“All my classes are entrepreneurship classes, and now over 100 of our students are in the business and innovation classes in some way or other. The entrepreneurial mindset is catching like fire.”

It is a fitting place for Can Gidding '95, who has reinvented himself many times before finding his place as a teacher at the Leysin American School.

“My name is pronounced 'John' in Turkish, but it's spelled Can. I started spelling it John when I started attending LAS as a student.” This was among the first reinventions, and it would not be the last.

“I grew up in Istanbul. But my mom is Greek, and my dad's American. We are the last of our family that stayed in Turkey.”

Before LAS, he attended the International Istanbul Community School (IICS), a small American school that, at the time, only went through ninth grade.

At fifteen, he arrived in Leysin as a student. Today, as an openly gay man, he says he has never experienced discrimination in Switzerland, but adolescence was another story. “High school is always awkward—gay, straight, whatever. As a kid, figuring out that I was gay, I guess I tried to hide it.”

“It wasn't until grade 11 that I started making a closer group of friends, which is why I think it's so sad that some students are only here for one year. Sometimes it takes longer than a year to fit into the social system of a boarding school."

After LAS, Can studied at Yale and Harvard before beginning his career in landscape architecture. “After grad school, I got hired by Michael Van Valkenburgh, a landscape architect based out of New York. That was a dream job. He was a great boss who gave a lot of responsibilities to even the most junior designers.”

Television followed. “The most famous series I was part of was Curb Appeal, but there were many shows over the years. I filmed a pilot with Tori Spelling once for a talk show. It didn't end up going anywhere. I was just trying to see where I could land in the industry.” He also starred in multi-season shows on Logo (Secret Guide to Fabulous) and Fox (Home Free).

But the appeal of the entertainment industry faded. “I would say that I've never been more engaged than I am now [at LAS]. Years of television was kind of fun, but always felt a little awkward. I don't love being on camera.”

When Covid struck, Can wrote and illustrated a book on landscape design, At Home with Nature: A Guide to Sustainable, Natural Landscaping. “It was my pause to take a beat and reconfigure my life. I think a lot of people used Covid for that.”  

The reset brought him back to LAS where he now teaches Design and Entrepreneurship to grade 10-12 students. His classroom is a place where students explore new technologies, develop business models, and build case studies to solve real questions posed by local businesses. In the newly launched Entrepreneurship Club, students pitch him their own ventures and participate in pitch competitions. “One of my students has launched a couple of businesses. His latest is a soap company with 100% of the proceeds going to an orphanage in Syria.”

Mr. Gidding says inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs has become the most engaging chapter of his life, and finding it in Leysin was a surprise. “I had no idea that it would be this fulfilling day in and day out. It doesn't feel like work. It's wonderful."

From Istanbul to Harvard, from television sets to the mountain village of Leysin, Mr. Gidding has lived many lives. In this one, he has found a role that fulfills him, and inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs.