Leadership Lessons: How I Got Here

Summer 2018

By James Calleroz White

At an internship that turned into my very first job out of college, I vividly remember the smell of the markers during my first week. I spent almost 40 hours coloring posters to get the office ready for the summer push. Next in my career, I traveled the country as an admission officer for Harvard and meeting the most amazing students. I had the opportunity to live with and advise these students once they got to Harvard as proctors, and I still keep in touch with many to this day. I helped students navigate life challenges during my time at Prep for Prep and Sponsors for Educational Opportunities. I also remember watching late-night television and helping kids with essays at Belmont Hill School (MA). I fondly look back at my time at Phoenix Country Day (AZ), where I was most excited by the community engagement work with local public school kids. And now, at Louisville Collegiate School (KY), I can’t help but smile with pride at all we have accomplished over these past five years from new programs to new buildings.
 
Being one of a very small number of school heads of color, I have often been asked whether I’d always wanted to be a head of school. This is usually immediately followed by “What did you do to become a head?” My honest answer is that I never knew I wanted to be a head of school. Upon reflecting over 20 years, I realize that all of the jobs I held previously were indeed important to my current role, but they didn’t create a straight line to becoming a head of school.
 
So, what did I do to get here? Anything that my schools needed me to do. I have taught, created, and run programs; chaired and worked on task forces and committees; volunteered, facilitated, and acted as a liaison to student clubs, parent groups, and alumni associations. I have co-chaired accreditations, coached, created new schedules, run professional development workshops. I looked at every one of these opportunities as a way to learn. It was through the years of this learning process that I also learned how to lead.
 
I came into this work believing I could make a difference. I initially picked education because it was an alternative to law school, but the reality was that this work picked me. The education work I have done has not always been in schools, but every job I have had has been working with students in some capacity. The variety of environments and roles has given me a wide range of perspective about students, faculty, and institutions, and has taught me that leadership is only partially about the title—titles just give you a larger perspective from which to lead, but the title alone does not make you a leader.
 
I now understand that leadership is a lifelong pursuit that involves the acquisition of skills, information, values, customs, beliefs, behaviors, and identity. It is both an active, intentional undertaking, and a passive, experimental phenomenon. I believe that leadership permeates life within and beyond the school community; my leadership style focuses on the intentional teaching and learning that occurs within schools–in the classrooms, on the fields, in the studios, and in the hallways. In all of these venues, leaders have the opportunity and the awesome responsibility to change lives and to shape the future for individuals and for society. It is this responsibility and what I think an educational leader should be that keeps me in education.
 

Journey at a Glance

A brief look at James Calleroz White’s titled jobs since college:
 
EF Education-Regional Manager
 
Harvard University
-Admission Officer
-Residential Proctor for Freshmen
 
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Affairs at Prep for Prep
 
Director of College Programs at Sponsors for Educational Opportunities
 
Belmont Hill School (MA)
-Director of College Counseling
-Residential Dorm Parent
 
Phoenix Country Day School (AZ)
-Assistant Head of Upper School
-Assistant Head of School
-Director of Community Engagement
-Director of Institutional Advancement
-Associate Head of School
 
Louisville Collegiate School (KY)
Head of School
 
The Galloway School (GA)
Head of School
 
Visit leadership.annualconference.nais.org to see James Calleroz White and others in the independent school community speak about their leadership journeys.


What’s your leadership journey? Share it with us at [email protected], and you could be featured in the next issue.
James Calleroz White

James Calleroz White most recently served as head of school at Louisville Collegiate School in Kentucky. As of July 1, 2018, he is head of school at The Galloway School in Atlanta, Georgia.