A Revolutionary Return to Education | Jovia Godfrey

On this episode of Anchored, Soren is joined by Jovia Godfrey, Admissions Officer at Saint Constantine College and a seventh-grade writing tutorial teacher at the Saint Constantine School in Houston, Texas. They talk about Jovia’s journey to discovering Saint Constantine for her kids, and the school’s resolve to cultivate an environment that is risky but not hazardous. They dive into Saint Constantine’s K-16 educational approach and their revolutionary return to learning well. 

Transcript

Soren Schwab - CLT (00:00.972)
Welcome back to the Anchored Podcast, the official podcast of the Classic Learning Test. My name is Soren Chua, VP of Partnerships here at CLT, and today we're joined by Jovia Godfrey. Jovia is both the admissions officer at St. Constantine College and a seventh grade writing tutorial teacher at the St. Constantine School in Houston, Texas. A Boston, Massachusetts native, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Northeastern University in 2006.

During the years following her graduation from Northeastern, Jovia held positions in television production, direct sales, real estate sales, and airline customer service. She also enjoyed 10 years of homeschooling her children. Jovia and her husband, Chris, have five children, and together they operate a graphic and fine arts business. Jovia is also currently developing a system designed to close the care gap for career-driven

moms in the United States and we're just so excited to have her on the podcast today. Jovia, welcome. I have so many questions that are probably completely unrelated to our topic, just given your background in television production and customer service, we might, airline customer service, we might get there later. Let's start as we always do on the Anchored Podcast by talking about your own educational journey, your background. Talk to us a little bit about growing up for you in K-12. What kind of schools did you attend?

Jovia Godfrey (00:59.742)
Thank you.

Jovia Godfrey (01:24.01)
Sure, I attended, I say three school from K through 12. starting in preschool, I was at Berea Seventh-day Adventist Academy in Boston, just five minutes from my house where I grew up. And that was our local church school. So I went there from preschool to second grade. Third grade, I went to public school. My mom worked in public school, Boston public schools for about 40 years in total. She just retired about a year and a half ago.

And so there was this one school she had worked at and she figured it would be a good idea to save some money that year and enroll us at the Henry Groove School in Hyde Park. And so we did that for one year and then my parents said, nope, they're going back to Berea. So went back to Berea for fourth grade, did fourth through sixth grade at Berea. And then I took the exam to go to Boston Latin School. And so I attended Boston Latin School from seventh to 12th grade.

Soren Schwab - CLT (02:05.71)
you

Soren Schwab - CLT (02:20.258)
And that one is not easy to get into, right? mean, that's a pretty prestigious school. So what was that like? the, guess the, were you aware of that, of the pressure? I mean, obviously you're young. Was that like, yeah?

Jovia Godfrey (02:23.665)
It's not.

Jovia Godfrey (02:32.537)
yeah. Anyone in, I would say, maybe the state of Massachusetts, but definitely in the city of Boston, understands the pressure to the point where I know a lot of families who wouldn't allow their kids to take the test. They feel like, you know, their kids would come back home different. And it's true. You do. And I get it. I guess it's really tough to grow up in the inner city and go to this place where now, mind you, you have to live in the city of Boston to go to Boston Latin School. So we're all inner city kids.

but there is something different, I would say even week two when you go back home and you're not speaking like the other kids in the neighborhood. And it may not necessarily be in vocab yet, but it's definitely in how you're thinking and how you're processing things. And some families don't want that for their kids. It does create a little bit of a divide. But that pressure, I didn't love it.

Soren Schwab - CLT (03:07.725)
Bye.

Jovia Godfrey (03:27.985)
You know, you feel good about it when you get in. You feel good when you go there. And I think for a lot of us, was like, we want to get out of here. And I see that even with my kids now. Like, my daughter's like, can I leave this school and go to the local public school? And I'm like, I remember that feel, wanting to kind of go with the flow of what the masses are doing. And I don't think I appreciated it until I was in undergrad and I realized,

Soren Schwab - CLT (03:40.119)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (03:58.014)
I was prepared for something different. I don't think you get it, especially it's not really explicit that, okay, this is a classical school and classical means this. I think growing up in the Northeast, this is just what we do, so to speak. That's more of the vibe. So I remember being in my freshman year writing class and...

we had to do three steps to the English comp paper, you know, and the first draft we turned in and the professor, was a little, for me, it was not a great feeling, but at the same time, I was proud of myself, but she made copies of my paper for everyone and said, there are no more edits. If you can find one, go ahead. And that was, and they had to do the second and third draft and I was done. But I think that was when I first recognized

Boston Latin wasn't, it wasn't trash.

Soren Schwab - CLT (04:55.305)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm sure when you're there, you're with all these other high achieving students and you kind of look left and right. And I'm sure there are sometimes it's inadequacy feeling of like, man, these are all smarter than me, you know, and then you get out of that quote unquote bubble and you take a step back and say, wow, thank goodness, you know, my parents pushed me to go to that school.

Jovia Godfrey (05:07.911)
Yes.

Jovia Godfrey (05:19.089)
Yeah, you said that the exact two things, the left and right, I don't know if they do this still, but Boston Latin School had this tradition. Seventh grade, you go in and you're in this huge auditorium and there's their names up, you know, at the top of the auditorium, Hancocks and Quincy's and all, Franklin's and all the people. And they would say, look to your left, look to your right in six years, one of you won't be here. Look up the names of these men are writing on your shoulders. You know, these prestigious alum. And so the look to your left, look to your right speech.

That's iconic. And also there was something else that you said. I don't think I remember it right now. But yeah, it was an amazing, amazing thing to be part of that. I think it says a lot. It's done a lot. I'm gonna say that differently. I think when I, I know that when I look at...

Soren Schwab - CLT (05:49.762)
We

Jovia Godfrey (06:15.783)
even sending you my bio, all of those things. It looks kind of checkered. I've been told your CV is kind of checkered, but there's no limit. This type of education, I can speak about classical education forever. There's no limit to what your mind is just opened in a space where people talk about transferring skills and I think that's true about classical education. You don't have to, well, you can reinvent yourself. I like to

think about Benjamin Franklin, candle making family, apprentice to a print shop, he's a statesman, all these things. How were they doing all this back then? And then I remember the look to your left, look to your right, and I'm like, statesmen were not people who went and got all these different degrees. They could think. It didn't matter where they were, they could think. And so I definitely appreciate my education.

Soren Schwab - CLT (07:06.606)
That's incredible. But you mentioned earlier when you were there and you were essentially receiving a classical education, it's not like you were aware of that per se. You probably were aware that you're getting something different from maybe some of the kids in your neighborhood. So when was the first time you realized, I received a classical education and kind of this is what it means? that in college? Was that past college? When did that happen?

Jovia Godfrey (07:32.99)
The first time I heard the word classical education was, I think I was in the 10th grade. But the first time I learned what it really was, I believe I was homeschooling my kids as an adult, probably not more than six years ago. So when I heard the word classical, it was a very interesting situation. We're kind of complaining at school about these teachers. Every teacher acts like they're the only class you have and you have all.

this homework and you're reading all these books and things like that. And we get this schedule for the following year where we have to choose our electives. And we were just so frustrated because we're all looking at this list of electives and we're like, well, our friends at this school and that school, they're getting to take this or that. And it was more practical stuff. And I remember one of the boys in the class said, this stupid classical education. can't even take real, like we can't learn real stuff.

Soren Schwab - CLT (08:30.296)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (08:31.443)
That was what we thought classical was. I don't know how he knew that term because that wasn't something that was advertised, I would say. But that's what we thought of classical education was you have to like read and electives are chemistry. Like, no, that's a class. That's a regular core class. And when I was homeschooling my kids,

Soren Schwab - CLT (08:51.106)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (09:00.077)
My thought around homeschooling was I had an amazing education from Berea School, which was classical too. I didn't know that until much later. I had an amazing education from Boston Latin School. What if I fused the two? If only I could classically Boston Latin School like educate my kids, but with a faith foundation or a faith background. Didn't know that was a thing, so to speak.

Soren Schwab - CLT (09:28.493)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (09:29.393)
I just knew I have all these things that I can give to my kids or I could go to work and hope that they get something close. Maybe, maybe not. And so that's, it was while I was homeschooling and I'm, meeting other parents, I was doing homeschooling exclusively, like, like without community or anything like that, just doing my own thing. You know, Boston's a fun place to do that. You know, taking the trains and going to all the places that I grew up going to museums and all of those.

and meeting some moms and they're talking to me about this program called Classical Conversations and I went to and I go to, think it was an open house or something and I'm listening to them and I'm like, I how to do this. yeah, this will be cool. And we ended up, you know, we did end up joining a Classical Conversations community, but realizing, that's what they were doing. But also understanding New England is...

Classical education is all New England had for so long. And I kind of joke around, even if you don't go to a classical school in New England, it's very likely that your teachers were classically educated. And so whatever the public or charter school, or even private school agenda is, there's going to be a lacing of classical elements there.

Soren Schwab - CLT (10:43.138)
Yeah.

Soren Schwab - CLT (10:54.626)
Right. Well, and I've attempted to stop using traditional when it comes to public schools, right? Because oftentimes they go to a traditional public school. When you think about it, nothing is traditional about most public schools, right? Versus probably even some public schools in New England and especially the private schools are much more traditional still.

Jovia Godfrey (10:56.423)
Don't say that.

Jovia Godfrey (11:09.33)
All right.

Jovia Godfrey (11:14.121)
Frankie.

Soren Schwab - CLT (11:21.978)
maybe even maybe even classical and so I guess they didn't Need the word classical because that's just what education was for so long And I think that's sometimes when I have conversations with parents or with with christian schools that are not classical like we don't necessarily mean something completely different what what you're doing is very different from the quote-unquote traditional public schools It is actually much more traditional or it ought to be much more traditional.

So you're homeschooling your kiddos, you hear about classical conversations. Well, as I read in the buyer, you're at St. Constantine now. So you went from Boston to Houston, Texas. Very, very different. How did you, and maybe tell us a little bit about St. Constantine School, because the school, the K-12 and the college have not been around for that long. I think 2015, 16, right, around that. So when did you get involved and when do you hear from?

Jovia Godfrey (12:01.065)
Right.

Jovia Godfrey (12:14.953)
Yes.

Soren Schwab - CLT (12:18.818)
first year about St. Constantine.

Jovia Godfrey (12:20.713)
Oh, well, we moved to Texas in 2021 and I was at a gym with my kids. They were doing a Ninja Warrior class and I had a bunch of literature out. I was working on possibly directing a new St. Not St. Constance, a new Classical Conversations community in the downtown area of Houston. They needed something. We were new. We ended up not doing that. But because I had all these things out and I was just kind of, you know, seeing if this was going to be a prospect for me.

Soren Schwab - CLT (12:28.013)
nice.

Jovia Godfrey (12:49.961)
A mom sat next to me and she said, oh, CeCe, okay. And I said, oh, are you a CeCe family? And she was like, oh no, I can never homeschool my kids, but I just love my kids' And I'm like, okay. And she's like, you should check it out. And it was St. Constantine. And I'm like, okay, a school's a school. And it was the way she kept saying, I just love my kids' school. She was just, she was enamored. just, I didn't know what to expect. I would say it that way. And in my mind, I kept saying,

It's a school. Okay. You know, my mom worked in schools. My husband taught in Boston and in Cambridge, Mass. When I started television production, I was TV producer director for Boston Public Schools. know, I had, yeah, like we had seen all the things. I was in the superintendent's office. My mom's in the nurse's office. My husband's in the classroom. We had seen how school operates in different facets. And so I didn't understand what could be so great about

Soren Schwab - CLT (13:34.518)
No way.

Jovia Godfrey (13:49.386)
this school. And so I went on their website, I saw some things and I was like, okay, looks cool. But about maybe seven months later, I was feeling a little burnt out. You know, it's one thing to homeschool in your hometown, and you know where to go, you know all the things. It's another thing to move, you know, 2500 maybe miles away 1800, I'm not sure. And to try to kind of keep your rhythm. It's a little more taxing, because you've got you got to work a little bit harder to figure out what you're going to do.

And I remember thinking, oh, well, that school, have that block schedule, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the inter-curricular, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. What if we only did Tuesdays and Thursdays? So we set up a tour and we came to visit. And when I tell you we came to visit when school was out, I think it was May 27th of 2022. It was a year after we had come. And just seeing the campus, it reminded me of my K through six experience.

and hearing all the things. mean, the house system, had house system, natural playground. We had a natural playground. A lot of husbands and wives working here. That's what I grew up with. was, I was like, they're doing things that I recognize. And I did feel that it was like you took Berea and Boston Latin school and fused them together and you made St. Constantine. And they were saying a lot of things. I would say the

Soren Schwab - CLT (14:51.916)
Yes.

Jovia Godfrey (15:14.919)
philosophy of education that I believe. And things that people tend to look at me kind of cross-eyed for. It's like, you're weird. Why do you think that? And really things that would seem not inconsequential, like everyone should teach. That's something that my husband and I said years prior, I think about 10 years before we found St. Constantine was, what if in a school, even your janitor taught?

You know, if he knows shop, like what if he taught woodworking and, you know, this is what it should be. Everyone who is in that space should know what it feels like real time to be in a classroom because you would do your job really differently and it would be a holistic community for real. And so when, when the enrollment director said that to us, I was like, wait, you do what? It was, I mean, all the things.

Soren Schwab - CLT (16:15.448)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (16:15.461)
And so we got back to our mini van and the kids were like, can we do five days? And I looked at my husband and I'm like, can we do five days? And he's looking at me, you're like, you homeschool, can we do five days? And so that was it. Within two months, I was working here. Two months after that, or a month after that, our children started here. A year later, my husband started working here because like I said, he'd been teaching for 13 years in Boston and Cambridge.

Yeah, we had one solid year where all seven of us were here and then our elders graduated. So it's good.

Soren Schwab - CLT (16:47.534)
It is, it is, and I get to visit a lot of schools. That's really my favorite part of the job. And my visit to St. Constantine was probably one of the most profound ones. And I think the intentionality with which everything is done just struck me, you know? And when I think of, you know, people have a hard time defining classical education, right? But when it comes down to it,

Jovia Godfrey (17:02.717)
Okay.

Soren Schwab - CLT (17:17.198)
think of it as the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, right? And the cultivation piece, like it's so tangible at St. Constantine, you know, with the gardens and you know, I mean it's, it is truly even within kind of the classical Christian world, it's a unique place. And I think John Mark Reynolds and you know, he's on our academic board as well and just, yeah, just the vision there and now seeing, I think you told me it's over 500 students.

Jovia Godfrey (17:25.085)
Yes.

Jovia Godfrey (17:33.127)
You

Jovia Godfrey (17:44.073)
Yes, yes, over 500 students within the K through 16. So K through 12 plus the college.

Soren Schwab - CLT (17:50.062)
college. That's incredible. And so the main campus that I visited is in Houston. And I do have to tell all listeners, I got the tour and went outside and you know and I used to be the school administrator and and there were kids climbing trees and climbing, you know, and I'm like, ooh, you know, I mean.

Jovia Godfrey (18:10.185)
Playing in mud.

Soren Schwab - CLT (18:14.734)
playing it and I was getting a little bit anxious and the parents were just, you know, it was a pickup line and you know, and I remember when I got the tour I asked about it, like, well, that seems like, wow, that seems a little scary, right? And, you know, and they said, well, maybe. And I remember this one line that we talked earlier before we started recording, Megan Mueller, she gave me the tour and she said, yeah, there's...

There's going to be risk, right? There are going to be some things and the kids will figure that out. We remove the hazards, but we keep the risk, right? And she said, look over there. And I looked and there was the car line that was also a basketball court. And there were kids playing basketball while cars were coming in. She said, you know, yeah, we could yell at the kids and tell them it's too scary. Or they have learned that, yeah, they're going to play some basketball and there's going to be some cars. And they've learned to kind of deal with that risk.

Jovia Godfrey (18:52.755)
Yes.

Soren Schwab - CLT (19:11.896)
She said, if there's a glass bottle that is broken, that's a hazard. We're going to remove that. But we're going to keep the risk. And the kids responded. And I just thought, is so profound, yet in a way so simple as well, that really, really stuck with me. And so I had to share that, just my impressions, even of just how everything outside is intentional and purposeful.

So I don't know if that's still because you grew so much. I don't know if it's the same setup still, but that was before.

Jovia Godfrey (19:46.356)
yeah. Yeah, well the car pickup line now happens outside of that fence. We have grown so much and we have a couple more buildings in that area. But yeah, the animals and the natural playground. One of the things that I absolutely love is that we're in a really urban area. Like Houston is urban. I joke and it's not a joke. I tell people back home, like Massachusetts,

Soren Schwab - CLT (19:53.814)
Okay. Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (20:15.653)
almost fits inside the city of Houston. Houstonians say Houston to Houston is an hour. And I'm like, yeah, we say Boston to Boston is an hour, but that's because of traffic. Houston to Houston is an hour and maybe more. But the area, the section of Houston where we are, it's called Sharps Town. It's a very urban neighborhood. I think it's the, let me say this correctly, the most thickly settled part of Houston, maybe.

Soren Schwab - CLT (20:18.392)
Houston.

Soren Schwab - CLT (20:22.005)
Hahaha

Jovia Godfrey (20:44.113)
And it's also the most ethnically diverse part of Houston. We're right in the Mahatma Gandhi district. Chinatown is not far from here. And it's this mixing. It's like this mixing of worlds here. And yet we have this very rural-like campus. And so our student body reflects all of that. Not just ethnically, not just racially, I mean, even socioeconomically.

And I think that is so beautiful and so rich, especially in classical contexts, because we can be reading a text together. And if we all kind of come from the same place and, you know, kind of have that same foundation, we can only go so deep into the text. But what happens when a student is like, well, what about this? And no one ever thought of that before. And it's because of where their family is from. And another student says, what about this? And it's not a fight. It's a good argument. You know, just...

I think that lends to it. And to be in a space like this with so much land, you you really are in the hustle and bustle when you're driving in and then you get here and it's just like, wait a minute. I think what this space does for the community is also healing and classical and whole in itself. And so I love when spaces really embody the philosophy that the work they say is actually doing.

Soren Schwab - CLT (21:51.18)
Hmm.

Jovia Godfrey (22:11.751)
You know, that's, yeah, I love that.

Soren Schwab - CLT (22:13.624)
That's powerful. Yeah, that's not at all what you think of when well, as a non-Texan when I think of Houston, right? It's the exact opposite. Well, you mentioned the K-16 and there's been a lot of talk about K-16 and I mean, going back a couple of decades and trying to kind of launch it. There have been many schools that try to launch some kind of college on top of their K-12 school and really saying Constantine did it and it's running and you are

Jovia Godfrey (22:23.586)
That's right.

Jovia Godfrey (22:38.856)
Right.

Soren Schwab - CLT (22:42.914)
you're working on the admission side of the school. And so tell me a little bit about the St. Constantine College. And one thing I want to ask you about is, I'm also over marketing. so I'm putting my marketing hat on. And I went to the website. And the tagline was, a revolutionary return to what college is meant to be. And that's quite the statement. So I would love for you to tell us a little bit about St. Constantine, the college, and maybe

What is the revolutionary return? What is college meant to be?

Jovia Godfrey (23:15.623)
And sure, I'll start with that part, the revolutionary return. I think you touched on it a bit earlier when you were talking about, you know, the traditional sense and what are we calling traditional? I think if I can explain it myself in layman's terms, not in, you know, in John Mark Reynolds terms, he explains it so well. I just love it. Yes. But if I can explain it, I would explain it.

Soren Schwab - CLT (23:33.518)
Thank you. love that man. But yes, half a week over my head.

Jovia Godfrey (23:44.39)
from my experience. When I got here, it was one thing to visit the K through 12 and then to come to the college. When I think of classical college, I think of the Ivy Leagues and maybe not what they are now, maybe not a Harvard University, but maybe a Harvard College, like the original school, which is, I guess you would say that's like their honors college. It's the original program. I think of Oxford or Cambridge. Thinking back to when I mentioned Ben Franklin.

I'm thinking about students being in a space where they can discuss and they can read and they can go deep. think of scolay, that leisure. This is all you've got to do right now. What else are you doing with your life and your time? You know, when my kids say, you know, I don't really want to do my homework like that. I'm like, what is your other job in life? What else have you got going on? You the bills to pay? You need that, you know, do you need a lesson on that? But

this leisure that you have to really go deep into a text and not just in the text, but looking at the context of it. When our students study geometry, they study Euclid. I guess I'll answer that second part to your question or that first part. What's different, all of our courses are primary text, even the maths and sciences. If you're looking at astronomy or biology,

and geometry and how those things work together, and you're studying these ancient philosophers, you can go deeper and farther and richer. And so where is the rush or why is there a rush, I would say, for job training? Now, there are some careers that need job training, but how much better of a doctor will you be when you understand all those other things?

because nothing happens in a vacuum. And we all love those doctors or those firefighters or police officers who can see something within a greater context. And that's what classical education is. That's what I think we're calling students back to. So that revolutionary return is the tradition of learning well. We say if you...

Jovia Godfrey (26:08.445)
You give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. But what if you let a man learn the ecosystem of the ocean instead of teaching him to fish? You know, if you're thinking about industry and, you know, being a great worker in some field or climbing the ladder, if a man understands the ecosystem of the ocean,

Think about what that would do for the fishing industry, rather than teaching him just how to fish. And I think that sometimes we straddle this line of what education is between giving and teaching how versus allowing someone to explore deeper. And I hope that gives enough context and isn't too abstract.

I can't hear you.

Soren Schwab - CLT (27:08.108)
because I'm on mute. Classic. You it's 2025. Every now and then we still got to pull. You're on mute? yeah. No, and I think it's, I mean, kind like we said earlier with Boston Latin, like that's the education that was the norm, right? Like, you know, and I always tell folks, I'm a German citizen and in German, the word for education is Bildung, which literally means formation.

Jovia Godfrey (27:09.245)
No, I can't. Right.

Soren Schwab - CLT (27:35.318)
Right? And so this idea of forming the human person, that's what a part of what a college was. And how do you do that? Well, you you stand on the shoulder of giants and you read richly and deeply and and you don't hyper specialize right away. it's everything that universities are now no longer doing. And so it is in a way, it seems so revolutionary what you're doing, rebellious, maybe when it's just really a return to what it ought to be. Right.

Jovia Godfrey (28:00.98)
Right. Which is what revolutionary means. You're coming back to something, you know?

Soren Schwab - CLT (28:05.056)
you're coming back, right? It's cyclical. So tell me just the practical. mean, it's intentionally a small college. There's probably a lot of kind of Socratic right dialogue. so what are kind of the, what are some of the students, you know, as an admissions officer, right? You're looking for, or that tend to be attracted to a St. Constantine.

Jovia Godfrey (28:27.475)
Students who tend to be attracted to St. Constantine. Okay, so we're a classical Orthodox college. I do think there are a couple of different types. we have Orthodox students who are classically educated tend to really, I would say get us because I think there is something to get because we're not normal, so to speak, which we were. And so I think.

Orthodox students who are, and when I say Orthodox, Orthodox Christian, that's their faith tradition, their faith background. But I also do think that we attract a lot of homeschooling students, Christian homeschoolers. And it's not to say that that's all who we're for. I do believe we are for everyone and we do invite everyone. Sometimes I'll table at an event and people ask me to...

Does my kid have to be a Christian to attend? And I'm like, no, it's for everyone. It's what Jesus calls us to. There's room at the table for everyone. And I believe that this type of education does speak to that very well. So that's the type of student. In a more practical sense, I would say you're going to read a lot. And so I won't say, well, you've got to.

You need to have read these things or you need to appreciate reading, I would say. Our students read over 25 texts per semester. They're reading. I mean, like I said, I had a classical education growing up. It wasn't quite that. I mean, these students are going deep. Loving community.

Soren Schwab - CLT (30:05.134)
It's amazing.

Soren Schwab - CLT (30:14.04)
Mm-hmm.

Jovia Godfrey (30:19.269)
Our students love community and not just the college community. I often tell prospective students, could be siloed off into this space where everyone's in the same phase of life. And then, know, everyone graduates from college and it's like, no, hashtag adulting, you know, I ironed my clothes for today, you know. It's like, fine, I'm not saying you need to know how to iron clothes, would be good. But what is it like when students who are coming to college are in a space where there are babies around?

and their college professors and their admissions officer have children in this K-12. And you're doing your on-campus job. And so you take your classes in the morning or you take a couple classes and then you go and do pickup line duty or you go do nursery or aftercare or you coach. You when I was talking about my son, two of our college students this past year were our track coaches. They've ran and developed the entire track program.

That's just amazing to me to be able to live life holistically in that sense. Our students live together in homes. So we have the men's home or homes, we have the women's homes, and they do life like the ancient philosophers did. They're reading a whole lot. Sometimes you walk into one of those homes and they're not living with families. I don't want to say they are a family. They're students and they're,

colleagues in that space, but they're learning what it is to care for a home, even if it's that's not explicitly said, you know, they decide on what the chores are and who's going to do what and how things are going to go. And, you know, they cook meals together and, you know, and then they'll leave and go to the museum together and come back. I mean, it's just beautiful. It's a different type of experience. I'm glad you visited because I feel like you can speak to it in a certain way.

Soren Schwab - CLT (32:17.1)
And I've met several students that attend the college. And it's just really beautiful to hear them. You mentioned earlier the mom that told you about St. Constance, just how much she loved the school. That's the experience that I, you know, because sometimes you talk to college kids and, how's college? And they're like, it's fine. You know, it's, no, no, no. Those kids loved it. I mean, they absolutely loved it. And that's special.

Jovia Godfrey (32:17.712)
It's beautiful.

Soren Schwab - CLT (32:46.966)
right? Because they work hard. It's not, I love it, we have a lazy river and I go to all you know, sporting events and I don't get any home. No, no, no. They work hard and they love it. I mean that's what a better way to market your college, right? By talking to the students that are attending and just loving the experience.

Jovia Godfrey (33:05.033)
Right. And I think we want to do more of that. It's one thing for me to step out and say, come to our college. I feel like, am I at Vanity Fair? Am I tabling? And it's another thing for students to just speak of their experiences. We are a K through 16. It doesn't mean that our 12th graders are coming right into the college. Most of the time, they're not. think this incoming freshman class, have three of our.

Soren Schwab - CLT (33:11.938)
Yeah.

Soren Schwab - CLT (33:15.283)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (33:32.17)
TSCS, the St. Constantine School students coming in. And think that's the most we've ever had. Most of our college students are from elsewhere. I don't even think most of them are from Texas. And so being able to have that makes, this is a beautiful space and people really do love it here. And at the same time, it would be, I think it would be a detriment.

if everyone was just here and stayed here and we did the thing and we became this amazing St. Constantine ghetto. You know, I think that it's so beautiful that our high school students, a lot of them do go elsewhere because they take that with them. You know, like I said earlier, nothing happens in a vacuum. And so that is that is the great commission. That is the work to go out and also for others to come into this space and to grow. Like I said, it's it's the practical living

Soren Schwab - CLT (34:06.21)
Yeah.

Jovia Godfrey (34:29.051)
of a classical life that's happening that's just, I'm sold.

Soren Schwab - CLT (34:35.202)
Yeah, clearly your family is all in. Well, Jovi, this has been so delightful. I love your story, your heart, your passion. I do have one more question for you, the one we ask every one of our guests, the hardest to answer, I'm sure. Is there one book or what text that you can point to that has just made a huge impact in your life and why?

Jovia Godfrey (34:47.389)
Absolutely.

Jovia Godfrey (34:56.955)
Man, does it have to be one?

Soren Schwab - CLT (35:00.586)
No cheating. Get one and a half. All right.

Jovia Godfrey (35:02.235)
Okay, man, okay. One and a half. Okay, that works because I'm in the middle of a book right now. So it's literally one and a half.

Soren Schwab - CLT (35:11.128)
Perfect.

Jovia Godfrey (35:13.117)
I would say.

Jovia Godfrey (35:21.501)
The half that I'm reading right now is called Reese Howell's Intercessor. It's an amazing book, so far, halfway through, about a man who's from Wales, I believe. I want to say late 1800s. And it's his journey of faith. He came to the States to work in a tin mill, I believe, at some point. And he felt the Holy Spirit calling him away from.

seeking after money. And so he went back and he's like this missionary who kind of like he stays local, but he intercedes for people. And it's a lot of it. It's a biography by Norman Grubb. And a lot of it is, you're getting this, you're like a fly on the wall as you.

see how he's transformed by his relationship with the Holy Spirit and what that really means to be an intercessor, interceding on behalf of, I think right now where I am in the book, he's interceding on behalf of widows in India. And it's just whatever God impresses on his heart and he's praying about those things and how he's gaining victory for the kingdom by being obedient. And the...

I guess you could say the challenges that God is bringing him through as he intercedes. Amazing. Amazing. That's my half. My full book.

Jovia Godfrey (36:54.673)
Not cheating. I wrote down four. I would say the Acts of the Apostles.

I have other books that I really, really love, but I would say The Acts of the Apostles is the one book that I think ties in all of my favorite books. It's watching how God uses man as we would allow ourselves to be used to do miraculous things and how, know, Christ said, you'll do even more miraculous things. Like, don't marvel at what I'm doing. Like, it's available to you as well.

And I think that when I doubt myself and I doubt what we are able to do as God's people, the Acts of the Apostles reminds me that God is willing, am I? He's willing that we get the things done, am I willing? Beautiful, beautiful book. And also, like, I'm a Trekkie. Like, people are teleporting and stuff. Like, beam me up, Captain. Like, that's just cool. Yes.

Soren Schwab - CLT (37:54.836)
Original sci-fi right there. You read it first. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing that, Jovia. Again, we're here with Jovia Godfrey, who is the admissions officer at St. Constantine College and a writing tutorial teacher at the St. Constantine School in Houston, Texas. Go check them out. They're doing amazing, amazing work. Jovia, thank you so much for your wisdom today, for your passion, your excitement. It was just a delight to have you on the Anchor Podcast today.

Jovia Godfrey (37:58.697)
This so good.

Jovia Godfrey (38:23.018)
Thank you, Soren. We appreciate you all too.