Jeff Davis Coordinated The Scholastic Efforts of Teachers Chris McClung, Dianne Peruse and Dr. Margaret Wright During the In Search Of Heroes™ Program and  Was Interviewed by Ralph Zuranski

 
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Jeff Davis interview

Ralph Zuranski: “Jeff Davis is a visionary in the educational system in the United States.  He has just recently become principal at Coronado High School and has been instrumental in helping to promote the Heroes in Training program and also providing a vehicle within the school system where we can get the kids involved. And, so we are here today to recognize Jeff and present to him a Heroes in Training Certificate of Appreciation along with an 8x10 heroes picture of himself. 

Jeff Davis: “Wow!” 

Ralph Zuranski: “And then, also we wanted to make sure that you are a card carrying hero within the community so we wanted to give you your own heroes’ card. We wanted to ask you a little bit about your philosophy in the school system on why you got involved in such a unique program.” 

Jeff Davis: “Well, I think the program is absolutely outstanding in terms of being able to offer recognition to members of our community and our student body.  We’re doing some just outstanding work at the school and in the community, and anything that we can do to promote these people, many of them are unsung heroes that really make everything come together and everything work, the better off we are.  So I’m a real supporter of the program.”

Ralph Zuranski: “You’re sort of an unsung hero yourself.  In coming into the school system, you have done a number of things like the Pride Project, the Heroes in Training Program, and there’s other ones that you’ve done that have dramatically impacted the lives of the children in the community and also other adults and families.  Perhaps you can share a little bit of your philosophy and some of the programs that have been so successful.”

Jeff Davis: “I’d be happy to.  One of the things that we have done this past year was take a look at who we are as educators and what our whole goal and our purposes are.  And, we basically have redefined our vision of where we’re going.”

Jeff Davis: “Our first part of our vision is fairly traditional in terms of we want to give our kids the best academic classical training that we can, reading, writing and arithmetic.  We want to take them to the highest level that we possibly can.”

Jeff Davis: “The other part of the equation is a little bit more difficult.  We’re dealing with how do you motivate kids?  How do you get them excited?  How do you make it meaningful for them?”

Jeff Davis: “For a good portion of our kids, they have that motivation, wherever it comes from, intrinsically or from parents or from wherever.  We’re not exactly sure on that, but they have it.  But, what about that large segment of our student population that really doesn’t know what they want to do?”

Jeff Davis: “I’m not sure if I want to go to college.  Why do I need to know this algebra?  When am I ever going to use this?  So what do we do for those kids?  And, that helped us develop our vision about where we want to go with our kids.”

Jeff Davis: “And we said, ‘what do we want them to know?’  We answered that question and we said we want them to be able to be critical thinkers.  We want them to be able to problem solve.  We want them to be able to have access to technology and know how to use it.  We want them to have good communication skills and we want them to be able to work collaboratively in a group.”

Jeff Davis: We felt if we can get these skills, a gift to our students that when they graduated, they could do anything they want, whether it’s pursuing a career in medicine or going on to university or whether it’s opening up their own business…whatever they want to do, those skills.  So, that’s how we redefined our vision of where we want to go.  And, in turn what we’ve done is we’ve redeveloped the curriculum now, specific curriculum to help us achieve those specific goals. “

Ralph Zuranski: “You’re also a Rotarian and in each of the meetings, I noticed that you bring with you quite a few high school students to Rotary.  How has Rotary impacted your philosophy in teaching and just your involvement with young people?”

Jeff Davis: “Rotary is just a perfect example of a group of people that are willing to dedicate themselves to their community and really the true meaning of community service.  This is one of the values that we want to instill in all of our students.  We have an Interact group which is the Rotary student organization at our school, and as many students as I can help get involved with Rotary and the goals of rotary in terms of community service and helping our your fellow man, that’s what we want to do.  Rotary has been a great instrument to be able to do that and we will have as many students involved with Rotary as we possibly can.”

Ralph Zuranski: “In any community if you can raise up Heroes that young people can meet and talk with and take their example, you’re going to be the first school on the face of the planet to have its own hall of local heroes and the pictures of the kids that have been involved in the Heroes in Training Program. Do you think that the Hall Of Heroes will inspire young people to try to achieve more than they would without that?”

Jeff Davis: “I think so.  I think it’s just human nature that we like to be congratulated and rewarded and recognized for things that we do that are outstanding.  And there are so many unsung heroes at this school, students as well as staff members.  And this program is just one terrific way to help recognize those students and bring to light some of the incredible and exciting things that they’re doing. “

Ralph Zuranski: “Jeff, I’d like to thank you for coming.  You’ve been a real inspiration to all of us within the community and you really have done wonderful things at the high school to help young people.”

 Jeff Davis: “Thank you.  I appreciate it.”