MOUNT VERNON – For the last two years, Darin Prince made the 25-minute commute to work every day, driving from his Mount Vernon home to Sunbury, where he served as the assistant principal and athletic director at Big Walnut Middle School.
He lived in Mount Vernon, but he didn’t work here. That will change this fall when he takes over as the new principal at Mount Vernon Middle School.
“I’m extremely excited for this position,” Prince said, less than two weeks after the school board announced his hiring at its June meeting. “When the Mount Vernon position came open, I lived there in Mount Vernon, and, you know, it just felt like the right fit.
“I feel that’s really important, as an educational leader, to live in the community that you’re a part of.”
Prince is nearly swapping places with former Mount Vernon Middle School principal Gary Hankins, who is leaving the district at the end of June to take over as principal at Big Walnut Intermediate School.
While Prince is a Cincinnati native, his wife and her family have deep Mount Vernon ties. Her parents both attended Mount Vernon Nazarene University, her father taught at Knox County Career Center and her mother and sister taught in Mount Vernon City Schools.
When Prince and his wife were engaged, the conversation came up – where would they settle down?
It didn’t take long to find the answer.
“She said to me, ‘Hey, so, I’m not moving from Mount Vernon. This is where I want to be,’” Prince recalled. “And so I said, ‘Well, that means I’m moving to Mount Vernon.’”
After moving to Knox County, Prince taught at Utica, Big Walnut and Central Ohio Technical College before returning to Big Walnut as the assistant principal.
He received his degree in Middle Childhood Education, Math & Science from Miami University in 2008.
For the last 14 years, though, Prince has also been an active member of the Ohio Army National Guard.
The September 11 terrorist attacks happened during his senior year at Kings High School, and after a year of school at the University of Cincinnati, he felt compelled to leave and serve his country.
“It was one of those things where I just felt the calling. You know, if good men – my good friends – were going overseas, then I feel like I’d be doing disservice by not doing the same thing,” Prince said. “So I went ahead and put my name on the dotted line and no more than a month and a half later, I was going through basic training.”
Prince served as an infantryman for five years, being deployed to Afghanistan and assisting with Hurricane Katrina aid during that time. He then chose to go into the ‘Green to Gold’ program and became a lieutenant.
Eventually, Prince worked his way up to becoming commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 134th Field Artillery Regiment (out of Delaware, OH) as a captain. He has held that position for the last two and a half years.
Prince, now 33, said that his military experience changed his life. It was there where he realized his passion for leadership.
“Heading up to that point, I felt that leadership was more about your economic standing and more about who you knew and who you were friends with,” Prince said. “It wasn’t until I was put into a position where nobody really knows each other and it’s more than just personal skills and abilities that stand out. It was at that time, going through that, when I was like, ‘You know what, people are following me and I’m not really sure why, but they seem to be gravitating towards me.’”
In addition, Prince said he’s learned he has a passion for leading adults. His rationale is simple:
“For me, it’s all about leading adults who are going to lead kids,” Prince said. “And I really feel like I can make a greater impact on more kids in a positive way by going the administrative route.”
Superintendent Bill Seder said that he is impressed by Prince’s military background, as it makes him “unique” as a leader.
“He leads over 150 young men, serving our country in another way,” Seder said. “So we’re excited to see his leadership, not only continuing in that way, but at Mount Vernon Middle School as the building’s principal.”
While the school board did not name the middle school’s next assistant principal during its last meeting, Prince said Tuesday that the district was likely very close to making a decision.
