Jay Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University in 1995 and a Master of Arts in Education from Pacific Lutheran University in 1999. Jackson served as the assistant wrestling coach at Stanford University for seven years, helping the team to a top-20 finish in the NCAA and the program’s first individual NCAA champion. After his college coaching career, Jackson started working in the Fremont Unified School District in 2005 as a social studies teacher at American and then Irvington High School. After teaching for several years at Irvington, Jackson was promoted to Assistant Principal, a position he held for four years.
During that time, Jackson forged a relationship with Spartan Race, an obstacle course racing company, and wrote a mental training curriculum for them called Spartan Edge. In order to test, teach, promote, and use the curriculum, Jackson returned to the classroom in 2016 to work as a World History and Sports Psychology teacher. The Spartan Edge curriculum is currently being used in many schools, gyms, and after school programs across the country with elementary students through adults to allow individuals to come up with their personal ideas of Spartan mental philosophies like grit, resilience, honor, and getting out of one’s comfort zone. The goal of the curriculum is to encourage people to become better versions of themselves; the best possible version, of course, is a hero.
