Marksmen Building Marksmen

Character and Leadership education sits at the center of life at St. Mark’s, and some of its most lasting lessons happen not in a classroom but in the relationships between students. Younger Marksmen learn what it means to be a good man by watching the older boys around them, and in time, they become the example themselves. Through the Senior Buddies program, members of the senior class are paired each year with Marksmen in grades 1–3. Over the course of the year, buddies spend time together at School traditions and in everyday moments, and for many, the relationships continue well beyond graduation. For the younger boys, a Senior Buddy offers someone to look up to. For the seniors, mentoring a younger boy offers something just as valuable: the chance to practice the care and responsibility that define men of character.

For Ian Lockard ’27, becoming a Senior Buddy is an opportunity to help a younger Marksman get the most out of his St. Mark’s experience, just as older boys have done for him. “I’ve been very lucky to have had many great role models at St. Mark’s, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to be a role model for someone else,” Lockard said. It is a responsibility he has anticipated for years, including at one of the program’s most visible traditions. “The part of the Senior Buddy experience I am most looking forward to is definitely the All-School Christmas Party,” he said. “I’ve spent the last six years at St. Mark’s watching seniors lift their little buddies on their shoulders and carry them in front of the entire School, and I can’t believe that it will finally be my turn to lift up a younger Marksman.”

Sherry George, Mathematics Instructor and Class of ’27 Co-Sponsor, sees the first meeting as a turning point for seniors. “Once they begin building that buddy bond, our seniors quickly realize, sometimes even in the first meeting, just how much their younger buddies look up to them and how meaningful their time, attention, and friendship can be,” she said. What begins as a School tradition becomes an opportunity for seniors to put into practice what they have learned by caring for, encouraging, and befriending a younger Marksman. It is one of many ways St. Mark’s teaches reciprocal care, asking older boys to take responsibility for younger ones, a pattern that runs through the life of the School, from the classroom and the laboratory to the stage and the playing field. 

That progression, from looking up to older boys to eventually becoming one of them, is something Blaize Schumacher ’27 understands firsthand. As a first grader, Schumacher was paired with Kent Broom ’16, and some of his strongest memories are also the simplest. “I remember the little things, like playing basketball before school with my buddy,” Schumacher said. More than a decade later, the two remain close, with Schumacher and his family even attending Broom’s wedding. “I think we just had a ton of fun together and genuinely enjoyed spending time with each other,” Broom said. “I immediately hit it off with Blaize and his family, and the relationship has continued to grow over the years because we’ve both made an effort to stay in touch.” Those mornings before school meant as much to Broom as they did to his buddy. “It was a break from everything else going on and something I looked forward to because it was just fun to spend time with Blaize,” he said.

Now, Schumacher finds himself on the other side of that relationship. “I’m looking forward to having a little buddy to hang out with and make an impact on,” he said. He also recognizes the responsibility that comes with having a younger Marksman looking up to him. “I am going to try my best to always set a good example and work hard, so that my buddy knows working hard is the ‘cool thing to do.’” It is a responsibility Broom remembers well. Looking back, he admits that as a senior he was still navigating friendships, college decisions, and questions about his own future, even though his little buddy saw someone who seemed to have everything figured out. “That’s what makes being a Senior Buddy such a unique opportunity,” Broom said. “You have the chance to be a role model and someone that your little buddy genuinely looks up to.”

The moments themselves may seem small: a game of basketball before school or a ride on a senior’s shoulders at the All-School Christmas Party. Yet they reflect the heart of the School’s mission and a culture of reciprocal care. Each senior who once looked up to an older Marksman now has the opportunity to set that example for someone else, and each younger boy is learning, by watching, how to care for others and to lead. Carried forward from one generation to the next, this is how Marksmen build Marksmen.