David Kessler ’11: From Elite Athlete to The North Face Designer
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s David Kessler ’11 finished the 75th and final mile of his race at the 2009 U.S. Junior National Road Race Championships, a few different thoughts may have been going through his head…
passion for art, to design high-performance athletic gear.
“It was amazing. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that anywhere else,” he says.
“Art and design were part of my experience at CA on a very core level,” Kessler says. “My interest in design and my decision to make it my long-term career path started there.”
The Colorado Academy rising Junior may have been thinking about his tough class schedule for the coming Fall.
Student during the week, elite athlete on the weekends
The moment he learned he could create anything he wanted
The future industrial designer for The North Face may have been noting whether his cycling shoes were giving him maximum return on his pedal strokes. Most likely, the 16-year-old junior professional cyclist was screaming inside, “I won!” That was one of many victories for the 10year pro-level cyclist who has gone on to apply his cycling knowledge, along with his
Looking back, Kessler—who attended CA from Grades 7 through 12—is amazed he was able to endure the school’s rigorous academics while competing at cycling’s highest level. He cycled to school every day—even in blizzards—and used study halls and free blocks to fit in 2- to 3-hour training rides in the mountains after school. He’d stay up till 10:30 p.m. doing homework and then get up at daybreak to do it all again. He also managed to make time to participate on the Upper School Community Council and Cross Country team while at CA. “In my pursuit to get to the pro cycling level, CA worked with me to meet the academic challenges at the same time,” he says. “Teachers helped me one-on-one and gave me work I could do while living and racing in Europe.” While other college-prep schools tend to emphasize a particular area of education and encourage students to specialize early on, Kessler says, CA offers a perfect balance of athletics, academics, and the arts.
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Colorado Academy Journal
In addition to giving him space for his elite-level cycling career, he says CA set the groundwork for his current design career. “The teachers’ love for learning and for their subject area was infectious,” says Kessler, who went on to earn a degree in industrial design from the renowned Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Before maker spaces and fabrication labs were commonplace in education, Kessler was able to experiment with product design at CA. Then art teacher (now Director of Visual and Performing Arts) Katy Hills helped him learn woodworking and made him feel empowered to follow his interests. “She really gave me the green light to pursue whatever I wanted,” Kessler says of Hills. “I owe a lot to her.” With this support, Kessler embraced the idea that, combining his artistic hand and modern design technology, he could build, invent, or engineer anything. “I had a lot of opportunities to take risks and listen to my heart,” he says. “Every single teacher I had at CA had an uncompromising dedication to putting students and the overall learning environment first. That was so inspiring.”
