October 23, 2025
A Tour of Cincinnati-Classical Academy
Class Description
This campus is the product of years of perseverance, overcoming many obstacles and groups who do not want classical education to thrive in our area.
Dr. Jed Hartings, Founder and Board Chair, and Russel Newsom, Executive Director of Friends of Cincinnati Classical Academy, will lead us on a tour of Classical’s new Summit Park campus. We will then retire to the Symposium Room to tell the amazing story of Classical — the most significant effort to return education to principles based on virtues that promote human flourishing. Classical is guided by the principle that education should orient souls towards the good, the true, and the beautiful.
They will also discuss “The Great Forgetting” — how society lost its way in regard to education. Our educational environments are broken and are ill-serving families, students, and society at large. Since education is the transmission of culture, the Great Forgetting affects us all. We can only thrive in the long-run by raising virtuous, high-character leaders and citizens. Classical endeavors to do just that, and they will share the riveting inside story of how it happened.
Directions to Cincinnati Classical Academy–Summit Park Campus:
Address: 10200 Reed Hartman Highway, Cincinnati, OH 45242
Directions: Our campus is adjacent to Summit Park; enter by turning onto Reed Hartman off of Glendale Milford Road, then take a right onto Carver Road followed by an immediate left onto Anderson Way. Follow Anderson Way straight for about 100 yards and you will enter Classical’s parking lot, bear to the left and park anywhere in the large parking lot. Enter the school at the front doors, across from the flag pole.
Note: Some GPS/map services use 10200 Anderson Way, Cincinnati, OH 45242 as our address, so if nothing comes up for 10200 Reed Hartman, please try the Anderson Way formulation.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Hartings grew up on the West Side of Cincinnati and attended St. Xavier High School. He attended the University of Notre Dame and received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh. He then served as a medical research officer in the U.S. Army at Walter Reed, separating from service at the rank of Major, and returned home in 2008 to join the research faculty at the University of Cincinnati. Inspired by the mission, focus, and institutional integrity of Hillsdale College, while also attuned to the decline of American education, Dr. Hartings founded Cincinnati Classical Academy in 2019, and he currently serves as board president. He lives with his wife and daughters in Evendale and enjoys running, golf, and music.
Russell Newsom Executive Director of Friends of Cincinnati Classical Academy. Born and raised in Cincinnati, he received his law degree (JD) from The University of Chicago Law School. He has worked extensively in public policy and politics in speechwriting and communications, and on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Mr. Newsom was also a corporate lawyer. He is currently President of The Bruin Fund, a value investing limited partnership. He has served on several corporate and non-profit boards, including on the board of Cincinnati Classical Academy. Mr. Newsom and his wife are blessed with five young children, four sons, and, mercifully, a daughter.