Meet Connections Academy Virtual Teacher and Football Referee Rudy Studd

September 26, 2024 by Valerie Kirk

5 min to read

For families and students, one of the key benefits of attending online school is the flexibility it offers. With no set class schedules day-to-day, students have time to pursue their extracurricular interests and passions.

But did you know that same flexibility is also a key benefit for virtual teachers?

Connections Academy teacher Rudy Studd is taking full advantage of the flexibility of being an online teacher. When he is not teaching sixth grade language arts and science at Great River Connections Academy in Ohio, he is pursuing his dream of becoming a football referee in the NFL.

Who is Rudy Studd?

Rudy originally wanted to pursue a career in engineering. His father worked as a football referee for local high school games. To spend more time with him, Rudy trained to be a referee too.

His experience refereeing and spending summers giving swimming lessons to kids at a local pool led his mother to suggest that teaching might be a more rewarding experience for him.

She was right. Rudy received his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Akron and later earned his master’s degree in administration. He started his teaching career in a brick-and-mortar public school in Ohio.

Rudy also credits his high school literature teacher for pursuing a career in education. “[He] just really made things come alive for me,” Rudy noted. “I wanted to emulate him and thought that teaching could be a way to impact a lot of people.”

Family and Football Lead to Online Teaching

While Rudy was earning his degree and starting his teaching career, he continued to work as a football referee. He worked on his father’s crew officiating high school games for nearly 10 years.

His love of officiating drove him to become a college football referee. He spent several years officiating Division III college football games in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

While he aspired to officiate at higher levels, the traditional teaching schedule was hindering his ability to pursue his passion. He loved to teach, but he also loved to officiate, and those schedules weren’t aligning.

When his first child was born, Rudy decided he needed a change. His desire to spend more time with his growing family while pursuing his officiating goals and continuing to teach and mentor young people led him to become an online school teacher. And since 2020, he has been teaching at Connections Academy.

How Does Virtual Teaching Offer Rudy the Flexibility to Pursue his Dreams?

With flexible class schedules and the ability to teach from anywhere that has a quiet space and an internet connection, Rudy has been able to advance his officiating career. He moved from officiating Division III college football games to Division I, working as a referee for the Mid-American Conference before moving on to the Big Ten Conference.

On a typical fall weekend during college football season, Rudy travels on Thursday to attend pre-game meetings. He teaches on Friday mornings from wherever his officiating schedule takes him.

He said, being a Connections Academy virtual teacher “gives me an opportunity to still stay completely connected with all of my students, parents, and other staff like my co-teachers, which is incredible.”

Rudy has been accepted into the NFL Mackie Development Program, which trains and mentors current non-NFL officials to advance to the NFL.

He has also enjoyed more family time. “[Virtual teaching] gave me an opportunity to continue being a teacher while also continuing to stay home with my kids. It’s been an incredible opportunity to see my kids grow up.”

How Does Being a Football Referee Help with Teaching?

Rudy has always been passionate about teaching younger grade levels due to the substantial opportunities for student growth.

“They can be one thing one day, completely different the next day, and then back where they were the day before,” he said. “It gives me a great opportunity to impact kids at a very crucial developmental time in their life.”

Rudy draws on his officiating experience dealing with loud fans and angry coaches when he teaches.

“If I have a parent who’s upset over a bad grade or any myriad of reasons, I still need to be able to calm down, look at what the main problem is, and communicate through that problem so that we can continue to have a good year.”

His officiating experience has also led him to meet different people from different backgrounds. He shares those experiences with his students and encourages them to pursue their passions and be whatever they want to be.

Rudy’s Advice for How to Become a Football Referee

Rudy tells his students that officiating is a great opportunity to develop leadership and other skills that are applicable to every aspect of life. He also tells people that anyone can get into it. Like any career path, you have to be willing to start at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up.

“I started by moving chains on the field while my father officiated. Now I’m working my way to the NFL,” he said.

His students always ask, “When does college football start?” so they can look for him on the field. When he returns from a game and reconnects with his students during their calls, webmail, or during their LiveLesson sessions, he said his students will often tell him that they saw him on television.

Rudy added that “it’s all been a blessing to be able to work with the Great River Connections Academy administrative team and my co-teachers and to establish relationships with my students and their families, all while having the opportunity to follow in my father’s footsteps and pursue my dreams.”