Where I'm Going: The Story of Jimmy Mahan & The Crossnore School

Written with Laine Isaacs

From the Archives: The Journey Summer 2015

Ever since he was a child spending his summers at camp on the coast of North Carolina, Jimmy Mahan has known exactly what he wants to do with his life. “I’ve always just wanted to teach and work with kids,” Jimmy says. “That desire is a God-given gift. It’s not like I practiced really hard at talking to kids, it’s just there, and I just have a responsibility to use it.” 

Jimmy, who is now a social media coordinator and mentor at Crossnore School, grew up in Kentucky as part of a driven, business-focused family. “My father was a successful banker, and he and my uncle collaborated to put the first bank on the internet,” Jimmy states. “They beat Wells Fargo to the patent by 48 hours.” 

Although his father had worked for years to increase his business, Jimmy knew that he wanted to pursue his passion rather than banking. “Everyone thought I was going into the family business, but I knew what I wanted to do,” Jimmy says. 

Jimmy went to Washington Lee University and studied history, with the goal of becoming a teacher. During his college years, he also lived in London and studied Shakespeare. “I wanted to drink up life, and I got to learn from these incredible people,” he says. “Having those great teachers further increased my desire to teach.” 

When Jimmy began looking for a job, he learned about a private school in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The headmaster of the school was also the mother of two of Jimmy’s friends from his time in summer camp. “I knew the moral and ethical background of these people, and I knew I wanted to be part of this institution,” Jimmy remembers. “I was hired to be the 9th grade English teacher. I loved it, I absolutely loved it.” 

During a school break, Jimmy went to his home state of Kentucky to visit with friends and family. He met with a friend who was the athletic director at the University of Kentucky, and he recommended that Jimmy apply for the position of academic counselor. “This was the team I had loved all my life, and now I had an opportunity to work with them,” Jimmy says. “It was unbelievable.” 

Jimmy moved to Kentucky, and worked for the University of Kentucky from 2000 to 2001. “I got to work for my hometown team, and it was very rewarding,” he says. 

But that position still wasn’t what Jimmy wanted to do. The school in Pinehurst asked Jimmy to return as the head basketball coach, and he decided to accept. “People thought I was crazy to leave Kentucky,” Jimmy laughs. “But my real gift is in a high school classroom.” 

When he returned to Pinehurst, Jimmy coached high school basketball and taught electives. He also gathered a group of students and took them to London, where he lived in college. 

The headmaster of the school was pleased with Jimmy’s work, and eventually asked him to become the school’s principal. At the age of 28, he became a high school principal, and at the urging of the school administrators, decided to pursue a Master’s degree. “I would be a principal all day, and then get in the car at night and go to Raleigh to take classes, then get home at midnight and get up the next morning to be principal all over again,” Jimmy says. 

Eventually, the school administrators asked Jimmy to consider taking over as headmaster. “I was burned out and exhausted,” he remembers. “I loved what I did, but I couldn’t handle any more.” 

Jimmy decided to go back to school and pursue a doctorate at North Carolina State University. Partway through his time there, his father contacted him about a new business venture. “My dad had the idea to start a bank that only lent to veterinarians,” Jimmy says. “These are people who need to pursue their careers, and have to have money to buy practices of their own. Every statistic shows that once a vet gets a clinic, they stay, and they don’t go out of business.” 

At age 30, Jimmy stopped studying for his doctorate and began working with his father, another employee, and a golden retriever out of an office garage. They applied to the FDIC to start a bank, and began traveling all over the country to publicize the idea of lending to people in every state. “We hired the right people, and the bank was a success,” he reflects. “Then it was 2008, and the recession hit.” 

Ironically, the recession did nothing but help the Mahans’s business. Because larger banks became more conservative and granted fewer loans, the Mahans were approached for loans more frequently. Also, because of all their business contacts from previous ventures, they had all the right people in place and were able to grow their business astronomically in spite of the recession. “We now have several loans in every state in the country,” Jimmy reports. “And now we serve other types of business professionals, like dentists and independent pharmacists.” 

The business, now known as Live Oak Bank, was eventually rated the best bank to work for in the United States. 

“I taught myself marketing and web development,” Jimmy says. “Then we had the idea to start to talk to veterinarians while they’re still in school. Folks in that position would be ready to start their own practices soon, and looking for help with that.” 

For the next six years, Jimmy visited all 28 veterinarian schools in the United States and spoke with students to promote the bank, as well as teaching them to use the internet to promote their own businesses. Additionally, he was invited to speak in Dublin, Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland at their veterinary schools. It was during these six years that Jimmy met and married his wife. 

In 2012, Jimmy began experiencing pain in his hip. He traveled to Duke University, where they told him his labrum was torn. After undergoing a surgery to fix the issue, he learned that the labrum in the other hip was torn as well. It was also fixed by surgery. Eventually, Jimmy went to the Mayo Clinic, where he was told that he could keep undergoing surgeries to the area, or have hip replacements. So, in his early 30s, Jimmy had hip replacement surgery and was housebound as he healed. 

“I was living at home in a hospital bed, I couldn’t travel anymore, it was brutal,” Jimmy says. “Then, not long after I got back to work, I blew out my right shoulder and had to have surgery on it. Then, in mid 2013, I tore it again and had to have my seventh surgery overall.” 

As he recovered, Jimmy became depressed. “I was down,” he says. “I couldn’t work, I couldn’t be very social, I didn’t sleep well, and I was on loads of awful medications.” 

To lift his spirits, Jimmy’s parents suggested they travel to the mountains of North Carolina, where they owned a house. “We came up here in the fall, and it was beautiful,” he smiles. 

While in the mountains, friends of Jimmy’s parents mentioned Crossnore School to him. Jimmy was unfamiliar with it, but learned that it was school for children who have been rescued from families in crisis. Because of his history as a teacher and his love for children and teens, Jimmy felt compelled to visit the school. 

“As soon as we left the school grounds, I thought to myself, ‘I don’t think I’m supposed to go home,’” Jimmy says. “I considered applying to work there, and then it hit me like an anvil. Life is short. Do what you love, and do what you want to do.” 

Jimmy consulted with his wife, and they both applied for employment at the Crossnore School that week. “I was so anxious to hear back, I couldn’t sleep,” he laughs. Eventually, he and his wife received word that they would be house parents in Gilchrist Cottage at the Crossnore School. Jimmy worked out an arrangement with Live Oak Bank, and began employment at Crossnore immediately. For the first five months, he and his wife commuted from their home in Wilmington until they found a house in Avery County. 

“I went from being bedridden and feeling down to working here, and it was just healing,” Jimmy says. “I feel like there is some common ground between me and the kids here, because I was healing, and they were recovering from their experiences as well.” 

Transitioning from working in the corporate world to working at a school was a transition for Jimmy, but he says he couldn’t be happier. “I just had to turn to God and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” he admits. “I realized that it doesn’t matter who I know or how educated I am, I just became aware that I can’t do this on my own, and I want to move forward and become what God wants me to be. And I feel like a big piece of that has to do with being here at Crossnore.” 

While he loved being a house parent, Jimmy began to wonder who was doing the social media development for the Crossnore School. “I had all this marketing stuff in my head, so now let me help with social media, marketing, and creating ads for the school,” Jimmy says. 

It’s easy to tell that Jimmy is in his element at the Crossnore School. “There are only two constants in this life,” Jimmy says, “And those two things are God and the human heart. All day, every day, I get to deal with those two things.” 

One of the most satisfying experiences for Jimmy has been seeing how God has used his past connections in banking and marketing to bless the students at Crossnore. “I took my students to Kentucky for a ball game, where I used to work, and they loved it,” Jimmy continues. “They had never been in such amazing buildings! In fact, all the connections I have from all the time I spent traveling are contacting me and asking me to bring my kids to where they are.” 

For example, one of Jimmy’s former students from the school in Pinehurst now works for the USGA. “He told me to bring my kids to the US Open,” Jimmy says. “That’s unbelievable.” 

Jimmy feels blessed that his background is being used to help the children at Crossnore. “They get to experience new things in life that may influence their futures and help them with career decisions,” he says. “They all have this attitude that says, ‘It’s not about what happened to me or what I’ve been through, it’s about where I’m going.’” Jimmy smiles as he says, “Well, I’ve got some places to go!”