Essential Leadership Skills for The Next Generation

[0:00]  I had a mom came up to me and and she said what did you do to my son and I thought she was serious well she was but I thought something happened and I said uh what what are you talking about and she said he likes school he he's coming home he's studying he's talking about what's going on in his classes he said what' you do to him I said nothing I did um but you know I when we have graduation parents always come up and say you know thank you for everything you did for him such a wonderful young man now blah blah blah and I said we're just helping you as parents that's that's all we're doing all right guys welcome back to a

[1:00]  brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast today is going to be a great a great conversation because I have an amazing leader sitting across this digital table with me I have Kurt ruffing Kurt welcome to the show man thank you I appreciate it Kenan I'm happy to be here with you today's going to be an amazing conversation because a lot of people don't know about me that we've talked about here on the podcast is I came from an incredibly important experience in high school I went to an all guys C Catholic school called Detroit Catholic Central in our previous conversation you had you said that you've actually heard of that institution but the way in which it impacted me it changed the trajectory of my life and so as we kind of get started here Kurt I want to share a quote with you there's an amazing AR author his name is Kevin Kelly he has a quote from one of his most recent books he says you

[1:49]  lead by letting others know what you expect of them which may exceed what they expect of themselves provide them a reputation to live up to what do you think about that I think it kind of resonates with the way I I try to be a leader um let them know what I expect of them and let them go at it you know I'm sure you've heard this before you surround yourself with smart people and good people and you're going to have a good team and you know I I uh coached wrestling and baseball here for many years so you know I highly liken the way I run a school to coaching build yourself a good coaching staff and you can do a lot of good let's talk a little bit about your

[2:37]  origin story Kurt so one of the unique things is you actually attended Elder High School which I think is incredible so let's talk a little bit about your origin story maybe some of that competitive grit that you had when you were going to school and how that translated and you becoming the future leader of the school as well yeah um so I you know I came to Elder uh I had two older brothers and a brother younger than me we all went to Elder our dad was from Columbus Ohio so he didn't go to Elder um so you know I came here and um had a had a great time uh the academics were awesome the overall experience was awesome uh Elder provides uh back then provided a lot for the students and I think now uh is

[3:26]  there's so many more experiences so many more opportunities for our students but anyway um I I graduated from melder and then um while I was here I got involved in all kinds of clubs um one of the clubs that I did get involved with was The Fellowship of Christian athletes and that was something that we got to share um you know our spiritual Faith with with uh student athletes from other schools in the Cincinnati area so I I really enjoyed being part of that um so I I played football freshman year and then uh gave that up to concentrate on wrestling wrestled all four years um and end up being a captain my senior year um when I left Elder I went on to Miami University in Oxford and uh spent four years there when I was there when I came

[4:16]  home for like Christmas break Thanksgiving break I would help out with the wrestling program um then it was my senior year at Miami in the spring when the current when the principal at that time uh I was at a wrestling match the district wrestling tournament supporting our beloved Elder Panthers and um he asked me what my plans were he knew I was in math education and I told him I uh just printed out my resumés and uh went to Kinkos to get make copies I don't think they have Kinkos anymore but anyway um he asked me if I'd be willing to come back in and teach it Elder and and I knew the principal pretty well so wow I never thought about that so uh he gave me a week to think about it he

[5:03]  called me the following Sunday and I said yeah I'd love to so came down to following Monday signed a contract and the rest is history wow it's so cool to think about how when we're on the right path God in the universe has a way of conspiring with us to bring us back to an opportunity to contribute to the Legacy that had such a big impact on us if we had to kind of boil down your experience at and how it impacted you as a man as a character how do you kind of think that the school left an imprint on you and kind of encourage you to come back and give back as much as you have yeah um so I I think so my dad died when I was 12 I was in sixth grade um and I think my time at Elder they treated us

[5:51]  like men young men not little boys they treated us like men expected us to behave and act like men um and I think just the the caring nature of our faculty and staff including the coaching staff uh really played a big part in my life at that time and uh I remember it was my Jun junior year when I was at Elder and I thought I want to be a math teacher not sure why I thought that way at that time yeah me but um but you know I I do think the the impact that our faculty and staff had on on um on me and what I was going through at that time in my life played a major role in in making that decision and wanting to get back to

[6:39]  the school it's really interesting to me how when you have a fundamental experience in education like I did at Detroit Catholic Center and like you did at Elder it changes the trajectory of your life you know I had a lot of friends who often went to public school went to different places and turned out not the best version of themselves right so how fundamental do you really think the impact of a good Catholic Education is on shaping you know the future individual who's going to be able to go out into society and do right by others and just be a good individual yeah and you know by no means am I and I'm sure you're not putting down public schools at all we have a lot of good public schools around here but you know just being in a

[7:27]  Catholic School we have the opportunity to talk about God to talk about Jesus um talk about our faith where you can't do that in a public school and um every year we start the school year off with all school Mass out in our Stadium we have a football stadium right here on campus it it was started to be built in the early 1940s by our faculty and staff it's a it's a huge concrete um horseshoe type of Stadium seats about 10,000 um so we open up school year with a mass outside in the stadium and I always when mass is over I always talk to the

[8:14]  student body and our faculty and staff and I remind them that this is why we're here we're here because of our faith because of our Catholic faith and we will always Elder will always be known for that um and we we have the opportunity to to join together and W with our faith and um and like I said do it together as a whole student body um and I I think that sets a tune for the school year uh and then you know every month we have at least one school Mass today we had um eukar Eucharistic adoration so half the student body gets to spent about 45 minutes in Silence with um Jesus's body

[9:04]  there every morning we have a a communion service for all the faculty and staff who want to attend it before school starts so all of those things um together just uh it it reinforces the Catholic faith what Jesus taught us what Jesus wants us to be and again you can't get that in the public school at that time you know during the school day so I I I don't know if that answers your question it does those the foundation right of faith and unity as a group transforms you you know when you feel like you're a part of something bigger this is something that I feel like we're battling in society in general I talked about in our previous conversation 2022 Surgeon General comes onto a national broadcast and says the biggest challenge

[9:52]  in our society today is not another viral pandemic but an epidemic of isolation and loneliness now when I think about setting the tone at the beginning of the year and bringing people together and saying this is why we are here a unifying experience of our faith allows for us to create that conscious and subconscious connection to the community that we're a part of and that Brotherhood that Sisterhood that Union of people allows for everybody to come together for a greater cause and I think we need a little bit more of that in society today that sense of community yeah I I think we need a lot more of that um you know just this morning um every other week we in it instead of having a communion service before Mass we have a priest that comes in and says a mass um so this morning I'm at the mass and we probably had about 20

[10:41]  students there and right about 15 20 staff members um but two of the our students aren't Catholic so you know they went up at the time of communion and and they gave the the cross like that um but I thought how cool they're not even Catholic and they're coming to mass before school not during school but before school started to uh join in with everybody else so um and again you know I this just allows us to spread the good news of of Jesus it's got to feels so good to be a part of such a transformational process for so many of these young individuals you know one of the things I talked about in our previous conversation was there was a distinct difference

[11:29]  in how we went in to my high school as freshmen and then came out as graduating seniors often our parents would say I don't know what they're doing in that school but something has changed inside you you look people in the eye you shake their hand you guys are the nicest gentlemen the nicest boys let's talk a little bit about the transformation I'm hoping that you can share a story about a mom who said what did you do to my son in this little experience of what you guys have done yeah so um well I I'll start with uh we when we had freshman orientation in the evening we have a Mass for the freshmen and their parents and then at the end of mass um I get up and I say a few words about the school welcome welcoming everybody to the school and then everybody gets an Archbishop um Elder

[12:18]  t-shirt so every freshman has to come up shake my hand to get the to get the shirt um so now we'll fast forward a little uh school started we're in our second week of school we have a meet the teacher program so the parents come in the evening they spend two hours here they go through their son schedule each class is a 10 15 minutes long um so when there's change of class when the parents were out and about moving around I always like to be out in the hallway and and just talking with people and uh I had a mom came up to me and and she said what did you do to my son and I thought she was curious well she was but I thought something happened and I said uh what what are you talking about and she said he likes school he's

[13:09]  coming home he's studying he's talking about what's going on in his classes he said what' you do to him I said nothing I did um but you know I when we have graduation parents always come up and say you know thank you for everything you did for him uh he's such a wonderful young young man now blah blah blah and I said we're just helping you as parents that's that's all we're doing um so to me I'm a firm believer of uh it all starts in the house you know how are these parents raising their kids and you know we're fortunate to have good families and it makes our jobs a lot easier uh dealing with young men who want to be here not that we don't have some idiots you every school does but um

[13:57]  you know they're growing up they're learning and making mistakes like we all did um but we're very fortunate to have good families I mean you just are an extension of those families you know sometimes we do have those knuckleheads right who come through the system but the transformation that they experience over the four years is absolutely amazing I want to talk a little bit about you know you being the principal of Elder High School what are what kind of things are we focusing on from a leadership perspective in building the culture who invests so much into the next generation of great leaders who are coming through the system you know I go back to my time when I was here and um I want our students to have a similar experience and I'm not going to say I want them to have a better experience um I want them to have a

[14:46]  similar and wonderful experience whatever that would be we have so much to offer here at Elder um you know for our for our kids to get involved with one of our big things that Elder is get involved we don't want you coming here at 7:50 in the morning and leaving at 2:30 get involved make this your second home so you make this your second home you treat it like your second home you take care of the property you take care of everything here we treat each other like family all that you know all that good stuff um so that's a that's a message that we preach from day one get involved get involved get involved and you know by the time they become Juniors and seniors it's interesting because we we'll get a number of them who will say

[15:34]  I want to try this now so to see a junior or senior uh go out for football when they never played before is pretty impressive um we we have what's called elder News Network it's uh the short name is enn so this is a student Le Club where they um they live stream all our sporting events anything else that we have going on so on a Friday night maybe this Friday we have a home game uh Keenan get on our website you can watch the live stream of our football game um but it is about 98 99% student run it's a it's an awesome broadcast but have you ever heard of um

[16:23]  of uh Bill Hammer with Fox News I have not Bill Hammer uh he's one of their top top guys um anyway he's an 83 Elder Grant oh no way he helped out a lot with developing this enn elder News Network so uh he's in contact with our students quite a bit um but this is a a little program where if you're not an athlete you're not into music you're not into drama this is just something else that our kids uh can get involved with so you know one of the things that I'm trying to do here at Elder is just try to uh provide as much as possible for our students get involved with so everyone can find their little niche and um

[17:11]  that's not just for our students it's for our faculty staff uh we want our families involved we keep our in lni involved so it's it's the whole Community there's a a character trait of curiosity here right and thinking about how many different ways we can get people involved into the overall programming and the thesis of this of the school right because when I went through school right it was very much if you were part of sports or if you were part of band or you were in the student section but now there are so many other opportunities for kids to get involved and contribute to the greater mission of Elder which I feel like is so beautiful yeah H definitely you know and I'll go back to the enn um on a given Friday night when we're broadcasting a football game we will have about 48 states where there's someone

[18:01]  watching it and about five countries this a global broadcast oh yeah yeah wow yeah it's it's it's crazy know when you have a parent who's in the military who is able you know if they're off and they're able to watch their son playing football wrestling playing B whatever it would be it it's really cool the only thing I don't like about that is uh you know if it's a chance for rain and we have a home game people will stay home or they'll go to the local establishment to watch the game because we have several establishments on the west side of Cincinnati that will actually show the games or footb games yeah what are what are some of the priorities I would say of Elder High School when it comes to I

[18:49]  would say forming the next generation of great leaders who come into our communities to do right by everybody what are some of the things you guys are focusing on from a principal perspective yeah I I would say probably the biggest thing would be community service Elders really well known for our community Ser service over the years um it's it's a joke in Cincinnati that um every other police officer in the city as an elder grad or a fireman um they're almost right but uh you know we really stress community service given back we have a class here for juniors and seniors where um they go out into the community during that class time and they do perform community service typically they're going to a local

[19:38]  public school like an elementary school and they'll help the teacher tutor the the kids uh they'll do that kind of stuff um it's just we do a lot of community service stuff you know in the winter we have a food toy drive all of our students are involved with it so that that would be the biggest trait I think is um just looking after one another and our neighbors it's a beautiful story you know this is one of the things that I want to talk a little bit more about on the podcast especially with guests like you is just the impact of community right we are when we give back to the people around us the impact that we have is multiplicative right we don't understand how just the small amount of effort and the time that we give back to the community creates a bigger sense of connection and especially when people

[20:26]  see you know a whole bunch of students showing up with that Elder High School across their chest they know that you guys are the institution who's encouraging these younger people to give back out get into the community and give back and I feel like we just don't see a lot of that especially you know across a lot of society today which is so sad yeah and you know with um Memorial Day coming up of we we have every year we have a memorial Mass on Memorial Day veterans day and um we in Viet Vietnam War Elder High School had the most grads who passed away from during the war than any other high school in the state of Ohio so we had 11 grads that that were killed in action in Vietnam um so since then we've had a mass every year we

[21:17]  invite uh community members who've lost a loved one in addition to the families of those those 11 grads um it it is such a beautiful Mass you can you can hear a pin drop the entire Mass so when you're talking you know we have 840 um young men in the building students and you can hear a pin drop for about an hour that tells you kind of gives you some idea um of how reverent this mass is but um in addition to that we have what's called a support the troops Club this is our students formed this out I'm in my ninth year as principal so probably about 12 years ago they formed this club so every year

[22:06]  during the holidays they we collect uh all kinds of stuff for our troops grants who are serving in in the military and then we send them a big box with all these supplies it could be toiletries letters uh cookies candy whatever it would be but you know that in itself um for our student students who are involved with that it it's it's crazy uh to see how how uh emotional they get so um it's it's really cool I'm wondering if there's a connection to the culture that you guys have built at Elder and the willingness to give back to the community when I think about 11 students right who passed away in Vietnam obviously the culture of

[22:55]  selflessness has been an undercurrent that you guys have been able to established in the community of the high school and I wonder how you guys execute on that so well you know what I mean because getting people to think bigger than themselves in today's world is a big challenge but it seems like you guys have that in ingrained into the culture of your guys's organization which is so phenomenal yeah and um I I I yeah I think we do but you know I I think a lot of Catholic schools high schools probably do as well so I don't think we're very unique in that sense but I do think that we excel in it I'll put it that way we excel in it um we we had a veteran teacher his name was Mark Clan he was single all his life he was in his I don't know say 45th year of teaching

[23:46]  at Elder he was an elder grad 61 Elder grad and uh he he did community service all the time every weekend with our with our students so he was performing community service on a given Saturday um right around where the school is in Price Hill and uh he was getting equipment out of the back of his truck and behind his truck was another park car uh they were on a hill this young girl was uh drunk and high drove down the hill lost control hit the truck pinned him between the truck and the car and he survived for about two weeks so we now hold um one Saturday in April we hold a mark kman Day of Service

[24:37]  so we invite all of our students our families alumni to join in we have several different locations around the city where we go it might be mulching cleaning up garbage whatever so you know doing just doing things like that um just I think reaffirms to the students how important it is to get back you know part of your guys's motto is To strive for higher things why is that part of your guys's motto and what does that mean to you guys as an institution yeah um so Alora is a Latin word that that means to strive for the higher things so that's been our school's motto for many many many years like I said we're in our third year um without doing some research I I can't

[25:26]  say for sure when that became our motto but it's been a long time um here's an interesting story so when I was a student here the summer before my senior year I along with a few other um few other wrestlers went up to a wrestling camp at Ohio State University which is about two hours north of where we are and when we were up there I saw this quote what I had I gave what I saved I lost and I thought wow I I really like that meaning so uh we got back from the camp and I talked to our head wrestling coach at the time ask him if I could paint it if we could paint it on the wall in the gym where we practice and held wrestling matches and he said

[26:13]  that's fine with me he said ask the athletic director so the athletic director time was Mike honold I went to Mr hanold asked him and uh he said yeah he said I'll buy the paint you guys paint it said okay so I gathered up about five wrestlers we got the extension ladders out masking tape and we painted that quote on the wall um and this is at the time was in our main gym so we pra this is our second gym we practiced wrestling in there everything else um but that quote what I had I gave what I saved I lost fully embodies our school motto Alora to strive for the higher things don't ever quit don't ever give up keep pressing forward and um you know so now three years ago we built

[27:02]  a fitness center and in the main lobby of the fitness center is that quote my wife was not happy because um we painted over the original quote in the gym uh she was not happy that that we decided to do that she always liked be able to say my husband painted that anyway um our kids weren't happy either but um that quote when you come on our campus everyone sees it so uh again that fully embodies that our school motto to strive for the higher things and we're constantly pushing our students to do that whether it's in the classroom um on the playing field in the hallways out in society it doesn't matter where um strive for the higher things I love that what I had I gave

[27:52]  what I saved I lost naturally when I heard that I came from a place of abundance you know often when we have opportunities to pour into others we should take that at every opportunity and sometimes when we save things and we don't give those things away it impacts others in a negative way you know what I mean that's an interesting little twist on the idea of abundance and how much we can give back to others especially when we have the opportunity to do so yeah and you know I I tell students all the time you can you can apply that to everything in your life everything academics um Sports relationships giving back everything so C with the with the current you know challenges that we face um across the landscape of Education right what are some of the things that you're most concerned about as you know

[28:39]  the principle of your guys's organization and the things that you guys are instilling in the next generation of leaders I know there's a lot of division there's a lot of isolation that's happening around us what are some of the things that you guys are focusing on that you guys really want to kind of get ahead of when it comes to leaving an imprint on this next Generation self-respect I think that's lacking in a lot of people is self-respect because if you don't respect yourself how are you going to respect others and U if you have self-respect it all goes back to our Catholic doesn't have to be a Catholic faith it it all goes back to your faith um you know you believe in God you believe in doing what's right what's just what's moral um then I think you're going to have self-respect and if you have

[29:28]  self-respect then you're going to respect other people and I think that's important to get to get across to these young people um you know with with what we're seeing with gun violence you know you turn on the news every day someone shot someone shot uh with gender identity all that kind of stuff that U again it goes to me it goes back to self-respect and believing in God believing in and doing what's right and what's just that it that also is a concern of mine that the more this stuff is pushed in society in the news the liberal news shouldn't have said that but um that it's okay no it's not okay it I

[30:19]  was born a male I'm a male so it's not okay for me to become a female that that's my personal opinion um but I am concerned that the more this Young Generation hears this stuff the more they're going to think it's acceptable and who knows what our society will be like in how many years so that's a big concern so um here here at Elder we're teaching self-respect I almost think about self-respect as a foundation that we can lean on in the tough times right we can always lean back into that self-respect for ourselves and that changes the way in which we interact or tolerate the behavior of others and it puts our opportunities to put ourselves on a pedestal to avoid some of the challenging decisions that often our

[31:07]  younger people get put into you know and I think it comes back to the element of a foundation of community you know it's very tough for one person's opinion to break through all the noise out there but when you have a community of unified individuals who believe in the same morals and values it's very easy to find yourself aligned with that in a part of a larger Community who can support you in some of those tough times and and I feel like you guys have done an amazing job of that man it's so cool to talk to leaders like you I agree Keenan and it goes back to what we're talking about earlier family you have that Family Foundation not that you're not going to have issues and struggles but uh you can deal with them without family without your faith how do you deal with that stuff let's talk a little bit about the vision for the future of Elder right you've been there in the origin story you've come back to contribute for now

[31:55]  nine years as a principal of the organization what is the next five years going to look like on the road map of Elder so you know as I said we're in our h3d year and um one of our quotes here is we have a great tradition Something to Believe In so you know I'm a firm believer of tradition but at the same time uh you know we have to make changes so I don't want to be the Principal forever someone you know soon will need to come in and um you know call it fresh blood offer new ideas that kind of stuff but um you know moving forward you I just want to make sure that um that we remain strong with our Catholic faith um with the community service everything that we talked about that I think that

[32:41]  Elder excels in that's what I want to see continue we we are forever surveying our uh students our parents prospective parents um about what um about what they want out of their the Elder experience so whether that's academics Athletics uh spiritual awareness social aspect um we're always looking for input you know and my feeling is um yeah you know I think we're a very good school but we can always improve always I can improve as a leader our teachers can improve students can improve so to me it's important that we keep an open mind and we want to keep improving and that all gives back to our

[33:28]  school motto Alora well Kurt I can say man I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that there are great leaders out there like you who are having such a huge impact on the next generation of individuals who are coming to serve our community you know striving uh to strive for higher things is a great way to say exactly what you guys are doing and leaving a mark on this next Generation man I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the podcast seriously it means absolutely the world to me yeah thank you for asking yeah you know one of the Traditions that we have here on the podcast is we have a question that our previous guest wants to ask you now this is a blind question they knew nothing about you nothing about your role or organization their question was if you had a magic wand and you could change one thing what would you change

[34:15]  with the wave of that wand I think that we all can get so that we all in our world can get along better that would be it I think that's a beautiful message for us to be able to end on here today Kurt once again come thank you for coming on the heart and hustle podcast you are the definition of heart and hustle guys we'll catch you in the next one right thank you