From the first day our students enter Darlington, they probably consider Commencement to be the last time they will be on campus regularly. Students leave for college shortly thereafter, with hopes of contributing to the world beyond Darlington's gates on Cave Spring Road. Though their run as day and resident students has ended, they will likely return in the near future for special events, quick visits, Alumni Weekends, games and matches.
There are those few, however, who graduate a student—and return as faculty. Many an alum have come back to Darlington following college to carry on the tradition of teaching on familiar ground.
Preston Jacobs (‘07) brings his passion and expertise to the classroom as Darlington’s Upper School history and psychology teacher. Since his return to the school in 2012, Jacobs has also served as crew coach, swimming coach and, most recently, as assistant lacrosse coach. In the spring, he will coach the 9/10-year-old basketball team at Darlington.
Not long ago, he was sitting in the same desks that his students sit.
The Atlanta native came to Darlington as a resident student in tenth grade. An active member of the student body, Jacobs was the first head prefect of Moser House; a member of the JV tennis, varsity swimming and varsity cross country teams; and was also captain of the varsity crew team. He also served in the House Senate and on the Student Support Team. One contribution that today's students (and some of the younger alumni) will immediately recognize and thank Jacobs for is his work as a senior on the committee that created the first-ever RUMPUS celebration.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in history and psychology, Jacobs worked for a year in Atlanta at Hughes Telematics doing software testing, engineering and marketing.
The son of a teacher and a graduate school professor, Jacobs would light-heartedly hear at times that career choices related to his double-major were limited.
“My dad would say jokingly, ‘The only thing you are ever going to do with your degree is teach,’” said Jacobs. “I didn’t want to teach just anything. I wanted to teach something that I cared about.”
Jacobs was able to craft his enthusiasm for psychology and world history into not only a college major, but a career move onto the beautiful stretch of land he called home from sophomore year through graduation.
“It was the right opportunity at the right time,” said Jacobs. “It was an opportunity to give back to a school that did more for my development than any other three-year period in my life.
“In other schools it’s about meeting certain requirements and rules—about meeting points on a chart,” he continued. “At Darlington, it is about taking kids where they are and moving them to where they need to be.”
Although he has established himself as a faculty member, Jacobs still has a small measure of playful anxiety regarding his young age and stature in the Darlington alumni community.
“Sometimes I’ll say in my head when I’m around certain staff members, ‘I remember being your student for two years, and still think of myself as your student—and you as my advisee,'” he said.
Today, Jacobs proudly wears his Darlington class ring teaching in the classroom, eating lunch with peers that once taught him in his youth, and anytime he walks the 500 acres that helped shape the man that he is today.
“Students here are in an extremely privileged situation,” he said. “They are in an academic setting where everyone cares about them. No other time will they experience this in their lives.”
Jacobs’ youth and fresh mindset help make him relatable to the Tigers of today, and quite possibly more relevant with the advice he is able to give from his own personal experiences.
“Being able to assure myself was the greatest accomplishment coming from the school,” he said. “It didn’t matter what I was going to become; it was about who I am. I knew what my passion was and I knew how to follow it. I know that because of Darlington.”
