Something quietly interesting about Gavin Newsom’s school life stands out. Not because it was easy, because it wasn’t. They didn’t do well because they were smart or showed promise early on. It was amazing how hard it was, and how much of what made him who he is politically did not come from law school or lecture halls, but from the stubborn ways of thinking that people with dyslexia often have to deal with.
Newsom was born in San Francisco in 1967. He went to École Notre Dame des Victoires, a Catholic school that was bilingual in French and English, for his early education. For a child who was already having trouble reading, being around bilingual people must have made things even harder. He has “pretty severe” dyslexia, which made it hard for him to read, write, spell, and even do math. He moved out of Notre Dame des Victoires and then went back for third through fifth grade, but this time to take reading classes to help him improve. His own words show that he relied on audiobooks, spoken summaries, and any other method besides reading that he could find. It looks like he still does. In an interview in 2019, he said that even as governor, he liked hearing what documents meant.
Take a moment to think about that. A man who is in charge of a state with almost 40 million people still processes a lot of information in the same way that a San Francisco fifth-grader who was having trouble used to. That seems honest.
Things changed a little at Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. Newsom got good at sports by playing shooting guard in basketball and outfielder in baseball. Even though the grades weren’t great, it was clear that they were driven to do well. He graduated in 1985 and then went to Santa Clara University on a baseball scholarship. This is a detail that is often missed, but it tells you something about how he got in.
He reportedly sent letters of recommendation to Santa Clara from Jerry Brown, who used to be governor of California, and a member of the university’s Board of Regents. That kind of support makes you think about access and privilege. The close ties between the Newsom family and the wealthy Getty family opened doors for him that most students with his grades wouldn’t have been able to get into. He tried out for the baseball team his first two years, but had surgery on his elbow that stopped him from making the varsity team. He may have become more focused on school after losing baseball, but he has never said that directly.
Newsom got his Bachelor of Science in political science from Santa Clara University in 1989. It seemed like the Jesuit tradition at his university really affected him; he’s talked about it many times as something that shapes how he thinks about social responsibility and government. Afterward, he said that his time in Rome during his junior year was “eye-opening.” Even if it’s just for one semester, that kind of international experience often leaves a bigger mark than people think.
Gavin Newsom’s story about his education really shows that doing well in school is only one way of intellectual growth. He never went to law school. He doesn’t have a Master’s or PhD. Based on standard measures, his educational background is pretty normal for someone with his level of political power. Still, the habits he picked up because of his dyslexia—finding different ways to do things, listening carefully, and putting together what he heard verbally—may have shaped a certain kind of political instinct.
He wasn’t lying when he said in an interview in 2023 that his dyslexia “forced me to find workarounds and think differently.” People who have been following his career for years would probably recognize that trait in the way he works—he avoids problems and doesn’t always take the easiest path, which works in his favor sometimes and not in his favor other times. It’s hard not to see the link between the kid who couldn’t read like everyone else and the politician who made a name for himself by being hard to guess.
