THE UNCERTAIN future stretched before James Citty like the blank pages of a new journal. His career as a youth pastor, which he believed was his calling, was now a chapter in his life — not the story. With the first home they ever purchased in their rearview mirror, the young family of four moved to North Carolina when Citty accepted a position teaching an elective course in Bible history in the county of his childhood. He accepted the job, assuming it would be a brief detour before returning to his former work.
“What I quickly realized was that teaching was everything I loved about being a youth pastor. I got to work with young people every day, and I felt a sense of fulfillment getting to support them,” Citty reflected.
A promotion at Liberty University for his wife, Samantha, prompted the family’s return to Lynchburg and enabled Citty to build on the momentum he found teaching in North Carolina. He settled into a challenging routine, balancing full-time positions as a father, husband, student, and employee.
“She did all the cooking, was the primary caregiver for our two day care-aged kids, helped volunteer with nonprofits, and worked a full-time job,” he said. “Since completing my master’s degree, I now cook every meal. I don’t know if I can overstate how much she sacrificed commuting to work before we moved to Lynchburg or the sacrifices caring for the kids.”
His college work shaped his understanding of the weight of assignments on his future students.
He said, “You understand more of what it’s like for them as they take multiple classes and get assigned hours of homework. It made me rethink how much work I assign outside of school because I want to help students understand the importance of boundaries and developing a life beyond just school or work.”
Upon obtaining his Master of Arts in teaching from Liberty University in December 2019, a new chapter opened in his life with a position at Heritage High School. Today, scribbled comments from his students fill the former blank pages of his future, a touchstone of inspiration and motivation passed along by Citty’s student teaching supervisor through her thoughtful gift on his final day of placement. It inspires him still today — the journal with a unique challenge attached. She encouraged him to have students sign it every year.
“I’ve had kids sign my journal every year since, and it’s such an encouraging reminder when I’m having a difficult day,” he said.
But Citty’s not just a psychology and history teacher. He’s also known as the “Voice of Heritage.”
“I legitimately laugh a little when people say things like the ‘Voice of Heritage’ or the ‘Voice of the Pioneers.’ I never would’ve applied for a job announcing had it not been for my co-workers. Friends and fellow teachers asked me about it and encouraged me to apply, so I did. Apparently, no one else applied for it, and they hired me,” he laughed.
Laughing is a big part of the voice heard at football, basketball, and baseball games.
“My whole motivation going in was that I wanted to have fun,” he said, adding that making Mr. Camm, the ball spotter, and players laugh along with him fuels his broadcasting banter. The crowd fun includes singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during his self-proclaimed fifth inning stretch and dad jokes told by his daughter, Lizzy.
And that same voice resonates in the classroom, both literally and figuratively.
“I like getting people excited and making the atmosphere more fun,” Citty explained. “In the classroom, I tend to have athletes who I already have a natural connection with. I announce their games and get to know them a little bit — to where it gives you a unique relationship as their teacher. It also translates into how I teach. I’m just naturally loud. I don’t yell or raise my voice. I honestly just project really well from years of coaching and growing up in a family where we all talked over one another, so you had to tell good stories and be loud, or else you were getting cut off.”
Heritage High School’s principal, Tim Beatty, agreed, “Without question, Mr. Citty is one of the most enthusiastic and energetic teachers in our building. His energy and presence in the classroom keeps his students alert and engaged throughout the class period. He has a good rapport with his students and uses a variety of instructional strategies and assignments to connect with his students.”
Citty, who also coaches golf and chairs the school’s National Honor Society chapter, does it all because he cares about students and wants to help give them the best. He hopes to leave a lasting, positive impact on his students.
“In the ‘Star Wars’ movie, ‘The Last Jedi,’ Yoda makes this comment that I love and that applies so much to teachers. ‘We are what they grow beyond.’ Students will go beyond and above us as educators in every way imaginable. To know that you made any type of a difference in a young person’s life is a legacy because, hopefully, they’ll carry on that impact by affecting others, and it is just exponential. The idea that our legacy moves through them and beyond is what I hope they remember me as for teaching.”
These are the hopes and dreams written upon the pages of the journal of Citty’s life, still being written with every game called, every assignment given, and every student supported through his choice to follow his calling. GN
