Roemer: Being on Parents Board brings him closer to Culver community

One of Kurt Roemer’s favorite parts about being on the Culver Parents Association board of directors is the opportunity to learn more about the boarding school’s community.

“My wife and I didn't go to Culver, so this is a great experience for us to understand more about the Culver experience,” said Roemer, who sent all three daughters, Reese ’22, Sammy ’25 and Tess ’26, to Culver. “It gives us opportunities to see what is going on at Culver and it gives us moments in time to be a part of the Culver community and closer to our girls.”

They then get to share what they learn with other Culver parents, which helps further build the Culver community.

“We try to create a community within the community,” said Roemer, who also serves as the Parents Association’s Communications Committee co-chair.

Roemer said being on the Parents Board gives parents a better understanding of what their child is going through “so you can better support them.” He said it gives parents a better idea of how Culver does things, such as pushing students to the edge of discomfort because that is where optimal growth and development occurs.

“Getting on the Parents Board allows you to understand the why. Understanding how they do it, becoming more comfortable with it,” Roemer said.

Roemer works for Gigamon, a Santa Clara, California, based technology firm which specializes in collecting, centralizing, and refining network traffic for Fortune 500 companies. His wife, Tracy, is a co-founder of a boutique fitness business across a number of states.

The Roemers also are parent representatives for Tower Dorm, where they again work to build a community. He said an example of that is how the parents support a community dinner similar to a Thanksgiving dinner, where the girls get together regularly and enjoy home-cooked meals.

He said by sitting in on board meetings, he and his wife get to hear about the directions Culver is going and the challenges the school is facing. Being on the board also provides the Roemers opportunities to voice their opinions.

Roemer said he was introduced to Culver through his nieces and nephews, the children of his sister, Marta Brummell. The two families are quite close.

"We were incredibly impressed with the caliber of the students our niece and nephew were bringing home during breaks. Interacting with them after they started at Culver was clear.  You could just tell they were different from their peers in any other schools, public or private, that we came across.  Roemer said.

Despite that, though, Roemer still thought his oldest daughter was planning to attend a Catholic school in the Chicago area. That was until he received a text from his sister congratulating him on his oldest daughter selecting Culver.

“I was stunned,” Roemer said. “I said, ‘Hold on. We’ve got to see if you can get in. Because she hadn’t completely applied.’ ”

Roemer said he and his wife also needed to determine whether they could afford Culver. But after determining that they could and doing a little more investigating, they decided to let Reese attend.

“We decided that if she sees this as a fit, let’s see if we can support her,” Roemer said. “For all three of our girls it’s been an incredible fit, for different reasons for each one of them. I just really fell in love with the place after that first year while our oldest daughter (now a junior at Santa Clara University) was at Culver.”

Roemer especially loves the emphasis Culver places on leadership, first teaching students how to follow and then giving them opportunities to lead. He believes the leadership component is key to Culver’s success.

He also likes the emphasis Culver places on the spiritual component of the mind, spirit, body focus of the Culver mission.

“Because of that, you learn about different cultures, different faiths, learning about different things outside of your locality. It leads to a well-rounded student who has the ability to lead others and recognize that we are not all the same,” he said.

He said Culver has been a great fit for the entire family.

“Culver is unique. It's different in its own makeup as much because of all the people that are part of it -- not just the students, but the parents as well,” Roemer said. “It’s a special place.”