Trevor Baines (’18), senior information technology major at Grand Canyon University and application security analyst, said his experience in classical Christian education from kindergarten to graduation equipped him with critical thinking skills and prepared him to pursue his varied interests.

In upper school, Trevor served as chair of the House of Wilberforce, competed on the debate team, and played several sports. He fondly remembers singing psalms before class, fellowshipping at lunch with classmates and friends, and singing for parents and grandparents at school concerts. 

Though he now studies and works in the emerging field of cybersecurity, Trevor said the long-standing classical methodology helped him develop a foundational critical thinking mindset, particularly through its emphasis on theology and philosophy.

“You are studying ancient Greek and ancient Roman literature, but if you’re doing it how you are supposed to, by the time you graduate, you can apply that level of thinking to anything else you’re doing,” he said. “I’m in a very non-ancient field, but I can still apply the lessons and values that I’ve been learning throughout K-12 to what I’m doing now. It’s helped me tremendously.”

Trevor’s interest in cybersecurity began during rhetoric school when he attended a camp for cybersecurity and ethical hacking. Working in a security operations center during his junior year of college helped him realize he specifically enjoyed web application penetration testing. In addition to taking classes and serving as president of the GCU Technology Club, Trevor now does that very kind of work at GuidePoint Security.

“Now, getting to have that job, that’s like a dream job for me,” he said. 

Trevor said he found the rigorous work involved in classical education challenging but helpful in preparation for college and learning to prioritize.  

“While you’re in it, you may not think it’s a benefit, but at the other end, it is definitely a benefit,” he said. 

Some of the texts and classes that Trevor found especially impactful included Plato’s “Republic,” “The Abolition of Man,” debate, rhetoric, apologetics, and computer elective. He also chose to minor in philosophy in college because of his experience learning in theology classes. He credits Mrs. Rippon’s and Mrs. Schneider’s classes with helping develop his interest in a scientific field.

Trevor’s junior thesis focused on classical education, and his senior thesis concerned artificial intelligence. He enjoyed the thesis-writing process so much that since graduating, he has continued to use that process to develop papers at least once a year on other topics in which he is interested, including penetration testing, anime genres, and character dramas. 

“Taking the time to write something of that level is extremely rewarding,” he said. “You take whatever subject you happen to be looking into and break it down to its most basic levels and then write an incredibly long and impressive paper about it and get to present whatever you poured all this hard work into … That’s something fantastic that I don’t think many other schools do, especially not high schools.”

After graduating college, Trevor plans to continue his career in penetration testing and hacking. One day, he hopes to send his own children to a classical Christian school. 

“If you come to it and tour the school, really get to learn what the education system is about, it’s something that I think you’re really going to want to put your kids through,” he said.