Ryan Smith – New Aberdeen College

The Areopagus Dinner

Ryan Smith — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:47:43 +0000

The College hosted its first Areopagus Dinner at the Hilton Charlotte University on April 10. Over 175 people attended and generously supported the college’s 2026-27 academic year. Speakers included guest speaker Rev. Tim Shaw, students Josslyn Ervin and Calvin Zappone, President Ryan Smith, and several board members. The energy in the room was palpable, and resulted in generosity of 30%

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What Happened When I Abandoned CCE

Ryan Smith — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 02:51:05 +0000

Based on actual events shared with Dr. Ryan Smith. I did the “classical Christian thing” in high school. I already read Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens. I wanted “regular school,” a state university, like all the other kids. During my freshman year at the university, I was surprised how easy classes were. My English class required short essays that talked about “what I think about such-and…

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Paradise Lost: The Christian Epic

Ryan Smith — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 23:04:41 +0000

Each year, New Aberdeen students pore over a single work of literature from the classical Christian tradition. This fall, they are becoming well acquainted with John Milton’s Paradise Lost: Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast(e) Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man…

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How to Think, or What to Think?

Ryan Smith — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:37:56 +0000

This quip in classical education does not accurately express the educational goals. According to many of its proponents, classical education teaches students “how to think, not what to think.” This axiom juxtaposes the tendency in modern education to indoctrinate students into an ideology without offering them time-tested tools to interact with ideas on their own. The impulse to embrace…

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Brothers, The Trades Aren’t The Only Answer

Ryan Smith — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 08:49:00 +0000

Something peculiar is brewing in higher education. Enrollment trends are shifting as four-year colleges are declining. In fact, high school grads are skipping tertiary education altogether. What caused these changes? Ultimately, the flaws in traditional higher education are plentiful, even at Christian colleges. Substance abuse. Sexual licentiousness. Ideological indoctrination.

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President Smith’s Remarks on the Occasion of New Aberdeen’s First Convocation

Ryan Smith — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 19:50:21 +0000

When I was in graduate school, I strolled through our church’s cemetery each Sunday before worship. I reveled in the tangible connection to previous generations of believers. But one plot haunted me. Rev. Joseph Wilson was a staunch nineteenth-century Southern Presbyterian minister who preached at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia. His son, Woodrow, spent his teenage years in the…

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Why the Trump-Harvard Battle?

Ryan Smith — Fri, 30 May 2025 20:04:49 +0000

Last weekend I watched The Return to the Hiding Place, a film tracing college students’ role in the Dutch Resistance during World War II. The movie contains a powerful scene in which a German officer confronts and threatens the student body president. The Nazi’s dictum struck a chord: “As goes the will of the students, so goes the will of the nation.” The film reminded me that the battle for our…

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Convocation 2025

Ryan Smith — Sat, 24 May 2025 03:18:21 +0000

Convocation begins on Thursday evening, August 21, at 7:00 p.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, N.C. The ceremony will establish traditions at the college and articulate the college’s vision. A dessert reception will follow the event. Dr. Matthew Barrett is the founder and editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine and host of the Credo podcast. He is also the Director of…

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Ministry Preparation at New Aberdeen

Ryan Smith — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 17:29:35 +0000

As the college’s Steering Committee (now Board of Directors) considered what to name the institution, we looked to the past for an institution that matched our goals. The University of Aberdeen in Scotland is an institution that was founded in 1495 to prepare students for medicine, canon law, the arts, and theology — disciplines that we strongly want to celebrate. The University of Aberdeen…

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Classical Education?

Ryan Smith — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 04:10:23 +0000

by Dr. Ryan Smith Faculty members quickly lined up across the center line of the gymnasium, unaware of the intimidating exercise awaiting them. As the moderator called out carefully crafted scenarios, each teacher either took a step forward or backward, depending upon whether that condition applied to them. “Your father read you books as a child.” “You took a vacation once a year.

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