Fulfilling His Purpose at Visions: A Spotlight on Gregg Moses
Growing up as a small town Nevada man, Gregg Moses knew there was a big world waiting for him. A good student with a passion for service, he realized that he wanted to help others, but wasn’t quite sure what that would look like. At only 17 years old, Gregg enlisted in the Marine Corps, hoping that would put him on his future path.
“I’m a desert kid, born and raised in (some urban and some rural) Nevada,” says Gregg. “I was a pretty successful high school student, but I thought that I’d never go to college and enlisted in the Marine Corps.”
The Marine Corps ended up putting Gregg through a college setting anyway by sending him to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California to learn Russian. After six years of deployments around the world, he decided that college was the right choice for him after all, and achieved a Bachelors in English Literature and a Bachelors in Russian from UC Riverside.
After receiving his teaching credential from National University, Gregg became a high school English teacher and also supported students in AVID. He found his way to Visions in 2007, accepting a role as the Testing and Assessment Manager. Almost five years later, Gregg left Visions to become a site principal at Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, but eventually returned to Visions in 2016.
“I returned to Visions In Education as a teacher with EL Core in the 2016-17 school year,” he explains. “I plan on remaining with Visions In Education for the remainder of my career because the level of support we provide to students is exactly the kind of environment I want to be associated with.”
Gregg is now serving as an Independent Study Academy Principal, where he’s able to push the idea of student support by ensuring that teachers have the tools needed to foster student success. Gregg also ensures that our teachers teach in an environment that champions the idea of accomplishing student support through personal health and welfare.
“I like to think that what I do at Visions In Education is support students. As a principal, the way that I can most effectively do that is to create an environment where teachers are able to support student learning effectively and with a high-level of care and concern for student welfare.”
Want to see Gregg in action? Check out this video featuring him and Independent Study Academy grad, Kaylee!
Guiding Growth and Learning
Gregg is someone who is constantly learning, reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching videos to help him get 1% better every day. Recently, he has taken on the additional responsibility of spearheading our new Credit Recovery Program, helping students who may have fallen behind in a traditional setting get their education back on track.
“I’m excited that we’re developing and enacting a plan that will do a few important things – we will recognize and respect the learning that a student has already accomplished in their past attempts in a class, we will guide students to an efficient and effective learning environment that guides them to their diploma, and we will provide clear guidelines to what post-high school experiences will look like.”
The 1% better every day mentality is evident in Gregg’s team of administrators and teachers as well, who are always striving to learn, grow, and develop in support of their students.
“Learning something new every day is maybe one of the most important things I can be doing to improve. I feel that I’m surrounded by those who believe the same thing,” says Gregg. “The current teachers I work with are amazing, and I really appreciate the hard work, compassion, and care that Vice Principal Cristina Buss has to ensure that we’re supporting students. The community’s Lead Teacher, Kim Grant, is the absolute glue of making things cohesive for teachers and administrators at Visions In Education.”
“An unapologetic, lifelong Dodger fan.”
Outside of work, Gregg is a dad and a diehard LA Dodgers fan. He’s often listening to music (he considers himself an alt punk Deadhead, but with reggae and pop backings), or cheering on his teams, LA Kings included.
When he’s not listening to music or watching sports, Gregg is spending time outdoors, playing good video games, or watching bad TV. His favorite thing to do, however, is hang out with his family and his PBD (poorly behaved dog).
Through it all, this “desert kid” knows that he’s fulfilling his life’s true purpose – to help others.
“Truly, in life, I really just have one desire, and that is to help. Being in education fulfills that desire in many ways, and being an educator at Visions In Education really allows that to happen,” says Gregg. “Visions feeds my desire to help by having a population of students who have a history of having needs that have rarely been recognized or supported. We have a great opportunity here to make a large difference for all students.”
Gregg’s Favorite Memory From Visions
“Graduations are always a memorable event at Visions, but one of my favorite conversations that sticks with me is with a student who was severely ill, and we were figuring out the best way to support the student on his graduation path. We were talking about classes and accommodations and internet needs, and after a bit, the student said that the best part of his learning experience was simply seeing the teacher’s cat be part of the Zoom meeting and being happy that the teacher specifically would bring the cat in for him. By the end of the meeting, I knew that I was having a uniquely Visions conversation that just wouldn’t happen in many other environments.”
