 2008 and 2018 in Latin America. In the summer of 2018, he took his first ever trip outside the Americas, spending two months in Southeast Asia. Patrick’s passion for travel and desire to explore and learn about other cultures played an important role in molding him into the person that he became and led to lifelong friendships worldwide. To honor his love of traveling, a travel scholarship in his name was established at Davidson College to encourage students to go beyond their comfort zone and explore the world.

 

In between his study abroad trips, Patrick had the great fortune to be hired as a part-time Spanish and math teacher at the Woodlawn School in October of 2012. He quickly became a beloved teacher and friend even to those students he didn’t teach. It was during this time that Patrick resumed tutoring. He turned his passion for educating into a successful and quickly growing tutoring and mentoring business, PBA Ventures, LLC, operating throughout the Lake Norman and northern Charlotte region, providing acclaimed, in-home academic tutoring.

 

Patrick’s love for the Latino culture got him involved in E2D, a local non-profit business dedicated to ensuring that all students have affordable access to an at-home computer. E2D took advantage of his mastery of Spanish and his amazing ability to connect with the Latino community to help distribute laptops and provide technical guidance. In honor of Patrick’s dedication to E2D, a fund was created in his memory to provide digital literacy training support to the Latino families. PBAs Academia Digital/Digital Academy will hold its inaugural half-day program in the fall of 2019.

 

(Much of this biographical information has been compiled from Patrick’s own first person account)