There is joy…in fulfilling a calling that fits who we are and, like the pillar of cloud and fire, goes ahead of our lives to lead us…We each need to know our own unique design, which is God’s design for us. -Os Guinness

Robert Mack   Wingfield High School Principal Robert Mack is quick to say, “I did not choose education. It chose me.” With a five month window between a chemical engineering degree from Dillard University and the start of a fellowship to MIT-Harvard, Mack took a temporary teaching job at Christ Missionary & Industrial Academy in Jackson. He “fell in love” with teaching, and as cliché as it sounds, the rest is history.   Robert had grown up wanting a better life than the one he had. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and although his mom provided a stable and loving environment for him and his older sister, money was always tight. His mother worked in a factory by day and cleaned up offices at night. Robert, too, while a student at Callaway High School in the early 1980s worked as a custodian for several law offices downtown.

As a freshman at Dillard, Mack began reading the Bible and became serious about his relationship with Christ. “It was in that first year of college I made the decision to allow Christ to navigate my life.”

But the “aha” moment that determined Mack’s calling to education over engineering came while helping one of his chemistry students during those brief months at CM&I. Michael (not his real name) had previously been involved in a gang, expelled from his public school and sent to CM&I. Mack took him under his wing and literally saw transformation before his very eyes. He looked up at Mack one night with a new enthusiasm and sense of purpose and said, “Gosh, Mr. Mack. I can’t believe I am at a teacher’s house studying!”

Mack saw the young man go on to Tougaloo College, graduate, and live a productive life.

Mack came to Wingfield as Assistant Principal in 2004. He was promoted to Principal in 2007.

“Education is so much more to me than academics. When I saw the change I could make in young people’s lives in helping them develop moral character and the role I could play in helping them find their purpose in life, I knew education was my passion.”

His passion for mentoring and educating the whole child—body, mind and spirit—is shared by wife Sophia and children Courtnie, Kaelyn, and Caleb. It is not unusual for the Macks to take in a student who is having difficulties at home and make them a part of their family for three to six months. “And when they are in our home,” says Mack, “they ARE family.”

Mack is keenly aware of the obstacles many of the students in his school face, but he has often watched success happen where one might think it unlikely. He is amazed at the number of parents who stop by his office and ask if he can spend some time with their child—mostly boys. “And I do,” he says. “I call them to the office to talk, do peek checks in the classrooms, and I have started a mentoring program called “Men to Boys.”

Robert Mack does not allow his duties as principal to isolate him from the classroom. He often shows up as a “teacher’s assistant” to make connections with the students, but also to create a sense of “family” among principal, faculty, and students. He sees a certain sense of “belonging” and positive behavior that flows out of those kinds of relationships.

Robert Mack’s best advice to today’s parents is to “Get involved at every level. Be visible. Be there. The stats say that when a dad simply asks, “What did you learn today? Or tell me about school today, a child’s achievement level goes up 20 percent.”

There is another aspect of school life that never leaves his mind. “We call it culture, but I see it as the spiritual atmosphere on campus. We are doing everything we can to combat the “spiritual” forces that want to come against the positive things we are doing. Prayer intercessors arrive early three days a week to pray for school, staff, students, and everyone who sets foot on campus that day. We are doing everything we can to teach, to love, to touch, and to lead.”

Gary Herring Gary Herring, Headmaster at First Presbyterian Day School, oversees 700+ students every day from Kindergarten through sixth grade. When he left Brandon High School for Ole Miss in 1970, it was in pursuit of a degree in Business Administration. From Ole Miss, he went on to Auburn for a Masters Degree. Although he was not certain what his career path would be, he was confident that it would not involve the classroom or school administration.   The son of a high school principal and a math teacher, Gary attributes his eventual arrival back in the education arena to his parents’ influence. Their values, faith, and example have always been the foundation of his life.   “The Lord brought me along slowly,” Gary says. In 1975 he took a job with the Presbyterian Church in America as the business administrator for the Committee on Christian Education.

 When he and his wife Jerri moved to Jackson from Montgomery in 1980, he became the church administrator at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson.

Joe Treloar, who had been First Presbyterian Day School’s principal since its beginning in 1965 was nearing retirement and he approached Gary about the possibility of being his successor. To a young man in his thirties, heading an elementary school where the day’s crises involved skinned knees and lost lunchboxes, such a prospect sounded anything but exciting…or challenging…or fun…or interesting! Little did he know. Mr. Treloar persisted, and his own father encouraged him to look a little closer, and so he did.

He went back to Mississippi College in 1987 for a degree in Education and Curriculum, became Mr. Treloar’s assistant and took over as principal in the spring of 1988.

“Never did I dream I would be here 20 years,” he laughs. “But I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” It is apparent he and the Day School are a perfect fit. You can tell the minute you enter the building. There is a kind of happy rhythm to everything that goes on around there.

And then there is the way God works…Gary quickly discovered that his job was about more than lost lunchboxes and skinned knees. His real calling involves the hearts of children. “I am interested in academics, but that is understood in this school.” Personal experience, as well as the testimonies of countless teachers he has hired through the years indicates that it is in childhood the majority of people commit their hearts to Christ.

Gary is quite visible all around the school on any given day. He likes to know the students and tries to get involved in their lives as much as possible. “I do a Bible study with fourth graders about six times a year and we eat donuts galore and I will have from 20 to 50 boys who come. I have teachers who do the same with fourth to sixth grade girls. We want to talk to them about their hearts and how they live out their Christian lives. At this point it is mostly how do you treat your family, your siblings, and one another?”

Gary finds that in today’s stressed out culture, he spends a lot of time with parents, too. “A lot of times when things aren’t going right in the family, we are the first ones to know because parents want us to take good care of their children and help them through this difficult time.”

Today’s parents are different from the parents of yesterday in several ways. He sees so many parents today who seem to be trying to live their lives over through their children. “Parents today need to recognize that it is OK for their children to fail. They need to pray that if their children become involved in some potentially damaging habits or behavior they discover it NOW before they do something in junior high or high school where the consequences are far more serious.”

As a seasoned father of two grown daughters, he has the added advantage of having lived through the anxious moments of child-rearing, and he can look back and know the imaginary problems from the real ones. “It’s so important,” he says, “that parents have a perspective in the elementary years. They need to understand what’s really important in the life of their child. What is NOT important is whether my child gets an A on every test or whether he is a star in every sport, or what teacher he gets. They don’t understand the problems that they are going to face later are the real problems. What matters in elementary school is the safety of your child and the moral character that is being instilled that help them learn to make wise choices. Elementary school should be preparing them for that.”

Building his “team” of faculty and staff is a third priority for Gary. “A lot of today’s education system is based on memory work, and we have tried hard to take memory work out of the equation and to teach children to think—to think deeply and to teach them to write. We are a school that spends 90 minutes a day teaching reading, writing, and thinking skills. We want, most of all, to teach children to make application in their spiritual lives.

“The role of a Christian school is to assist parents in planting those seeds in the lives of children very young and we believe the Lord will water and provide the growth in their lives as they get older.”

Susan Lindsay Jackson Prep’s Head of School Susan Lindsay was just a young twenty-something social studies teacher from Arkansas when she made a late night call to Jesse Howell, head of JPS personnel at the time. It was the spring of 1970, and she had been told he was the man she would want to work under when she got to Jackson.   He agreed to an interview although she now laughs that she really thinks he wanted to get off the phone and go back to sleep. Nevertheless, she met him the next day and he verbally offered her a job. She may have had fleeting thoughts about why there was no written contract, but she was young and trusting and thought if he said so, it must be true.   Jesse Howell was the first headmaster at Jackson Preparatory School which opened its doors in the fall of 1970. A few months later, while she was still in Arkansas, he called her and told her he needed a social studies teacher at Prep and would she come.

 “Yes,” she said simply because she had been instructed by many friends and mentors in the education world that she should try to find Jesse Howell and work wherever he was working.

Susan knew early on that she was called to teaching. As a little girl, she lined up her dolls and taught them. She tried to corral her siblings and teach them. Despite an after college detour working with American Airlines, her heart has always been in teaching.

That first year at Prep, there was only one building on campus. Teachers rotated classrooms. She taught five classes and two different grades. What might have been a sign to find another profession for many was a challenge Susan Lindsay met with excitement. She loved the challenge and she loved the classroom—she also loved her students.

Since those first days as a social studies teacher, Susan has earned an M. Ed. in Counseling and additional graduate certification in administration from Mississippi College.

Although she moved from teaching social studies to being a school counselor in 1985, to Principal of the Junior High, then to Head of School in 2004, Susan has realized that a part of her just can’t let the classroom go.

Her outlet for that energy and talent is now focused on teaching the “Golden Girls” (actually the Golden Circle) at First Baptist Church in Jackson. Their friendships are rich, their experiences are varied, and they feed that part of Susan’s soul that is just meant to teach! She laughs that they are “so easy. They never need their schedules changed!”

As a single mother for most of her son’s life, Susan has a special empathy for the difficulties families, in general, face today. She knows about tough times first hand. After all, she had four feet of water in her home during the 1979 infamous Easter flood. Her perspective on what matters most in life and what matters least became even clearer to her during that time. She has always valued people and friendships—but she values them even more than before because of that trying event in her life.

She knows the pull on families and she says, “Academics are important, but education of the heart is also so important. Finding the balance and providing the best support you can is hard today.”

Over her 30+ years in education, Susan sees more differences in parents than she sees in students. She says, “I wish today’s parents would ALLOW their children to fail. The teenage years are tough. You see them grow and develop but there are a whole lot of challenges along the way. I find that, in general, you can work things out with students.” One of the most rewarding aspects of Susan’s job is helping a teen through a rocky time. She recognizes that tough times are also teachable times.

“I believe it is best for parents to listen to their children but give them an opportunity to experience disappointments and learn from their mistakes. Tough lessons learned while they are living at home and supported by family will serve them well as they become more independent and eventually are responsible adults. We all “grow through” the challenges that we experience. Generally our prayer life improves as we understand that we are dependent on our Lord.

Lindsay is not cloistered in her office apart from students and faculty. She has an ever open door and seizes the opportunities every day to encourage students, faculty, and parents.

She has the gift of passion for her calling, love for other people, and a tremendous heart’s desire to inspire and nurture success in every student. And you can tell she is doing a great job of it.

Angela Brunini This year, the first day of school was a day of many firsts for Angela Brunini, Principal at St. Anthony Catholic School. Children entered the doors for the first time, little giggles rang through the halls for the first time and the works of many finally flourished. The foundation for this new school was laid only seven months ago in February of 2009, but almost 10 years ago the eternal foundation to build a school for Christ had been poured into the hearts of many at the St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Madison. On August 11th, their prayers, their plans, and their passion become a reality. For Angela, this has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Raised as a “cradle catholic” on the coast of Mississippi, she attended the St. Thomas Parish where she first experienced school as more than getting an education, but as a family, “I remember every single day we were either at church or we were at school. If we were at school we were there during the day or at night with parents helping do things, or we were at church seeing the same people I went to school with. I remember it just being a family, a real community.”

In her own family, her mother taught at St. Thomas and made it clear the importance of church and school. With her mother as her inspiration, Angela traveled to Jackson to earn her education degree at Millsaps College. There she played basketball and met her husband John who played on the men’s team. They married and would continue down a path of education around the country. While John attended law school at Wakeforest, Angela sought to find her “perfect little kindergarten class;” she never found that class, but she did find her passion for reading.

She enrolled into Wakeforest where she received a reading specialty. As her husband expanded his career they moved to Vermont before returning to Madison. There Angela found herself back in the classroom, but felt something was missing. “I remember sitting down on the edge of my bed saying, “God is this what you have in store for me, is this what I’m supposed to be doing with my life?” The very next day I got a call from St. Richard School asking if I would be interested in coming on board as an Assistant Principal.” With God’s assignment clear, Angela went to work. For the next six years she assisted in coordinating curriculum and directed multiple projects and workshops, all while the Lord was preparing her for a test that very few education administers are given; build a school.

After prayerful consideration, this pregnant mother of three agreed to take the challenge and never turned back. “I am a firm believer that God brought me to this project. I have seen so many things that make me believe this is something He really wanted,” shares Angela. “During this process I would often look to this quote on my door that reads, “Hello, this is God, I’ll be taking care of all your problems today, you just sit back and relax.” I have to really own that and say this is His project.” With the support of the St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Pastor Michael Flannery and the late George Harman, former Millsaps President; the school began to form from the ground up.

Working with contractors, electricians and teachers, each day Angela kept the faith and her thoughts on the blessings of this opportunity. “I’ve been able to create a school with various types of people that have that same vision and desire to have that relationship with God on a daily basis. We’ve been able to design a facility that is arranged so that every time they turn around, something reminds them of God.”

The state of the art facility displays classrooms of today. Computers line the desks and interactive learning is encouraged with active expression devices that act like cell phones. Children can use them to text answers that show up immediately on the screen while teachers provide feedback. The old regimented classroom is forgotten and in its place is an environment of sharing and creating. “I think you have to look at new ways of getting their attention,” explains Angela, “Children are up out of their desks, they’re moving around, they’re actively engaged in their learning. The teacher is walking around as a facilitator and the children are questioning. You have to present things in very different ways because children have different learning styles. The teacher has to find out how all these children learn and mold to them versus when we were younger we had to mold to that teacher and find a way to learn. I see it all as an advantage of how education has grown.”

With technology as merely a tool, the core of their teachings remains rooted in Jesus Christ. Every morning the school day is started with prayer and children find a Bible verse in every classroom they visit. The chapel is at the center of the school as a reminder to all that the school is built on Christ.

Each morning Angela will be opening car doors helping little ones get their feet on the ground and walk with faith. She ensures parents their children are coming to a safe, nurturing place and she realizes this year will be a learning experience for all at St. Anthony, “We not only want to grow academically, but spiritually as a whole. We long to educate the whole child and bring God’s love into everything we do.”

With God as her foundation, Angela Brunini is building a school, a community, and a family of believers.