Authored by Conor O’Reilly
Entering high school as a freshman, he knew nobody, had D’s in eighth grade, in all college placement classes, and a barely passing grade in history from his previous Catholic school. But now there is our Jackson Stanley, A high school senior who everyone knows, who’s very involved in his school community, and who is prepared to go to college to succeed once again.
For ten years, Jackson Stanley attended St. John’s, a very small, strictly Catholic school where the student experience was vastly different than that of public school.
“Twenty-one kids, Pre-K through 8th grade. Nobody moved, nobody changed, it was the same twenty-one kids… twenty-one in the entire class of the school,” he says, also mentioning – with great emphasis as he looks at me with wide, open eyes – that he, “never had a math class that taught me what I needed to know…We were far behind the kids in public school…it felt like we dropped a math class to gain a religion class,” at St. John’s, followed with a smirk of disbelief.
Transitioning to Oliver Ames was a struggle at first for Jackson. He had trouble getting comfortable with a large public school where he didn’t know anybody, and keeping up with academics as well.
“For me the odd thing was everything that I was not used too, even the cafeteria. I never had a cafeteria. Y’know, you’re not in this very highly strict Catholic environment- I’m not very religious in the sense of instituting religion at all – it was still a very big change-up from this high strung Catholic environment and you’re not used to having all these people, it was a huge culture shock, from my standpoint.” He rolls his looks upwards towards the ceiling as he recalls his freshman years. “Very hard to maintain grades, very hard to socially interact because you’ve never been in this scenario before…man it was so hard. I heard the bell in my first class freshman year, I think it was Spanish class, and I thought it was a fire alarm.”
Trying everything that the school had to offer to try and find his niche, Jackson has been involved in Varsity Cross-Country for four years, Track and Field two years, Ski Team one year, Iron Tigers Robotics Team two years – being the Design Team captain his senior year – and a writer for the Daily Olivian for two years and the Editor-in-Chief and Administrator his senior year. It was through his involvement in the school that he got to know people and get more comfortable at Oliver Ames.
“I think the main thing that really helped me to get to know people at first was Cross Country, and Cross Country – that’s 100 people… you’re gonna run into those people throughout your day in here” he says, accrediting, “great amounts of success to Cross Country [becoming social]. The coaches and I have our disagreements, but I think that they’re passionate. I know where they’re coming from. They’re protecting themselves and I don’t blame then for that.”
Through time, Jackson’s academic performance also improved. His teachers recommended him for higher-level classes and he rapidly made his way up from College-Prep to Honors- and AP-level classes.
“Freshman year I was in Mr. Darling’s College-Prep history class, the next year I was in Mr. Abarr’s honors history class, then I was in Costello’s AP history class, and now I’m in AP World history class…It’s exponential and the progression happened in every class,” he says, as he draws an exponential curve with his finger in the air. “I’ve done very well from where I’ve come from.”
When asked what drove his rapid, major academic comeback, if it had to do with him or others, he simply chuckled and said it was, “luck.”
“It was just damn luck. I was recommended to my first Honors class by Mr. Darling. I had an 82 in the class… but he still bumped me up, and I got a 93 in the Honors class, then I got a 4 on the [AP] exam [in AP United States History]. I never asked him for that, it just happened. Rodney (Mr. Schussler, Jackson personally knows some of his teachers and refers to them by their first name), I had him my junior year and he said, ‘you should write for the newspaper.’ And now I’m the chief editor,” he says with a shrug.
While he agrees that the teachers must have seen something in him – whether it was a special quality or potential – Jackson says he does not know what. Asking if he had some sort of ‘internal drive’ or a will or a desire to improve his academics revealed interesting things about Jackson’s outlook on life.
“No. I’ve never thought to myself, ‘this is what I’m gonna dedicate all my time towards and only this. I love the universality of it all. If you try something and you like it, then do it! I’ve always seen life being…” a moderate pause, a rolling of the eyes upward, then a short, fast throwing of his hands in the air as he looks back at me and says, “don’t plan! Just don’t plan it. Just throw yourself in it, because you’re gonna succeed. Nothing in this world that you plan for ever turns out perfectly. so sometimes you just have to risk it.”
Jackson takes the bull by the horns, “each and every moment.” He sees the world as unpredictable and believes that if one is to succeed, they must keep this in mind, be flexible, and ready to adapt at any given moment.
“Nothing in this entropic world is ever naturally orderly. The faster you move to, ‘how do I keep up with the chaotic flow of life?’ the sooner you’ll say, ‘now I am in my groove.’ If you try to structure yourself around the world, you will fail” he says with a nod. He agrees that some degree of planning and structured routine is necessary but less is better than more. “Maybe a little black and white on the edges but there’s a whole lotta gray area in there.”
Maybe this type of approach will not work for everyone, but Jackson has been working this tactic for years with success.
“I never study!” he says with a chuckle. “I never study in the classical sense. I do my homework and maybe some practice problems, but I never study. As I’m on my daily run, if I think about what I’m learning, I get a better grade. I think about the math problem and think: “do this, and do that.” It’s this amazing tactic I’ve learned. Taking the time for you to digest everything, and not compartmentalize it. Y’know, I’ve never been a person who can go open a book and go, ‘yep I can explain that!’” as he makes a motion with his hands as if he were opening and pointing to a page in a book.
Perhaps it was his adaptability to life that helped him get by in his transition to Oliver Ames, or the latter was the causation and the former the result. One thing for sure, Jackson believes that coming to Oliver Ames was “the best decision I have ever [he has] made.” He got into other private schools, but chose to come here.
“I disagreed with a lot of the doctrine I was taught at Catholic school, I didn’t necessarily know how to categorize it. You’re bred in a school where everyone has these beliefs… nobody’s ever challenging these beliefs except for you. Then you come into here where everyone is challenging everything… and that’s the way it’s designed to be at public schools. That’s the way it is in the real world.”
At Oliver Ames, Jackson found people he was compatible with and made many friends unlike at St. John’s, where he felt he was not.
“You just gravitate towards people with that point of view because you agree with it… and [at St. John’s] nobody would ever agree with me… that’s frustrating. Now I’ve found my niche, my friends who share common themes with me.”
Oliver Ames was the place where Jackson could find friends, learn, and succeed, saying, “I wouldn’t have had the opportunities here, it wouldn’t be the same quality of education” when considering the fact he could have gone to another Catholic school instead of a public school.
A transformed high school student ready to go to the University of Cincinnati to study aeronautical engineering, Jackson, reflecting on his experience at Oliver Ames says, “I really have enjoyed this place… I will miss this place. It’s been life-changing. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”