Former consultant, businessman, teacher and now Director of Student Activities, Brendan Shapiro knows all about how to get exactly where you want to be. 

“It was an unconventional path,” Shapiro said. “Out of college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. At the time, a lot of people I knew were working at consulting firms, so I did that and it was going fine, but I knew it wasn’t the thing I wanted to do forever.”

Shapiro took the knowledge he acquired in his six years of consulting and put it towards a running shoe store he started with his sister-in-law. They called it Potomac River Running Stores and two original locations in Burke and Ashburn expanded to nine all around Northern Virginia. When the business turned 13 years old, Shapiro sold his half of Potomac River Running to his business partner and ventured into education.

“It’s something I had always wanted to do,” Shapiro said. “The time didn’t seem quite right when I was younger and it did seem right in 2015 when I made the change.”

Shapiro started at Franklin Middle School as a P.E. and computer solutions teacher after completing a career-switcher educational program. Then, when an opportunity at the high school level presented itself, Shapiro took it. 

“I loved Franklin, but I knew that I probably wasn’t going to get an opportunity in a high school activities office if I didn’t get into a high school.” Shapiro said.

He joined the team of Fairfax High School as a leadership teacher and assistant director of student activities. A few years into his time at FHS, Shapiro says the perfect position for him became available: director of student activities at CHS.

“It was doing exactly what I wanted to do, exactly where I wanted to do it,” Shapiro said. ”I knew this community already, having taught in the pyramid at Franklin and I live pretty close and my kids did CYA sports. I had a pretty good feel for the community and I was really excited when this job came open and I was thrilled to get it.”

Now that he’s here, Shapiro has one main goal: to get students involved in afterschool activities. He says extracurricular activities teach students perseverance, problem solving and resilience in a world of instant gratification, but mostly, they’re just fun.

“I know how much it meant to me when I was a kid and I know how much it meant to my own children, so I’m just really excited to be a part of all that,” Shapiro said. “When I look back on my high school experience, I think about bus rides to games, I think about time spent after school working with my friends and with teachers towards some common goal. Those are my warmest, fondest memories and I want everyone to have that.”