Jason Kreutner, raised in Mount Pleasant and a current resident, is the founder and Head of University School of the Lowcountry.
University School of the Lowcountry (USL) opened in 2007 with six students and a singular vision: an independent school designed, from its first day, around the comprehensive development of each child. Jason Kreutner founded the school to make that vision real, and over nineteen years as Head of School he built an innovative model of what is possible in education in its purest form.
A school built on compassion
Jason came to USL after a career in education and a year as a National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Fellow for Aspiring School Heads. He believed a school should be a place where students are known — academically, but also as whole people — and where the work of becoming a thoughtful, capable, generous adult is taken as seriously as any subject in the curriculum. From the start, his aim was to create what he often called a second family: a place where every student would see and experience that they are worth knowing, worth loving, worth caring for.
Visitors to the USL campus tend to use the same three words to describe what they feel: loving, purposeful, engaging. That atmosphere is no accident. It comes from Jason’s insistence on mindfulness and courtesy in every situation, from the way students greet one another at Hibben to the way they meet strangers out in the world. He holds the school to a single standard: striving for something beyond the ordinary.
A vision made visible
Jason’s educational philosophy is most visible in the programs he built. Learning Outside the Classroom, the school’s signature program, places young people in direct contact with experts, communities, and ideas beyond campus. Exploration of Faiths and studying global languages (all students in grades 3–8 study two distinct global languages concurrently) invites students to encounter different traditions with openness and respect. The Civics and Citizenship Program, Understanding America’s Military, the Youth Poll Workers Initiative, and Exit Polling give them a working understanding of the country they are inheriting. Community service is part of the rhythm of the school, undertaken alongside teachers and staff, so that compassionate service to others becomes a habit of the heart. A pioneering evaluation system built around skill wheels, original to USL, asks students to reflect on their own growth in terms larger than a letter grade. And a Special Service Program, launched in March 2020, supports Charleston County School District (CCSD) families in need.
Beneath these programs sits a quieter architecture: students operating like a family, with sustained respect and consideration for those different from themselves. That comes from small daily practices built into the life of the school — partner walking, blended seating, mentoring, Funville games, listening in Morning Meeting, honoring each other’s milestones in front of the whole community. None of these are borrowed templates. They are Jason’s vision of how students learn to respect and honor one another.
A record of distinction
Under Jason’s leadership, USL has grown from six students to more than eighty across three divisions, achieved South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) accreditation, and joined PAIS (Palmetto Association of Independent Schools) and NAIS. Students have earned the highest per-capita performance in the Scholastic Writing Competition of any school in South Carolina. USL has been the first school to sweep the State Quiz Bowl championships across all three divisions in a single year, and the first to do the same with State Math championships, twice. Similar accolades follow with national distinctions in the National Spanish and Latin Exams and a state-leading percentage of eighth grade students earning Junior Scholar status on the PSAT. Niche recognized University School as the top-rated private school in Charleston in 2026 and #3 in South Carolina. Jason himself has received every major recognition available to an independent school head in the state: SCISA’s Rookie Head of School of the Year, the Dr. Charles Aimar Leadership Award, and the Charles J. Beach, Jr. Volunteer of the Year Award.
A team to carry the vision forward
A school of this kind cannot rest on one person. From the beginning, Jason has built a faculty defined by excellence and shared purpose — teachers empowered to teach as professionals, supported by clear curriculum maps, shared expectations, and the modeling of exceptional colleagues, five of whom have been named SCISA South Carolina. Teachers of the Year between 2018 and 2026. USL faculty are trusted by parents, respected by students, and given the room to grow inside a strong learning community. They will continue to carry the work forward for the next generation of USL students.
A lasting impact
University School is a place where young people are invited to become their fullest selves, and where the broader community gets to see what America’s young people can and do look like. Every student, family, and teacher who walks through USL’s doors carries some piece of that work forward. The school continues to live by the values Jason founded it on: compassion, vision, inclusivity, and expansiveness.
USL’s Head of School, Jason Kreutner, recognized for his innovation.
