Andy Smallman

Who is Andy Smallman?

Andy Smallman is the founder and director of Puget Sound Community School in Seattle, Wash. PSCS is an independent school in the Seattle Chinatown-International District for students in grades 6-12. Andy, along with his wife, Melinda Shaw, and a dedicated group of parents, started the school in 1994 to create a model for a new kind of education that helps students build on their strengths and nurtures their intrinsic motivation. The school is personalized to bring out the best in each individual student; for example, the school's graduation ceremony honors the school's graduates for about 45 minutes each through expressions of appreciation. His work shows that when young people are provided a safe, nurturing, and loving environment, and schools stop trying to make them into something they’re not and instead help them become more of who they are, amazing things happen.

Andy has gained international attention for his work facilitating classes on the subject on kindness, first offering in-person classes for the school’s enrolled youth and then having the idea to extend the concept globally via email and now the World Wide Web.