Alumni Spotlight

Willingness to pitch in, solve problems, and explore opportunities has landed Heathwood alumnus Matthew Quan, ’17, on the leadership team of a start-up company—a role he earned a scant year after graduating from Heathwood, thanks to the initiative he showed from the moment he arrived as a first-year student at the University of Virginia last fall.

At Richmond, Virginia-based Radify Labs, Quan is helping to further a hands-on approach to learning that also characterizes the experience he had at Heathwood. Working with college students from around the country, Radify connects them with real-world experiences that take their education beyond the traditional classroom and better prepare them for the jobs they want after graduation.

Going beyond the classroom has been Quan’s own approach at UVA as well. He had only been on campus a matter of weeks when he joined HackCville, a Charlottesville-based hub for students with an interest in entrepreneurship. There, he not only explored entrepreneurial opportunities but also jumped into a role helping run HackCville itself, creating online programs to meet growing demand from students. Through that experience, he came to the attention of the founders of Radify, who brought him on board to do digital marketing and then made him a co-founder. 

At the same time, Quan was also taking what might be described as an entrepreneurial approach to his first year of college, not merely following a prescribed path of traditional coursework but actively pursuing a course of study that fit his interests and career goals. While many freshmen hesitate even to talk to a professor before or after class, Quan was knocking on the doors of faculty members and deans at UVA, proactively seeking their help in pulling together a hybrid major of his own design that combines the study of history, computer science, and psychology.

That ability to carve out his own academic path has made it easier for Quan to perform the balancing act he’s maintaining now: part...