Author: Kelsey Myers

Conor McGregor was a child in Crumlin, sitting through lessons that were almost exclusively taught in Irish, long before he was insulting Floyd Mayweather or defeating José Aldo in thirteen seconds. His parents sent him to primary school at Gaelscoil Scoil Mológa and then Gaelcholáiste Coláiste de Hæde, where Irish was the language of instruction instead of English. Although it’s a simple detail to ignore, it reveals something about the family he came from—one that valued cultural identity enough to forgo the more traditional route most Dublin families took in favor of immersion schooling. Even though it hardly ever appears…

Ardie Savea’s story contains a certain irony that is rarely discussed outside of New Zealand rugby circles. The man who would go on to win World Rugby Player of the Year never entered a lecture hall at a university. The day he left Rongotai College in Wellington, an all-boys institution nestled in the hills above the harbor, where he had completed his last year as captain of the First XV and head prefect, marked the end of his formal education. That is not insignificant. Schools assign head prefects to students they believe will set an example for everyone, not just…

Before he was coaching the Chiefs, Wallabies, or now the All Blacks, Dave Rennie stood in front of a room full of restless twelve and thirteen-year-olds in Upper Hutt, trying to hold their attention long enough to teach a lesson. This detail about Rennie is often overlooked in favor of the trophies and test match scores. To be honest, it’s a strange image. The same man who is currently in charge of one of the most scrutinized positions in international sports used to spend his days supervising intermediate school students who were too old for primary school but not quite…

Codie Taylor was a young child in Queensland who hardly knew rugby union existed long before he was captaining the All Blacks’ haka. Shortly after his birth in Levin in 1991, his parents, Nathan and Christine, relocated the family to Brisbane. It was in the suburbs that young Codie first picked up a ball, playing rugby league rather than union because that was the most popular sport on the local fields. It’s an important detail that is often overlooked in accounts of his career. Early in his athletic career, the young man who would eventually anchor New Zealand’s scrum chased…

Growing up, Donna Mills lived in Norwood Park, a quiet working-class area of Chicago where everyone seemed to know each other’s personal information. Her mother stayed at home, her father was a computer analyst for an oil company, and her older brother, Donald, was ten years her senior. To be honest, the picture is rather unremarkable; it gives no indication of her future. Before attending Taft High School, she went to Garvy Elementary School. There is a detail about that period of her life that is easy to ignore but worth pausing to consider. Jim Jacobs, who later co-wrote the…

Three members of a New Zealand family lined up to compete in track and field at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. Phillip Mills, his younger sister Donna, and his mother Colleen were present. That year, his father, Les, the man whose name would later appear on gyms all over the world, had been left off the squad. Beneath the family history is a small, somewhat awkward detail that reveals something about the true level of competition in this household. Mills didn’t pursue a typical educational path for someone who would go on to manage a multinational fitness company. On…

Josiah Karapani was just another youngster in Otara playing rugby union, the sport that takes up so many Saturdays in South Auckland, before he was scoring tries under the lights at Suncorp Stadium. It’s simple to forget that not all NRL wingers began their careers chasing league balls. Karapani didn’t. He was raised in the rugby union scene of East Tamaki before deciding to transfer codes when he got to high school. Considering the direction his career has taken, this decision now seems almost inevitable. Pakuranga College, a public secondary school in East Auckland that doesn’t typically make news for…

A certain type of politician appears in every classroom decision that affects a Malaysian family, even though they never quite make the front page. That describes Wong Kah Woh. As Deputy Minister of Education since December 2023, he’s the one signing off on which schools acquire smart televisions, which pupils get matriculation seats, and how the government manages a six-year-old’s first day of Year 1. It’s not a glamorous job. It’s also the kind that truly shapes how a country’s youngsters grow up. Wong didn’t start off in education. He trained as a lawyer, graduating from the International Islamic University…

A man who began his career in a religious boarding school in rural Negeri Sembilan and now oversees one of Malaysia’s biggest educational networks seems appropriate. Born in 1976 in Tumpat, Kelantan, to parents with strong ties to the state, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki completed his secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Agama Persekutuan in Labu. It was not an ostentatious start. However, it established a tone that appears to have followed him for decades: a comfort level with religious education coexisting with more traditional academic aspirations. At the International Islamic University Malaysia, where he studied accounting and graduated as the top…

For decades, Zainol Macwilson’s career has been chronicled, including her films, TV3 newscasts, and current comeback attempts. However, his educational background is far weaker. When you look for it, the majority of the results are gaps, footnotes, and references to his daughter’s college degree rather than his own. That is not wholly unexpected. Macwilson was born in Singapore in 1958 and spent much of his childhood in Kangar, Perlis. He went to Kangar English School before attending Sekolah Menengah Putra in the same town. His pursuit of a university degree, a diploma, or any other official post-secondary certification is not…