Transcript: Mr. McCarter and Jack Levy on Mentorship, Leadership, and the Step to High School

Welcome back to Late Start Show with me, Charlie Martin. And me, Jack Nelson. We once again hope you're enjoying your nice break from working up at the crack of dawn. Hopefully we can give you something good to listen to on your morning commute to school.

This week's interview is with Mr. McCarter, a history teacher at the Shaker Campus and an 8th grade class president, Jack Levy. The interview was really good and was our first with two members of the Shaker Campus. But before we get to that great interview, let's first review what this week has to offer.

In our sports section, soccer fell to the No. 2 seed, Twinsburg, last Wednesday at 7 o'clock in the regional semifinal. The team had a great season with many ups and downs, ending with an overall record of 11-5-4. The team loses 16 incredible seniors who put everything into the game and pushed the team forward. Thank you, soccer, and we look forward to next season, where we hope to win a D3 state championship.

Next, in football, we fell to 3rd seed, CVCA, this past Friday. At their house, Team 135 completed with tremendous heart and ended the season with an overall record of 5-6. The team accomplished many impressive things, such as going to the playoffs for the third straight time, the first time doing that since 2004. Even though we started the season off 2-4, we came back and made the playoffs with an incredible string of final games and performances.

We thank the seniors for their time and for their hard work and the team's great season. Thank you, football, and we look forward to next season. We hope to get through the first round of the playoffs finally. In some of the biggest news around the school, throughout this past week, students and faculty celebrated U.S.

Spirit Week by participating in various contests and competitions. The week's final assembly had a fun family feud game based on questions asked to U.S. students. Also, congratulations to seniors for reaching a significant milestone in the college application process. They all finished those and were rewarded with a trip to Topgolf.

In other news, the student event committee invites students and guests to Bingo Night on Friday, November 8th from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. A pizza dinner with chops and cookies and a bingo game will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 per person. Each student can bring one guest.

If you want to go, fill out the email Google form to reserve your spot soon. Next, looking at our week's senior speeches. We do not have any this week, but look forward to a senior speech from Jackson Pinney next week. Well, guys.

That's enough from us about this week. Coming up soon is an interview with history teacher at the Shaker Campus, Mr. McCart and 8th grade class president, Jack Levy. They sat down with us to talk about what the Shaker Campus is like, their journeys to U.S., and their roles at the campus.

All right, let's jump into it. Mr. McCart and Jack Levy, up next. Good morning.

Welcome back to the show. We are here with Mr. McCart, a history teacher at the Shaker Campus, and 8th grade class president, Jack Levy. How are you guys doing?

Doing well. Thank you. Doing great. Thanks for having us.

So we're always interested in people's journeys to this point. Jack, when did you start at U.S., and what do you think has been one of your favorite moments during your time? I started at U.S. in kindergarten, and one of my favorite moments was I was in fourth grade. We go on a whaling trip to Nantucket, but fourth grade was my COVID year.

So we went for fifth grade. We went out to Boston and Nantucket, and it was just an amazing trip and good experience. That's amazing. I didn't get to go on the Nantucket trip, but I know Charlie did.

Yeah, I mean, it's always the best trip every year. You always, like, it's something you'll always remember. And then, Mr. McCarter, so I had the pleasure of taking your class, and, no, you had an interesting journey before coming to U.S.

So can you tell us some of the places you taught before university school? Sure. Right out of college, I went to Memphis, Tennessee, taught at Memphis Catholic High School, grades 9 through 12. From there, I think I've told you guys this a little bit, but I was in a band.

So I then reduced the amount of classes I was teaching and then taught kindergarten and third grade P.E. And from there, then wanted some experience abroad. So my girlfriend at the time, now wife, and I moved to China and taught at Chengdu Meixue International School, where I taught seventh and eighth grade and was the athletic director. After that, I went to McAuliffe International School in Denver, came back right before COVID hit in 2019.

Okay. After spending two years in Denver, my wife and I decided to move back to her area. She's originally from Chagrin Falls, and that's the first time I heard of university school. That's a lot of different experiences, and I know China, I take Chinese, and learning that culture has been really cool.

So I'm sure that was cool for you as well. It was awesome. And what has the opportunity to teach at a place like U.S. meant to you? Oh, it's been fantastic.

You know, I think it's twofold. One, I got to see a lot of innovation that makes U.S. the special place. It is. But at the same time, university school provides those opportunities for teachers to bring their own flavor, to bring their own experiences and inject them into this awesome system.

And so I've really seen, you know, both ways of that. Not only have I benefited from seeing the fantastic things that the school offers and, of course, the amazing student body it has, but also the ability to bring what I've seen work and have those experiences in the classroom. It's been fantastic. You know, Jack, before we...

You really dive into all the different good stuff. You're currently on your shadow day, which is really exciting. Based on what you've seen so far or heard, what are you most excited about coming into that high school? I'm most excited probably just about all the free time we get.

I've always, since I've been born, I've always heard about how amazing the school, the upper school is. I've been just anxiously waiting. And, like, now I finally get to see it. And I just want to have a different perspective.

I get to see everything, all the free time everyone gets. I'm just really excited for the opportunities. You know... One of the things I always kind of felt was coming up to a high school, that anxiousness.

Do you feel any of that anxiousness? You're just so excited to come here that it's just kind of surpassing that. I thought I was anxious, and then I woke up this morning, and I was so excited that I just got up immediately. I was up at, like, 6.30, just getting ready, like, fully ready.

And then I was just so excited. Like, yesterday I was pretty nervous, but I think I've liked it so much lately. That's really, really cool. And I think we have a super interesting...

I think we have a super interesting episode here, because we are recording this on Tuesday, November 5th, which is Election Day. And we are sitting here with two class presidents, one former, Mr. Charlie Martin, and one current, Mr. Jack Levy.

So I want to ask both of you guys, why did you run for class president? Jack, I'll start with you. Well, when I was in sixth grade, I saw Charlie run, and that actually helped inspire me, because I voted for you. And I thought it was an amazing speech.

And when I was in eighth grade, when I was in seventh grade last year, when they talked to us about house captains, I'm like, do I really want to do this? Do I really want to do this? And I remembered about class president, and I was like, maybe I should just run for this. So during the summer, I was texting people, like, can you vote for me for class president?

And because I was like, really wanted to be it. And when it came up to the date, like, I had all these people wanting to vote for me, and there was two other kids who ran. And I felt, I think the biggest thing was just being confident in it. And then also one of the big things is, as when I wanted to really make a change in the school, like do stuff, and I just had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to share to the others.

And that's, I think, one of the reasons I wanted to run. Yeah, I mean, I think that's really what it is in the end of the day. You just have a lot of ideas. You have a vision for what you kind of want the middle school to be.

And you run. Just represent your friends and kind of your own ideas and try to put it out there. I mean, I know it's really, really cool that you, like, took inspiration from me because I was the same way. I was really excited all summer.

I made this whole, like, idea of what I wanted to be. And then I got voted. And luckily, I got voted and was able to do a bunch of stuff, which I really think was a productive year. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I look forward to hearing about how productive your year was. Thank you. It's important to consider, too, I want to inject here also the teacher perspective of that, right? As we sit there and see these kind of unfold and we see some candidates that are up there that are great kids but maybe don't have the leadership potential.

And I just want to say from the teacher perspective for both Charlie's year and Jack's year, the staff was completely behind you two because you are boys that live the mission of the school, whether you're in the classroom or on the athletic fields, right? So those weren't, you know, that wasn't by. Yeah. By luck or happenstance that you ended up in those positions.

You earn them with the way you act each day. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, you know, Jack, we usually ask this question to many of our high school students who've gone through many years of the high school and middle school.

But as a middle schooler who holds the title of the class president, if you had unlimited power to change anything at U.S., what would you change? The main thing I probably would want to change is I think everyone wants better snacks. That's a little plain. But I would I would say.

I kind of want to get out of the pods like I like like the pods in the front circle because the middle school renovations like I like them a lot at the beginning of last year. And they've kind of grown on me. And if I could like just make the construction happen in a day and like because it will be over in August. So I'll start the high school if I could just have like two months of being in a new middle school.

That'd be amazing. Yeah. As soon as you leave it, it's all ready to go. You know, we kind of went through that same like same thing because as we were leaving, we felt so bad.

For the classes behind us, because we had seen like the last kind of remnants almost of the middle school. But I know you've gone through. We've never gone through an opportunity or we've never gone through that pod kind of reality. So it's really interesting hearing someone who's gone through that whole experience.

I have a question for both of you. First, Mr. McCarter, you are a Jack sponsor. From your perspective, how is this sponsor system really allowed you to mentor students and maybe even learn from them as well?

Well, I think it's set up in a way where. The smaller numbers and the built in time, whether it's study hall or I.L.T., you get that moment to know a student outside of of teaching them. Right. So you see how they interact.

You get a chance to have offhanded conversations. And that's that's what I've loved. Right. That that built in time isn't isn't made in a lot of schools.

Or if it is, you know, thinking back again from my experiences, it's a public school with with thirty three kids in a class where I don't have the time to connect with each of them. Right. But I know I'm thinking about this fall things that that Jack and I have connected. Over playoff baseball, I think, is one of them.

Right. There was I think, as you guys know, I'm a Chicago guy. I'm a Cubs fan. My Cubs came up short for making the playoffs.

There was some ribbing going on about how my Cubs weren't good. I took that. That's all right. But at the same time, maybe there was a little bit of we'll see how you do against the Yankees and the Guardians.

So there's a little bit of that, you know, kind of smack talk going on that we bond over. But I think recently, who was it, Jack? Last week, we had the electoral map up with the swing states. And for the toss.

Up states, we were just doing a coin flip and heads was Harris and tails was Trump. And we were just flipping and switching around. The boys are coloring all over, all over the map. But just those moments, right, that are baked in where we can connect and bond over, you know, whatever the kids are interested in.

So I think from that perspective, that's been a lot of fun. Yeah. And I mean, from my perspective, the connection that we have with the teachers is something that might not be possible, like you mentioned, at other schools. But U.S. definitely makes an effort for that connection to be there.

And Jack. How have you liked having someone like Mr. McCarter? Now, be careful what you say.

Get the bleep button ready. How have you liked having him as your sponsor? And what's one of your favorite things that he has taught you? I love having Mr.

McCarter as a sponsor. I've had a lot of great sponsors. He's probably the best I've had yet. And the reason he's just really supportive, I think that's a good thing about the sponsors, is that there's only eight or nine of you.

So he gets to know all of you, gets to know your grades. He even gets to know your parents. And, like, he can be supportive. He's really supportive and knows what's going on if something's going on.

And another thing, like in the upper school, I know they have all four years. But the one year, they really get to know you really well. And they try to get to know you because they don't have the four years to, like, get, like, first year they might know the basics of you in second year. But they really try to get to know you in that one year.

And I think that's one of the big parts. You know, jumping ahead, you kind of almost, like, answered my question before we were even going to ask it. And, you know, at the high school, you are placed in a sponsor group for those four years. And so, I mean, you really, really get to know your sponsor day in and day out.

Do you think that you will like this change once you get to the high school? Or do you believe that maybe the sponsor system in the high school should be more similar to the middle school? I'm excited for it because in fourth grade, I was, like, when you had 16 people per class, you would stay in your homeroom because it was lower school, of course. And then fifth grade and sixth grade, I'm like, oh, no, this might be a little much because there's only eight people.

You change classes. But it would be much better. So I don't really. It could be amazing.

It could not be amazing. But I think it will be good because the sponsor will get to know me over the course of the four years. And, Mr. McCarter, do you like getting new boys to mentor each year?

Or do you think you would like to have them for longer? Well, I have a kind of special circumstance because I have times that I spend at the Hunting Valley campus, right? So when you guys end up heading off, I don't just see you at Founders Day. As you guys know, I mean, Jack and Charlie, I saw you all winter when I'm here for wrestling practice.

We'll be crossing in the hallway and have that brief interaction. Or even days like this, the shadowing day, I just love. Because it's a chance for not only I see my current sponsees get excited about the Hunting Valley campus and experiencing everything here, but I'm seeing my first set of sponsors that will be seniors next year, right? And hear what they're doing around campus and what schools they're applying to.

And those conversations, and, I mean, you guys know this with old friends, it feels like that. You just pick up right where you left off. Inside jokes that I had with boys back when we were wearing masks post-COVID, right? And kind of that weird time.

And now those boys are going to be seniors. So I think it's fantastic. I think it's built in a way where the younger boys have those connections and can move on from adult to adult. But I think you get into high school and it becomes a little more independent.

So the four-year program, I think, makes more sense up here. Yeah. What about you? What is your perspective on it?

I really, so I was only here for eighth grade. So I guess I only had the teacher anyway for one year. But I think I like the four-year. Having the same person over the course of the four-year.

Because they really get to know you. And also there are opportunities. It's not like that one person you're stuck with. There's opportunities to meet the other teachers and form connections with them for sure.

But then you always have that one person that you can kind of go to and know that they'll, like, know what you're saying, know you. So I like the four years because you have that one person. But you can also still branch off and meet the other adults and form connections with them. I kind of agree with both Jacks.

Like, I mean, with Jack Levy, where you're talking about, like, the idea. Um. Where. You go to different sponsors and you still, like, have a teacher really try to know you in that one year.

But I also agree with, like, Jack, where it's the idea of even though you have, like, all these different things, still, I know at the end of the day, Mr. Luce is my sponsor. So it's kind of like a grounding thing where you'll go through a crazy, crazy day and you kind of just sit in his room and go, Hey, so this is what I have and this is what I have. Please give me any guidance you have on how to get through this.

And maybe that you didn't see him. Like, I won't even see. Mr. Lewis for maybe a week.

But I still know the back of my head. He's my grounding, like, kind of force in the end of the day. That when I get through all these different events, I can kind of, like, recap everything with him. And you can start as that younger guy learning from the older guys.

And I'm sure you've already seen this now as you're a sophomore. You can be a mentor to those freshmen. And next year and next year to where you're going to be the ones imparting wisdom. Right.

So I think that's a special thing as well. I think that's something that not a lot of people kind of look at is the seniors or the juniors in your sponsor group that freshman year. I mean, I still remember. I graduated last year.

But Monsley Dennis, right, sitting down with me on the first day of school and going over all four years of high school in one hour and just breaking down everything. And I remember thinking to myself, like, should I be writing notes? Like, what should I be doing? But he, like, really, like, I honestly think of some of his lessons that he told me in that hour to this day.

Because I was like, yeah, he was right when he was talking about this. And he was right talking about maybe that class or that teacher. Like, this is a great way. Like, that mentorship, I don't think you find at any other school.

And it's just really special what we do here. And, Jack, I think you should not be afraid when you get to the upper school. Don't think that the seniors or the juniors, the upperclassmen are scary. Right.

Talk to them. They're all nice, all want to help. So I think you should encourage your friends as class president. Like, just don't be scared.

Get to know people. All right. So moving on. Sports at U.S. are a big part of the culture here and the brotherhood.

And you guys are both involved in sports. Mr. McCarter. You wrestled collegiately at Illinois.

And then you coach our wrestling squad here at the upper school. And so I'll start with you. I know this will probably be a near impossible question to answer. But what is the most important lesson you have learned through wrestling?

Well, there's so many, as you guys know, you know, thinking about sports. But if I can pin down one that I think the best part about wrestling is humility. Right. I've gone out and there's been times where I've been the most dominant wrestler at a tournament.

Right. And the feeling that that comes. From like the hard work that's paid off and you see that on the mat and you see that against your opponent and wrestling special, too, because you get all the accolades when you win. It's all on you.

But there's another side of that coin, too. Right. The humility part is I've gone out in front of tons of fans and just gotten my butt kicked. Right.

So there's some humility in that. Right. Where there's always, you know, a bigger fish in a bigger pond. And the higher up you go in those levels.

And believe me, I know this from firsthand. You start getting to that collegiate wrestling. And you're wrestling every matches against a state champ and a national champ, especially if you're wrestling in the Big Ten. So I think the lessons I've learned is humility.

Right. Hard work pays off. But at the same time, you know, be humble about where you come from and what you've done, because there's somebody that's going to do it better. You know, Jack, I've also heard you're like also a really, really good squash player.

What is your favorite part of squash? And maybe how do you feel that some of that humility comes into even squash? Well, my grandpa was a huge squash. And he did like a lot of stuff in the sport.

Like if you mention his name, it'd be like mentioning LeBron James of basketball. And so I got like I get a lot of attention from like other squash people from that. And I've always just loved like the like I'm also a big tennis player. I think is I usually play more tennis than squash in the squash in tennis.

They just help me like be like mentally like they they always get me prepared. Like one of the big things is that it's like 90 percent mental when it's like you just you need it. Like it's just yourself. And you have to realize that you will lose.

You will win. And everything's just a learning opportunity. And like I said, like I was at a tournament like with Will Cody and Will Boyce, who are currently sophomores now. And they were in the same age group as me.

And they're much better than me. And they I lost like I lost. I think I lost every match but one. And I was like the double constellation or whatever.

And I felt humility. But I went to another tournament and won. So I just feel like you have to learn and you just got to accept losing as an outcome. You know.

So another poor aspect of the U.S. community is that growth and is that just mindset. But another thing is also the community and like how we grow together. One of the things that we always start the beginning of the year off is with Founders Day. So, Jack, when you guys came down here for Founders or came down here for Founders Day, did you feel like you could talk to and connect with the rest of the kids here and really grow with them and learn more?

Or do you feel like they were acting cooler than all the younger guys? Well, I. So David Fairmouth and Aaron Moss, who went here, they're my neighbors. So I always felt a good kid like they would give me baseball lessons, all that.

So I always felt a good connection with them. Like when I was in fifth grade of Founders Day, I definitely felt like there's huge guys. They really want to talk to me. But now I just feel like I like I want to be involved.

I'm almost in the upper school. These are going to be my fellow students next year. And I just want to talk to them. Founders Day was amazing for me this year.

And I just love the community and everyone wants to bring each other together and have fun. And David and Aaron. Amazing people. Those are great people to kind of know already.

You know, I have another question. What do you guys think about the house system in general? Because I know up here, we're actually kind of separated by houses. So me and Jack both have the fortunate or really, really fortunate to be in the best house, McKinley.

But I know you guys may not be in McKinley and don't have that fortunate opportunity. But what do you guys feel like in your house? Like, what do you think that house just plays a big role in your community? Um, I always when I was younger, I always saw like the house, like the leader there, like the house captains and prefects is the leaders of the community.

I think it's a good way to show leadership and all that. And another thing that I always I'm in Holly. So we lose every year. So I've never been too much into the house system in my middle school years.

Lower school was like a fun little thing. Like everyone would talk about it. But I'm excited to be in like this. The house system is I've always been.

I'm a big Harry Potter fan. So I'm like, oh, I love I would love to be in like a house where I really feel like I'm involved in it. And I think that would be it's going to be a cool experience in high school. And at the most recent middle school assembly, Peters is similar to Holly.

We're always towards the bottom there. But at the most recent middle school assembly, currently Peters is at the top. Right. So working their way up, grinding to the top.

And those boys in red were going nuts. Do you guys really like I know this may be more of a question for Jack, but like looking up, looking up to your almost your senior year, do you really think that leadership idea that you were talking about, do you think you would maybe want to run for your house prefect? Do you think that's maybe a possibility years down the road? I probably will want to.

I've always thought about that. And things can also change. Like I wanted to run for house captain and decided not to. So things can always change.

You know, one of my things I always say is that to like there's always someone a leader in front of you. Like once you get to senior, there's going to be a seniors in college and the seniors in college are going to have the younger people with jobs. And then there's going to be the CEOs and there's going to be the elderly. So there's going to be always someone in front of you being a leader.

So just to, like, listen to others and see what they say and take their advice is one of the big things for me. That's really great wisdom. I mean, yeah, just to learn where you're at, do what you can to lead where you are is definitely important. So this is interesting episode in many ways.

Obviously, Election Day, first video, we got you guys here with different seasons of your lives, but you seem to share similar traits like leadership, curiosity. And so I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say. I'm excited to ask each of you these next questions. So I'll start with Jack.

What's one thing you wish you could tell your future self? Let's say when you're a senior. I would say to just do everything like when I when I started middle school, I thought all the opportunities were kind of boring. And I still sometimes think that.

But to really just try everything and just go for it, even like if I don't like it's you have so much to do at this school. There's so many things to do in the middle school. I know there's more in the upper school. So even like I just like.

I know, like I would say this to my past self, too, but to my future self, just try everything, do everything you want. You know, Mr. McCart, what's one thing you wish you could tell your younger self? Almost something that around, let's say a high school, Mr.

McCart. Oh, I think sometimes I got a little too gung ho where maybe I should have been more patient and let the process play out. Right. As we kind of emphasize here, as Jack just did, you know, that that you have opportunities to learn from folks ahead of you.

And don't be so quick to think that you've solved something. Right. Let the process play out. Let those learning moments come out of the process.

I think that would be some some wisdom I could impart to myself rather than be so quick to I'm going to get this settled. I'm going to get this finish. OK, that's done right. Be a little comfortable being uncomfortable as the process continues to play out.

Wow. Well, that's an incredibly wisdom filled statement and interview. Thank you guys so much, Mr. McCart and Jack.

For just such a great interview and our first with the members of the Shaker campus and on video to our listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in. And now our viewers. Thank you so much for tuning in.

And we hope you join us next Wednesday for another episode of The Late Start Show. And Jack, just remember, when you get to the upper school, you can always find us if you need. Yeah, I will. Thanks, guys.

Thank you, guys. Thank you.