Bond of Brothers®
The official podcast of San Antonio Academy.
Bond of Brothers®
Alumni Monday Edition: George Spencer - Class of 1996
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Welcome to the first episode of the Bond of Brothers Podcast: Alumni Monday Edition! In this series, students in the Alumni Interview Project elective sit down with San Antonio Academy alumni to hear their stories and experiences.
In this episode, George Spencer, Class of 1996, joins the podcast for a conversation with current 7th graders George M. and Cooper U. as they learn more about his time at SAA and life beyond the Academy.
Welcome to San Antonio Academy's Bond of Brothers podcast, Alumni Monday edition, where current students in the alumni interview project elective interview and alumnus from the academy.
SPEAKER_01Good morning, gentlemen. Our guest today, George Spencer, is from the class of 1996. After the academy, he went to St. Mary's Hall for high school. Mr. Spencer then went to Princeton University as an undergrad, then to Columbia University, where he earned his master's degree in journalism. He also received an NBA from MBA Drexel University. Mr. Spencer is now a principal at TOTA Strategies, which is a boutique public relations and marketing agency he founded last year to work with the mission-driven finance and impact investing sector. Prior to this, he was a broadcast journalist for 15 years and won six Emmy Awards during his career. He says that he feels lucky to have had a career that really mattered to him. We are excited to have George Spencer here today to talk with us about finding our passions in life. Welcome, George Spencer.
SPEAKER_00Thank you guys very much. I'm glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01Hello, Mr. Spencer. How is your morning so far?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's good. Cooper and George. I like I like having an interview with somebody named George. So I feel comfortable up here. I'm really glad to be here. I've been looking forward to this interview with you guys for quite a while. And um, whenever I come back to the academy, I love it because I had really good memories here, and it's especially cool for me right now because uh my nephew is uh in third grade, Franklin Summers. And so it's good to be back here on campus at a place that I love uh when I have a nephew and some family around as well.
SPEAKER_02Has any memories come back to you since you've stepped onto this campus?
SPEAKER_00Memories, I I have memories, honestly, guys, in every building on this campus. I could tell you guys stories. I started at the academy when I was in kindergarten, and I started in the little house that's back by the playground along Maine, and then I had second grade in the carriage house. Do you guys know the carriage house, some of you? And I have a story. I think some people here know Mr. Velt. We called him Coach Velt. He's back over there in the corner. So if you guys know Mr. Velt, one of my dominant memories in second grade, we were in the second floor of the carriage house. And if you think about the outside, it had it has that slider, that ramp that goes up to the second floor. I think it's still there. One day, Coach Velt came walking up the outside ramp and ducked into the window of our of our classroom upstairs, and my second grade teacher, Mrs. Winter, almost had a heart attack. She thought it was a ghost. And so uh Coach Velt scared us. But I could tell you guys, I have memories in every single building here. Taylor Hall and Ellison Hall. When I was here, this uh room that we're in right now was brand new.
SPEAKER_01You said before this interview that you want to talk about finding your passion for journalism. How did you find your passion?
SPEAKER_00That's a really good question. I um the first thing I should say is I should talk to you about what what I mean by passion. Uh for me, my my journalism passion was um in broadcast journalism. So I worked as a TV news reporter for about 15 years. I worked in in New York City and in Philadelphia and in Florida. And I got to cover big stories like presidential campaigns and uh interview governors and senators, and I also covered uh other big stories that weren't necessarily good, like stories about violence and and other things that unfortunately happen in our community. But for me, what I'm talking about when I'm talking about finding your passion, I'm talking about the thing that you're most interested in, something that you're more interested in really than anybody else. Maybe you know more about it than anybody else does, maybe you care more about it. For some of you, it might be sports. Maybe you love soccer and you want to pursue something soccer-related in your career. Or maybe you love Legos, and that's uh leading you to a passion for um building things and creating things, and you end up in a career that's about architecture or engineering. But the idea of finding your passion, which is something that the academy can help you with, is paying attention to what you're really good at and what you really care about.
SPEAKER_02How did the academy help you find your passion?
SPEAKER_00Well, a couple of the people are in this room, so some of you guys know Mr. Moore. Where is he? He took I talked to him a second ago. He's right up there. So if you can believe it, Mr. Moore was my teacher in seventh and eighth grade for literature and English. And I was here a long time ago. So Mr. Moore's been here a really long time, right? Um, I know he's getting old, everybody. But you know, what becoming a journalist, a big part of the skills for being a journalist is knowing how to write clearly and communicate effectively. And I think a lot of that started with Mr. Moore. And some of you guys probably also know Mr. Bradley, the history teacher who was here for a long time. At least, probably some of the eighth, seventh, and eighth graders remember him. Uh, Mr. Bradley also helped me understand history and the way that that connects with journalism.
SPEAKER_01You said to us to that you wanted to talk about gratitude. What does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00I think this is really important for academy boys because you know, my grandmother was the one, she was the most influential person in my life. If if some of you guys have grandmothers that you really love, um, my grandmother taught me about being grateful for the things that we have, right? And if you're an academy boy, part of your motto is about being kind. And in my opinion, we really can't be kind to other people if we're not grateful for what we have, because we're always going to be in a mindset of, oh, give me this or give me that or give me what he has or give me what they have. We're always gonna want more. But when we're in an attitude of gratitude and when we're thankful for the things that we have, it allows us to be kind to other people because we're not trying to go after what they have. We're being uh we're already grateful for what we do have, and we can treat other people with kindness and respect.
SPEAKER_02When was a time when you saw gratitude at the academy?
SPEAKER_00I think my gratitude at the academy was in all our great traditions here. You know, I mean, there's some things that we get to do as academy students that occur year after year after year. Think about like our parades and our field day and the way we have lunch together every day in the middle of the day. One of my best memories at the academy was being um in eighth grade, and I got to sit at the same lunch table as my little brother, who's also an academy alum.
SPEAKER_01What do you think was like your favorite tradition, like Battle of Flowers or You nailed it, Cooper.
SPEAKER_00So I have, and my mom probably has photos of me, right? So when I was, I think in seventh or eighth grade, Battle of Flowers downtown. I'm telling you guys, I think it was the hottest Battle of Flowers parade ever in San Antonio history, right? And we were in our dress blues, but to be there right in front of the Alamo representing the academy, I thought I was like big leagues. I thought it was a really big deal, and it's definitely one of my most special memories.
SPEAKER_02You won six Emmy Awards. Is that part of your career that you're most proud of?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the Emmy Awards were from my journalism career when I was working as a TV news reporter, and um I'm proud of them because of what they represent, which was uh Emmy Awards are voted on by your colleagues, by other people who are peers in the industry. And the Emmy Awards mean that they thought the stories that I created and the journalism that I produced uh was high quality and they thought it was important. So I'm grateful for uh the reflection of confidence that those um peers gave me with those awards.
SPEAKER_01Is there anything else you wanted to tell us before you leave today?
SPEAKER_00Well, Mr. Quick already stole my thunder, but I was just thinking about the fact that you're uh just everybody's coming back from spring break today, and uh and it's it's freezing cold outside, but you're starting the last quarter of the year, and I just really hope you guys finish the year very strong and and um don't let your foot off the gas as you as you head towards graduation.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, George, for talking to us today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you guys for having me. I'm glad to be here. One more big round of applause for Cooper, George, and George. Yes, Mr. Spencer.
SPEAKER_02Very well done. Thank you for joining us for this edition of the San Antonio Academy's Bond Brother podcast.