Lily and I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Jason Heisserer on Friday, September 19th. Before we began the interview we were already aware Jason was a perfect fit for our school, but in the twenty five minutes we sat and talked, we became certain that Jason is Crossroads personified. His warm, positive and welcoming demeanor is something we should all strive to achieve.
Growing up in Springfield, Illinois, Jason always knew he had a passion for education. He wanted to help “people feel good about themselves and to feel like they could influence their part of the world.” Jason wanted to make sure people could go through life and experience it being totally true to who they are, and he felt the best way to do so was to teach. He began his educational journey as an English teacher, feeling that he could get to know his students while helping them begin to understand themselves. There is no doubt that Jason is an extraordinary person with a passion for writing, reading, teaching, and helping other people realize their own potential. By encouraging self discovery he hopes to make his students feel comfortable and “joyous” with who they are.
Jason came to Crossroads after leaving Hixson Middle School where he was the principle of 725 students. Coming to Crossroads, where he has a student body of 195, was quite a change. “It’s big and its challenging and its wonderful” was the response Jason gave when asked how he was liking his Crossroads lifestyle so far. While Hixson also was a close community Jason stressed that “the pace of the day is what really strikes [him], there is a rhythm at Crossroads that allows time for things and it doesn’t feel rushed."
Along with his passion for education, Jason has many unique and interesting hobbies outside of work. We could have talked to Jason for hours discussing his various hobbies and his reasoning behind them. Every hobby has a deeper meaning and some sort of symbol tying it into his life, “ I love symbolism and I love metaphors.” One of the hobbies that really stuck out to us was Jason's operatic history. He began explaining this hobby telling us the story of his kindergarten teacher Mrs. Russell. “I did not know I was interested in music. Somehow she knew, I don’t know how she knew, but she said I was to be Hansel in Hansel and Gretel....and I just started singing from there.” He still takes voice lessons today, exemplifying his persistence and passion for opera. When Lily and I brought up his rumored “napping couch” he immediately asked us how we knew about his sleep philosophy. Really, Jason said, “the couch is part of my office for people to sit on and for us to have conversations on.” A secondary use of the couch is to take quick nap to “clear [his] head” and allow him to focus more on the task of making Crossroads the best place it can be.
Despite all these amazing things about Jason, our favorite characteristic is how easy it is to talk to him. Jason brings a sense of relativity, making students feel safe and compelled to have conversations with him. His approachable nature made the twenty five minutes we spent with him feel like five, and we were still eager to know more when we left. Jason is the fresh, new, and vital face of Crossroads, and we are more than eager to see where the school can go from here.
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