The Next Generation of Young Men: A Georgia Southern Graduate’s Legacy

The Well at Benedictine Military School (BC) sits at the center of campus, a central hub connecting the many hallways that spread across the 125-year-old Catholic school. 

Almost every student passes through the space during the day. Its tan floor and wood-paneled walls reverberate with the click-clack of dress shoes in the morning as students rush to class.  

Principal Jacob Horne (’08, ’12) is a permanent fixture here in the mornings. He greets students with a handshake and the occasional reminder to straighten a tie. As the young men funnel off to their classrooms and the noise fades away, he enjoys a rare moment of silence. 

“For me, that’s an opportunity for reflection,” said Horne. “We’re sending these young men out into the world to be leaders. We have a responsibility as educators to teach them how to stand tall next to their peers.” 

Those quiet moments remind him that his own path to success didn’t happen overnight. In fact, he never planned to have much success at all. 

“I wasn’t always the best student,” Horne admitted. “I like to joke with students and make them ask how many AP classes I took during high school. They’re always surprised when I tell them zero.”

Regardless, he said he had a great high school experience and found inspiration in his teachers. 

“My high school soccer coach was an incredible teacher, and an even better soccer coach,” he said. “That’s all I ever wanted to do. I wanted to coach soccer and teach history.”

But he credits his time in college as critical, changing him from a mediocre student to someone whose name would routinely appear on the College of Education Dean’s List. He said professors like Michelle Reidel, Ph.D., were the ones who made him push himself even further. 

“She wasn’t there just to collect a paycheck,” he said. “She knew she was growing the next generation of educators.” 

Classes like social science teaching and the essentials of planning as a teacher helped him develop structure and understanding of the classroom. But Reidel took it a step further. 

“She taught us how to educate,” he explained. “But more than that, she taught us how to get young people excited about learning.”

Those lessons became vital support during his student teaching sessions. He spent hours in front of the whiteboard at Southeast Bulloch High School and South Effingham High School. 

“Each time, it was another opportunity to become better at what I was doing,” Horne said. “Still, teaching at a private school was never the plan.” 

Horne graduated with a bachelor’s in secondary education with a focus in history in 2008. He applied to many schools across the area, but said his phone never rang. 

“Then, one day, I got a call asking me to interview at BC,” he said. “An educator from one of the schools I applied to started teaching at BC. He’d kept my application, and when a position opened for a history teacher, they gave me a call.” 

He started immediately and would go on to lead students inside and outside of the classroom, coaching soccer, wrestling and track. The young men in yearbook and Model United Nations came to rely on him as a mentor. 

The high standards at Benedictine fueled his appetite for success. He returned to Georgia Southern to earn a master’s in educational leadership, graduating in 2012. Still not satisfied, he capped off his time as a student by receiving an educational specialist degree from Valdosta State University in 2015. 

That dedication to his craft didn’t go unnoticed. Before long, he was chair of the history department. The next thing he knew, the nameplate on the assistant principal’s office read Jacob Horne. But he didn’t stop there.

“This is now my ninth year as principal,” he said. He’s quick to cite the educators he leads as instrumental to his success. 

“You can go to any school in the United States and learn world history or calculus,” explained Horne. “But it’s the educators who make it worthwhile.”

That’s an ideal Horne takes very seriously; he feels a personal responsibility to support teachers as they grow. He’s watched it pay off over the years. 

“I will never take credit for where the school is today,” he said. “Our success as an institution is entirely due to the teachers I’ve been fortunate enough to work with. They’re making real differences in the classroom.”  

Those differences are the result of educators being invested in serving students beyond the classroom, he explained. They build close, familial relationships with students. He said that made it easier to develop serious, personal conversations.  

“I’ve had young men come into my office and share every detail of life and struggles that teenagers have,” said Horne. “I want them to know that I’m giving them the same support I would give my own children. Because to me, that’s special.”

But what the students don’t realize is that they’re actually helping Horne raise his own children. 

“I laugh about this all the time,” he said. “My poor kids. They’re both boys, one’s about to be 13. And they don’t stand a chance. I’ve been managing teenage boys my whole career. There’s no way they’re getting one over on me.”

Horne handles his parenting the same way he handles his students: One day at a time. But at school, he has a little extra help. 

“Our students get a unique blend of advanced studies, Junior ROTC and athletics, but the Benedictine Order that lives on campus is the glue that holds everything together,” Horne explained. “It’s the oldest order in the Catholic Church. They have a different outlook on life and the pace at which society runs.”

The Order follows the Rule of Saint Benedict, written in the sixth century. The Rule serves as a guide, encouraging others to pursue a stable life guided by prayer, work and hospitality. 

It’s this special recipe he reflects on, all while transfixed on the simple, brown cross in front of him in The Well. Then the bell rings, and students begin to flood through the hallways, passing him on their way to the next class. Conversations about grades and what’s for lunch echo along the walls as Horne smiles to himself, watching his hard work become his legacy. 

“I hear things like ‘thank you for the time you give my son’ from parents all the time,” he said. “But to see that play out in real time, to know I’ve used my life to bring a positive impact to thousands of young men who will go on to lead…there’s no greater honor.”

–Bradley Mullis