Mary Jarvis became principal of Aurora's Smoky Hill High School, Colorado's second largest high school, in 1989; the telephone call that came in early August of that year to inform her of her new position is one of her sweetest recollections. Dr. Jarvis's mission, as she sees it, is to continue the legacy of thoughtfulness, generosity, and rigor shown her by the public school teachers who directed her own educational and personal evolution. School, to her, was home and family, and she believes that "schools continue to be parents to many students who are disenfranchised and alone, support systems to the successful, and safe houses to those students who have nowhere else to go. In education," she says, "we should be in the business of creating winners." In 1991 Smoky Hill High School received two signal honors - a School of Excellence Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, and acceptance as an International Baccalaureate high school.
1969 Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, B.A.
