Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Amy Gillispie transforms education through creative, project-based learning.
Amy Gillispie transforms education through creativity and passion at Building Brilliant Minds, where architecture, art, and music blend into a unique learning experience for homeschooled students worldwide. What began in 2009 as architecture lessons for her nine children has evolved into a global educational platform connecting students across continents through project-based learning.
Drawing from her Ohio State architecture degree and recent master's in art education, Amy crafts courses that make complex subjects accessible and engaging. Her Introduction to Architecture essentially delivers sophomore-level undergraduate content adapted for younger students, while specialized courses like "Marvel Movies and Art" and "Lord of the Rings and Narnia in Art" spark creativity through beloved stories. Students from Kentucky to New Zealand, Australia, and Hong Kong gather via Zoom to sketch, design, and express themselves artistically.
The Simply Music method Amy uses for piano instruction exemplifies her innovative approach. Rather than traditional notation, students learn through patterns and shapes, enabling them to play complex pieces within weeks. This methodology perfectly complements her architectural teaching and demonstrates how making learning tactile and visual can accelerate skill development. Meanwhile, her Chromatic Compositions business represents the fascinating intersection of her talents, translating music into visual art through color theory and neurographic lines.
Amy's journey reflects the evolution of homeschooling itself. She notes that today's challenge isn't the stereotypical concern about socialization but rather managing the abundance of opportunities available to homeschooled students. Whether you're a homeschooling parent, a public school student seeking independent study options, or simply curious about alternative educational approaches, Amy's work demonstrates how passion-driven, project-based learning can build brilliant minds. Discover more at buildingbrilliantmindsonline.com or connect directly at hsarchitecture@iCloud.com to explore how architecture, art, and music can transform education.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, charlie. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We're a podcast dedicated to helping the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know business owners and influencers in the community as people, and not just logos that they might see on a business card or on a website or on the side of a building or truck. So we have with us today Amy Gillespie, and Amy is the owner of Building Brilliant Minds, and it's an educational business that I'm just now coming to understand, and so she's going to explain it to me, along with you. So, that being said, amy, welcome to the show and tell us about Building Brilliant Minds.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you so much for having me. Building Brilliant Minds was created in 2009. For having me. Building Brilliant Minds was created in 2009. It was my undergraduate degree in architecture from.
Speaker 1:The Ohio.
Speaker 3:State University. Sorry to those and my fans. Anyway, I graduated with a degree in architecture and wanted to continue doing that. So, while we were homeschooling our children, I decided to create a business teaching courses in architecture. So I started teaching introduction to architecture in 2009, a little bit in person. Then it kind of transformed to online consistently. After that I added advanced architecture courses as well as courses in the arts and um, I also teach piano. Everything in my undergrad was um kind of art and music focused and um, so it just seemed like the natural connection. So, yeah, we've had I've created a lot of courses since then and um, we offer them to homeschool kids, usually from the ages of seven to seniors. They usually run by semester, but students may take them at their own pace and otherwise they're through Zoom, like August to May. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I don't.
Speaker 2:So so the architecture part of it.
Speaker 3:So, if I understand properly, you got a degree in architecture, yes from okay so.
Speaker 2:So that's very much, um, I mean artistic in and of itself. There's engineering behind it, but you know there's there's art behind it too. So then, undergrad was all art-related stuff, correct?
Speaker 3:Right, and so the Introduction to Architecture course is really a sophomore year of undergraduate architecture, just kind of put at the junior high or high school level. So we do a little bit of history, we do a little bit of sketching, and then they do a design project and that gets them started. That's a prerequisite for all the advanced architecture courses. Okay, there is one beginning architecture. It's kind of all hands-on for the 7 to 12-year-olds. It's not connected, it's not totally connected to the other courses.
Speaker 2:So how did you come to start this, like other horses? So how did you come to start this? Like what was? I mean, obviously there's passion there, but just in terms of you know what was the aha moment? Here's what I should do dot, dot, dot. You know what brought you to actually starting it.
Speaker 3:Well, we homeschooled our nine kids from birth through graduation, and at the time they were younger, younger, so I needed projects for them to do to keep them busy. So we decided I decided that I, you know, I didn't want to give up architecture, so I, you know, turned it into a course for them initially, and then we invited friends, and then we had co-ops and then it turned into like an online business. So I've that. I've been able to teach kids from around the world, um, for a lot for almost 16 years now. Um, yeah, and it it gave them something to part I just in the homeschool world, having a project tends to be a motivator, um, so providing that for students has been a real blessing and for my kids, so it started kind of with your kids, but you can help kids all around the world, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So, in terms of being specific to that point, like, how far away do you have students that you're working with?
Speaker 3:I tend to get a lot of tends to be a big homeschool world in New Zealand and Australia. So from that area, from the States Alaska, I've had a few European students, one student from Hong Kong who was really awesome, and a lot of these students end up going on to a major in architecture or something related as they get older. So it's been fun to watch them through the years, especially the student from Hong Kong's now, I think, a Berkeley graduate, pretty cool how do students come to find you?
Speaker 3:there's through the website is building brilliant minds online. I also have links with the old schoolhouse magazine. The beginning class can be found at their website as well, and I've written a few articles for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine. So I mean there's a bit of advertising out there.
Speaker 2:All right. So anybody here locally that's just now finding out about you? Well, first of all, what does locally mean? Where do you live?
Speaker 3:if you don't mind me asking, well, first of all, what does locally mean when? Where do you live? If you don't mind me asking, we're in Northern.
Speaker 2:Kentucky and in Florence and Oakbrook area. Okay, all right, I'm here in union, so we're neighbors. Maybe we'll get to shake hands one day, but for now we're online together and you know, that's. That's kind of how your business is based. So if somebody wants to interface with you and just kind of learn more and maybe become a client, a student, what does that look like?
Speaker 3:On the website. All the courses are listed so they can choose the courses. My email is also there. It's hsarchitecture at iCloudcom. They can contact me that way and ask questions about it. It's hsarchitecture at iCloudcom. They can contact me that way and ask questions about it.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of information on the website that they'll be able to connect with and figure out what fits their schedule or what works best for them, go ahead. So this semester, besides architecture, I also am an avid photographer, so we have introduction to photography, the advanced architecture class, and then I do. I completed a master's of art education in August of 2024. So I do a lot of art integrated courses, and some of the fun ones for this coming semester are Marvel movies and art. We've did it a few years ago where they get to watch a Marvel movie each week and then respond artistically. There's also the Lord of the Rings and Narnia and art.
Speaker 3:Those are fun courses for students to take. They share their work online with each other and they get you know experience explaining their connection to the, to the material that they're using. So those are fun. Those are on Wednesdays, and I also have. I use the Simply Music method for teaching piano and I can't say enough about it. It helps students go from not playing at all to playing really well within weeks, and so I also have private piano lessons that I typically do online. I haven't done any in person here since we moved to Kentucky, but online is kind of a flow, so it kind of works really well.
Speaker 2:So nothing dull dry or boring. It sounds like everything is fun, everything's fun. You make it fun, at least.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 2:So you just mentioned, you know, since you've been in Kentucky, where did you come from?
Speaker 3:Um well, I came from um Columbus, ohio, and um, and then? Uh, we lived in Florence for a while and we moved to Virginia for about Northern Virginia for about 16, 17 years and, um, now we are um, moved back to Kentucky in 2020. So we're kind of not all of us, though. Some of the adult children are on their own now, but they're young adults now doing their thing, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how many are at home still?
Speaker 3:We have four daughters here and one that lives close by.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I understand, but there's. So there's a lot of activity in the house. There has to be. So when, when you're interfacing with students online, are there courses that have been put in place and it's just kind of like just kind of like a push and play sort of thing, or is there live stuff, happening real time with you that you're teaching or maybe somebody else is?
Speaker 3:All of the courses are offered through the zoom, through zoom, so everything can be live, and most often than not I teach live on Monday and Wednesdays. I also still homeschooling our youngest daughter, who, who is 13, and everyone else has graduated, so they're running in and out of the house, but I have my own private office, so it works well. It's quiet here.
Speaker 2:So is this business tied specifically, or I would say exclusively, to homeschooled kids?
Speaker 3:More often than not, it's homes homeschool children that take the courses. If there's a student who's really into architecture at a public school and they want to go through their guidance counselor to be able to take the course independently, they're absolutely welcome. I've had a few students do that. Um, but the homeschool world's pretty big so, um, yeah, it's mostly just um advertised in the homeschool realm.
Speaker 2:Okay, can adults take courses if they want to?
Speaker 3:Adults can take piano, okay.
Speaker 2:I can't put them just age requirements.
Speaker 3:I can't put them in with the kids for architecture, but they can take piano.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well see, I'm just learning right along with everybody else.
Speaker 1:That's all right.
Speaker 2:I've got all the questions no-transcript.
Speaker 3:What is that method called again? So when I was trying to figure out how to, I played piano for forever and was trying to teach my children how to play. So I found this method called the Simply Music Method. It's through Simply Music and they have. It's based on patterns and shapes, and so it fits into the architecture world perfectly, and you use patterns and shapes to start playing the music and then they really build the, the repertoire with the blues and the classical and the accompaniment, and give you tools to be able to play quickly. And it works. It works really well.
Speaker 2:It's amazing wow, I was one of those kids where you know, I had long fingers and everybody said you need to play piano. Well, yeah, easier said than done, so well this.
Speaker 3:With this method, you don't have to, like, read the music until you're probably a couple years into it. You're playing a lot of things. We teach you how to do it, um, I guess by heart per se, but with the shapes and patterns and yeah, so it doesn't get complex. You're only working one part of your brain at a time. It's not like you're trying to read music and play and count and all that at the same time.
Speaker 2:That's very interesting. I'm sure that's got a lot of attention or will have a lot of attention when this podcast comes out.
Speaker 3:Kudos to Neil. He's the methods from Australia and I can't say enough about it. Okay.
Speaker 2:So you've moved around a bit, as we talked about earlier what necessitated those moves.
Speaker 3:Basically my husband's work going back and forth, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you mind sharing what he does? Or is he in the CIA and that's top secret?
Speaker 3:No, he's not in the CIA, he is an attorney. So he's not in the CIA, he's an attorney. He's also an Orthodox priest, so he's got a mission church here in the area. Yeah, he's certainly done a fantastic job, taking care of all of it.
Speaker 2:When you, as a family, go out in the community and have fun.
Speaker 3:what do you guys like to do as a big group? Walking through Costco is hilarious because we get a lot of looks. I almost pay my kids now to do that with me just for the fun of it. But no, some of us are avid skiers. We like to travel. We hang out in Florida with each other every now and then, but mostly, you know, the best thing to do is sit around and watch the Ohio State football game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a running thing that's just going to keep coming up over and over.
Speaker 3:It really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something tells me you and I will be texting each other in November.
Speaker 3:Yes, finally we need a win, Sorry.
Speaker 2:No, it's a lot more fun. The rivalry is nowadays for at least me there for a while you guys had the upper hand for way too long. So yeah, college football is one of my first loves, and so I'll always just wait for the fall. The falling leaves the smell of cider and all that stuff and the smell of Michigan beat a mohawk state.
Speaker 2:So, one thing that I wanted to just kind of touch on is, if there's somebody that's kind of touch on is if there's somebody that's kind of in the public school system and and they're listening to this and they want to take courses, are they able to?
Speaker 3:They can. They would just have to work with their guidance counselors to get credit and to be able to take that, I guess, during a study hall during the day, or they could take it at their own pace. If they took it at their own pace, they wouldn't have to interrupt their school day per se.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, because this whole concept is new to me. So, you know, forgive my ignorance, but uh, that's why we have these interviews to make everybody smarter, including myself, all right, um, so you've got this other business. That's um kind of related, but uh, it's, it's, it's its own entity, right Called chromatic compositions. What's that all about?
Speaker 3:Chromatic compositions was created while I was completing my master's. I was working with connecting art to music. So, basically, what I do is, if you give me a piece of music, for instance for release, let's say, I'll paint it literally using color theory and you'll see each one of the notes painted colorfully, and then I tend to can overlay it with neurographic lines which, if it's a commissioned piece, you can draw your own neurographic lines and I will use them and intertwine them into the music. Um, so I've been doing that for um about a year and a half now and it's been really fun. Um, I also do photography and some digital art, but um, so there's a? Um, I have a website for that now too, and it's allowed me to kind of make that full circle between being, you know, architect and then homeschooling mom and kind of focusing on the education and now kind of bringing it back a little bit to doing being able to do some artwork.
Speaker 2:So I can understand why you blend all that together, if somebody wants to. Well, first of all, let me just say that what you just described kind of blows my mind. So I'm thinking, all right, I need to see visuals, I need to see what she's talking about. So if I go to the Chromatic Compositions website, I can kind of better understand it.
Speaker 3:Is that correct? Yes, and if you go to Chromatic underscore compositions on Instagram, there's a lot of artwork posted there as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, so while we're talking about that, just the two websites in general, or at least let me just say what's the best way to reach you, regardless. How do you prefer people reach out to you to learn more?
Speaker 3:The easiest thing is to email me directly. The easiest thing is to email me directly, and that's HSS in homeschool architecture at iCloudcom.
Speaker 2:Hssarchitecture at iCloudcom yes, but if they want to go to the websites, I mean, can anybody go to the website and just learn more, or is it specifically for only students that have been pre-qualified and are?
Speaker 3:part of the program. No, both websites are complete business websites. You can go there and learn everything.
Speaker 2:Okay, so while we have you here, please one more time, give me the website for the building brilliant minds.
Speaker 3:Okay, so it's wwwbuildingbrilliantmindsonlinecom.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then for the chromatic composition. Is it chromatic underscore compositioncom.
Speaker 3:No, it's just chromatic. And then you repeat the C, so chromatic. And then the word compositionscom.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, very good. And then is there a phone number If somebody had a quick question they wanted to reach out. Or would you prefer email, because your life is just too hectic to be picking up the phone every 10 minutes?
Speaker 3:It's easier if you text. I'd prefer text. So, that's 703-229-3780. Okay, perfect, yeah0. 3, 2, 2, 9, 3, 7, 8, 0. Okay.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you text first, you're more likely to get me, because there's just a lot of.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Scam falls out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I get them all the time myself. So yeah, I'm a text guy. I like to kind of I don't know, that's just the way my brain works. So I get it Before we. So before we wrap up this episode, and it's gone fast and it always does. It's been, you know, 20 minutes.
Speaker 3:Is there anything else that you would like people to know that we have not talked about? I might just say that in the world of homeschooling it's definitely changed from 1998 when we started to now. And kind of the rumor that, um, they aren't students, are not socialized enough, um, there's so many more things that they could do that they would have time for. We have to kind of, as I've gotten to the high school kids, we've had to kind of like step back and force them to kind of focus on schooling and not so much on the many opportunities that are out there for them to be doing throughout the week with that are, but not necessarily, school related. And I'd also kind of highly promote the dual credit program here in Northern Kentucky and in Ohio and encourage moms and dads of teenagers to kind of look into that because it's it's been incredibly helpful for for my kids.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's good, that's great to know. There are, I'm sure, plenty of people out there that are leaning into this, you know, with their ears turned up and just kind of thinking, all right, this is something I need to know more about. So thanks for spending time with us and educating us about building brilliant minds and chromatic compositions.
Speaker 1:Mouthful for me.
Speaker 3:I thank you so much for having me and I appreciate it and appreciate what you do, and I've learned a lot from your other guests, so it's been very nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thanks for listening to the podcast and thanks for being a guest on the podcast and anytime you want to just kind of update the community on things that you've got going on, this format is always open to you. So great talking to you today. Thanks for spending time with us and for the rest of you out there listening to this podcast. We are the Good Neighbor Podcast. So until next time, everybody, please be good to your neighbor. So long, everyone. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.