The Thomas G. Ruth speaker series had its second speaker, non-profit founder Mike Smith, on Monday February 26.

The Thomas G. Ruth speaker series was created after retired Hill educator Thomas G. Ruth donated to the Hill School posthumously. Ruth was iconic teacher and dorm parent who worked at the Hill School from 1968 to 2001, spending a total of thirty-three years as a history teacher. After Ruth passed away in 2016, his donation to the Hill School was accepted under one condition: it was to be used to bring in speakers that were of interest to the community.

Student Leadership Coordinator Jason Coady has been in charge of implanting the hopes of Ruth with the help of students.

“To me, [the series] is just a continuation of [Ruth’s] legacy- he wants all of us to be our best selves, and the endowment of the speaker series is his contribution to making sure this happened,” Coady said.

The 2017-2018 speakers have been arranged by the leadership seminar students from the class of 2018. The group, along with Jason Coady, went through heavy discussions and finally established the inaugural speakers of the Thomas G. Ruth speaker series.

After struggling throughout high school, Smith found a love for skateboarding. Smith then founded the non-profit organization Skate for Change in 2011 in order to give underprivileged teens a place to get away from the troubles of their lives.

Smith is known by students across the country as a positive leader and role model. He was chosen to be the second Thomas G. Ruth speaker because of his leadership attributes.

“When the students in the leadership seminar developed the speaker series last year, they identified three important traits: leadership, compassion, and intellectual curiosity,”  Coady said. “Mike Smith falls into the leadership and compassion categories.”

Izzy Lux ’18, a member of the 2016-2017 leadership seminar, had the idea to bring Mike Smith to campus as a Thomas G. Ruth speaker. He was a visiting speaker at her old school, and she believed he fit the criteria.

“Tom Ruth not only was a great intellect, but he loved working in communities and spreading positive energy across the school,” Lux said. “We felt that Mike would be able to show students a piece of Tom Ruth’s character that a typical speaker might not be able to demonstrate.”

With Smith’s extensive knowledge and experience in compassionate leadership and intellectual curiosity, students were expected to learn more about how to be a good citizen from the past speaker.

“Students will hopefully benefit by learning how to help others around them and how to live life with an open heart,” Lux said. “Also, at the end of a term when there is a lot of stress, we thought that students would enjoy Mike’s bright energy and hopefully leave the speech ready to go and do good in the world!”