Tradition, Unity, Diversity, Excellence: Mark Larson on Lincoln High

Episode Summary

Mark Larson, principal of Lincoln High School, joins Randy and Marilyn to talk about the school in the heart of the city — its diversity, its International Baccalaureate program, the community partners who help carry the load, and the story behind the Links. He also retraces his own path to Lincoln High and reflects on relationships, graduation, and what it means for a public school to be a place for everyone.

About Mark Larson

Mark Larson is the principal of Lincoln High School, where he is finishing his eleventh year leading the building and his twenty-first year at the school overall. He came to Lincoln from Holdrege, Nebraska, to attend Nebraska Wesleyan University, and first found his way to Lincoln High as a nineteen-year-old volunteer basketball coach under Russ Uhing. He taught English, coached, and served as an assistant principal before following longtime principal Dr. Mike Wortman into the role.

About the Conversation

Lincoln High sits in the center of Lincoln, and that location shapes everything about it. Students come from more than fifty countries and speak more than thirty first languages. The school runs the district's largest English language learners program, serving close to four hundred students. It is also one of three International Baccalaureate World Schools in Nebraska, a rigorous program that draws students from across the city and asks them to see their learning in a global context. As Mark puts it, the curriculum may look familiar, but the context in which a student learns it — sitting beside a classmate from another part of the world — makes the experience richer.

Much of the conversation returns to relationships. Mark talks about the videos he records with students in the hallways, the connections he keeps across more than two decades in the building, and his belief that learning happens best when students feel seen, heard, and valued. He and the hosts also sit with the particular emotion of the moment — the conversation was recorded on a Saturday between the last day of school and the next day's graduation — and the way the end of a year invites reflection from students and staff alike.

Marilyn frames Lincoln High as a kind of distillation of public education itself: a school open to every student of high school age, with whatever they bring through the door. Mark agrees, and adds a note of stewardship. The work of a public school has grown well beyond the classroom, he says, and the community has to make sure its resources and support keep pace with what it expects schools to do. He points to the partners who help — TeamMates, the Clyde Malone Community Center, the Bay, the Lighthouse, and the Food Bank of Lincoln, which holds a food market at the school on the last Wednesday of every month, open to anyone who comes.

The Mug

Mark brought a TeamMates mug, a gift from the mentoring program. There is a practical reason for the choice — the lid keeps his coffee hot enough that he is not tempted to chug it through a long day — but the deeper reason is what the mug stands for. Lincoln High hosts more than a hundred TeamMates matches, a meaningful share of the city's total, and the mug serves as a daily reminder of the partners who help the school do its work. It is, he says, a good conversation starter and a good reminder both.