Fritz Ebinger was born and raised in the heart of the Midwest: Iowa. After going to Saint John’s University in Minnesota, he traveled with the Peace Corps to Panama, then settled down in Minneapolis where he now lives with his wife and three children (Ben, Cora, and baby Alexandra).

Fritz cares deeply about the environment — his entire career revolves around sustainability and thinking in new ways to solve old problems.

Fritz brings a unique perspective to Joyce’s board of directors as someone who came to know Joyce through a grant process, rather than through a friend or parent. Shortly thereafter, he joined our board — and we’re glad to have him as a new member of our Joyce Family.

TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF. WHO’S FRITZ?

I grew up in Eastern Iowa, and made my way to Minnesota via Saint John’s University, which is where I met my now-wife, Colleen (she’s a Saint Ben’s graduate). At Saint John’s I got a minor in Spanish, and after school I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I went to Panama, and that was when I really learned about Latino culture — more specifically Panamanian culture — and really got an appreciation for that culture’s community values. Every community has those kinds of values, but my experience was that they value family time a lot, and doing things as a team.

Now I’m married, and we have three children of our own: 4-year-old Ben, 2-year-old Cora, and baby Alexandra.

WHAT KIND OF ROLE DID EDUCATION PLAY IN YOUR HOUSE GROWING UP?

I was really lucky. My dad was a federal probation officer, so we learned that rules are really important. My mom started out her career as a dental hygienist, and when I was in about 3rd grade, she returned to school and got a teaching degree.

I had a lot of science education, so my education was based in experiential learning and being in a learning environment. Things like nature walks. That’s more oriented toward science education, but I would say the same applies to a language education: if you’re in the environment, and you’re doing things in the language, and you have to communicate in the language, you can’t help but learn it. In the same way, if you walk down a nature path, you have to figure out where the roots are and where the stream is, and by doing that you learn almost instinctually how things happen and how the world works.

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR WORK?

I work for a sustainability organization doing research and development programming around energy and sustainable farming. A lot of it is figuring out how to do things a little bit better. For example, introducing LED lights into production agriculture, or demonstrating cost-effective energy efficiency.

It’s also about bringing awareness to the way people are consuming their natural resources. I think America has a really soft spot in its heart for farming, but a lot of people don’t understand it’s not the ‘red barn and white picket fence with two pigs’ anymore. Its’ a very complicated business, and we need to approach it that way. There are different business models, but I do think that America needs to shift toward renewable energy, and do a lot more energy efficiency. So how do you do that in a smart way? That’s the focus of my work.

WHAT IS A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF FRITZ?

I’m usually up at about 6. Cora usually wakes up first, and we get her dressed for the day. She runs around our upstairs a little bit, and sometimes she wakes up our 4-year-old. He just pushes her out his bedroom door and shuts the bedroom door behind her. It’s normal for us to have a little bit of family drama in the morning. My wife and I are usually ready by about 6:30, and we spend the rest of our morning getting our kids ready. We’re usually out the door by 7:30 or 8, and I’m at work around 8 o’clock.

I spend all day writing grants, working on projects, communicating with people, and trying to serve as a resource. I do pick-up at daycare around 5 and we like to walk home, because our daycare is only 3 blocks away. We play in the backyard, we swing on the swings, we do chalk in the driveway. And then we go inside and wash up for dinner.

We like to eat lots of vegetables at our house. The Kingfield farmers market is only four blocks away, so when it’s nice on Sundays we walk there and we get nice fresh meat or fresh green beans. Sometimes we get flowers for mom. We eat dinner, and we might play a little bit. And then we read stories.

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?

Cora is reading the cardboard books, so she and I are reading Bear Snores On and Big Red Barn. One of my favorite children’s books is the Little Blue Truck. Ben is still pretty young, he’s still learning the alphabet, but he’s picking up on some words. We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with him, and Mary Poppins, and 101 Dalmatians. The full chapter books, not the Disney version.

I’m reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and another book called Smart Power by a guy named Peter Fox, about shifting into a renewable-energy service in the economy. And then newspapers, magazines, anything.

HOW DID YOU FIRST ENCOUNTER JOYCE?

I came across Joyce by way of Social Venture Partners. My wife and I had been involved with SVP Minnesota in 2009, maybe 2008, and then about 2011 is when I really got involved. I was on their due diligence committee for the spring. Joyce Preschool had applied as part of the competitive grant process. They were finalists, they have really good presentations, and we were really impressed with their grasp of the value of early childhood education.

I did a site visit, and I was really impressed, so I learned more about the organization. Joyce won the funding from SVP that spring.

Then Colleen and I made a personal decision to step away from Social Venture Partners, as we had two small children and Colleen owns a small business, and I had a full-time job, and we honestly didn’t have the time to dedicate to SVP anymore. We took a break for about a year, and then Sarah approached me about being on the board. I couldn’t say no, to be honest. I really like the organization and I really believe in what they do, and I wanted to help. So here I am.

I think what’s really impressive to me about the board, is that members were there for 7 or 8 years, long after their kids have left the school. I think that speaks really highly of Joyce as an organization, and how other people value Joyce Preschool.

WHAT STANDS OUT TO YOU ABOUT JOYCE?

Just [Joyce’s] recognition of how difficult it is to raise a young family, and then you want to try to make all the right decisions on top of it. I was really impressed with Joyce’s approach to education and how it’s really a family education. The focus isn’t just on the young kids that go to school there, it’s also on how you create a fertile environment for learning. Joyce really does that. I was drawn to the Padres de Familia Program and the high level of involvement that the parents have. Just from simple attendance in the classroom to the university, they show families what the end of the road looks like as far as education goes. And planning that early on in a child’s education and planting that in the mind of a child can have an exponential impact on their lifelong learning.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they just want to educate their child in Spanish. I’m bilingual and I don’t think that’s how it works at all. I think you have to figure out how to make that switch between English and Spanish, and that’s exactly what Joyce does.