About

What’s in a name? Sometimes we find everything in one. Our name is Excelsus, a form of the Latin verb excellere, which means to excel, to be eminent, even preeminent.

Since 2009, Excelsus has been delivering academic enrichment programs, classes, and one-on-one tutorials in the humanities (e.g., English language and composition, literature, creative writing, and history).

Corey Olds graduated from Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French literature. From there, he matriculated to Stanford University, where he became a graduate student in the joint Ph.D. program for History and Humanities. Following his doctoral studies at Stanford, Mr. Olds accepted an assistant professorship of history at Portland State University (Portland, Oregon) in 2001. Prior to becoming a professor, Olds worked as a full-time history teacher at The Branson School in Ross, California.

For 2005-06, Olds served as the director of curriculum development at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides writing curriculum for the middle and high schools, he taught U.S. history and Latin. In 2006, Olds became a certified TAP (Teacher Advancement Program) Mentor Teacher. He is also the recipient of educational grants from the Las Vegas Rotary Club and the Target Corporation.

As an educational entrepreneur, Corey has been delivering supplemental education services (ranging from English grammar and composition to verbal preparation for standardized tests to foreign languages and African-American history) to middle- and secondary-schoolers through Futurum, which he founded in June of 2006. His clients have included families in Nevada and in California, where he has also contracted with independent schools such as Head-Royce School, The Urban School, and San Francisco Day School, offering individual tutoring and presenting diversity workshops.

Since May 2009, Olds has worked as the founder, director, and lead instructor of the Excelsus Foundation, an educational trust actively engaged in narrowing the achievement gap between so-called privileged and less-privileged students, as well as providing academic support and mentoring to African-American boys. Olds launched the Excelsus August Institute for African-American Boys in 2009, for which he designed curriculum and served as lead instructor.

Extending his work beyond the achievement gap, Corey has conducted diversity workshops for students at such independent schools as Colorado Academy, Episcopal Academy, and Windward School. He has led inclusivity workshops for faculty at Head- Royce School, St. Paul’s School in Oakland, San Francisco Day School, and the Shu Ren International School in Berkeley. During the 2011-12 school year, he taught Latin, served as a member of the Dean of Three, and directed a comprehensive, yearlong writing initiative at the Archway School in Berkeley. For two years, Corey advised Windward School on its diversity and inclusivity program.

More recently, Olds has published an abecedarian, reading, and writing primer for children aged 0 to 6 entitled A Is For Afro: Reading Is Power (http://www.blurb.com/b/ 4084244-a-is-for-afro) and five other children’s books (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ excelsus). He has also been conducting a new series of life-literacy-techné programs such as Kid Scribes, Shutterbugs, and Vegan Chefs at Bay Area independent schools, namely San Francisco Day School and Town School for Boys. For his work that entails teaching young people the six elements of storytelling and publishing their original stories, Corey has been featured in Blurb’s “Author Spotlight.” Most recently, he has published “DICE Are Not Enough: A Humanistic Corrective” in Independent School (Winter 2017, Volume 76, Number 2, pages 58-65).

In July of 1992, Olds received the Helping Hands Award for Outstanding Young Adult Achievement from A Better Community Development, Inc. of Canton, Ohio, for his work in the field of education.