Everyone knows Mr. Cosgrove. To know him is to love him. If you don’t, honestly, you have been missing out on a key aspect of the Academic Magnet High School experience. If you do know him, you have DEFINITELY heard through the grapevine his plans to become a resident of Ireland this fall, using his dual citizenship status through his parents rearing; both were born and raised in Connacht, the western province of Ireland, where he is moving to.
Each of Mr. Cosgrove’s six years on the Bonds Wilson campus have been filled with “myriad non-stop duties, the majority of which I have enjoyed. My days have been full of great memories, despite challenges, days full of joy shared with students, toward student wellness, towards building and strengthening a sense of community,” he said. As Magnet’s Student Concern Specialist, a student support role utilized by many high schools in CCSD with a slightly tailored focus depending on the respective school, Mr. Cosgrove is trained in crisis prevention (called CPI) and de-escalation, both here in South Carolina and in NYC.
“Helping support and promote a peaceful, positive school environment for our students where you can learn, grow and challenge yourself has been my overarching target for the Principal’s I have served on the Bonds Wilson campus,” he said in his office, nestled in the area formerly called the junior lounge (soon to be a Maker’s Space). I’ve enjoyed helping encourage timid, oft-awkward freshmen to try something new and give a sport or club a try as y’all find your tribes. Knowing that I am approachable, people have come up to me since I was in high school asking me to help them, I have enjoyed re-directing students to speak to their teacher directly – though it can be difficult to muster the courage – about what they deem an unfair grade or how to ask for help; helping transfer students find their tribe even when the rest of the campus seems to have their friend groups sewn up comes naturally; or walking with a teary-eyed student to sit down with their counselor and open up to what is troubling them…I’ve loved each day working with our Raptors, our future leaders. Like everyone in this building, I have my faults, but my strengths lie in the focus of this role which is to listen first and empathize with real struggles while still holding students accountable for their actions when excuses mount.”
We had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Cosgrove and ask him questions about his plans for the future, his memories of his time at Magnet, and his advice for students as he spreads his wings and flies from the Raptor nest.
The Monmouth University grad (B.A. in Communications: Journalism & Broadcasting major), Mr. Cosgrove served as a Staff Reporter for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey (5 years), Communications Director at Oak Knoll School (2 years) and Director of Student Media Operations at NYU (5 years) before moving to the Palmetto State in the winter of 2016/2017 as Director of Events and Scheduling with Bernie 2016. He worked for Senator Sanders’ initial presidential campaign based out of downtown Charleston, where Mr. C was introduced to our school district while stopping by Burke High School to thank Burke leadership for hosting the Senator for a campaign event. Later that winter, now Lucy Beckham Principal Anna Dassing recruited Mr. Cosgrove to serve as a Literacy Interventionist at Burke. The rest is history.
Mr. Cosgrove is CPR/First Responder trained, and has been tasked with mediating student conflict here at AMHS while advocating on our behalf, taking appropriate action to resolve conflicts between students, helping manage activities for students. He hasn’t just manned the ID machine in the morning, but indeed he’s the first and last person many of us see at AMHS in the morning at 8 AM, directing the campus’ car riders off-campus at 3:30 pm.
“It’s literally in my job description to be ‘highly visible to students and staff, taking appropriate action, reporting student behavior to the Principal and AP’s,” said Mr. Cosgrove, who also covers classes for absent teachers, coordinates campus safety and security checks, handles seat-time monitoring, test make-up duties and generally has served as a mentor to students.
Mr. Cosgrove has helped students follow the district’s PDP (Progressive Discipline Plan), has been the district’s designated sexual harassment reporter (male) for AMHS, and yes, he does the mail. “When you work in a school, duties are as assigned, as needed.
Mr. Coz – or Coach Coz as he his know by his lacrosse team members –
Coach Cosgrove began coaching the boys lacrosse team two years ago, and alongside Steve Shipe, added to the program last winter, the coaches have helped grow the program to a record size where the Raptors are on the verge of fielding a JV roster for the first time in school history.
The joy, positivity and mentorship I have tried to bring each day in my role supporting you guys, our amazing kids, has been returned to me since I let the campus know I would be moving to the Emerald Isle.”
As he reflected on his favorite Magnet memories he said that Battle of the Bands and Spirit Week have always been a blast. He said, “hearing our students jam in the quad and express their creativity is so much fun every year. It’s a way to let the hair down, showcasing their often unseen musical talent, just as they do at each year’s talent show” With regards to the Magnet staple Spirit Week, he said a defining tradition of magnet is its “Class warfare” spirit week activities, personified with the grade vs. grade powder puff football games. He vividly recalled last year’s seniors getting beat off the field by the freshmen (now sophomores), with Coach Harrison Crites constantly tormenting him from the sidelines begging for more favorable calls. Koll and Cosgrove ref’d the game.
While he wouldn’t tell us his favorite wall he’s seen so far, we know it’s going to be the class of 2025’s upcoming wall. Parking spot painting was another highlight for Mr. Cosgrove, offering “another area of creativity, a different version of student voice, which I think is so important in helping put forth your identity…or whatever paint and design ability you have!”
Overall Cosgrove feels like one of the best parts of his job is connecting with students and their families. “I have loved having candid talks with parents and families, when prospective families would leave an auditorium on a tour and I’d show them the door, as I do with our kids each day, I’d ask them to level with me and tell me what they think. I honestly can’t tell you how many parents I’ve spoken to who said I helped nudge their family to become Raptors, trusting in our amazing teachers ability to lead their education during these important years of growth, of pre-flight, and getting phone messages, emails from parents, grandparents thanking me for nudging their kid to give Magnet a try, because as my colleagues and our alumni know, these walls prepare you for college and we do our best, for the real world.
When we followed up asking Mr. Cosgrove what exactly the worst part of his job was, he thought for a second and then decisively said, “Telling students that lunch is over.” After we laughed about this for a second he explained how he believes AMHS needs longer lunch periods. Shouldn’t all of us have 45 minutes of lunch time, at minimum? It’s the European in me coming out,” he said. What an activist!
When asked what he’s most looking forward to about his upcoming move to Ireland he excitedly said, “Everything!” He followed up by talking about his favorite Irish activity, Hurling. We personally were not very familiar with this sport but you do you Mr Cosgrove! He explained that it is “The Baseball of Ireland” and that “Most towns and villages will have a hurling club.” He has already joined a club nearby in Galway and is excited to get on the field. He plans on continuing what he did at Magnet in Ireland, a little bit of everything. Mr. Cosgrove plans on getting his master’s degree, probably at the University of Galway, while also working there to continue his professional development in the area of student services.
Another one of his many plans is to open up a “sober space” in Ireland, a country “however stereotypically known” for its alcohol consumption. He talked about wanting to open a place where people could go and have fun without feeling pressure to drink, he says. “ People feel pigeonholed into drinking because they feel like there aren’t any places to have fun without it, but a lot of athletes, runners I know and even college students (in Ireland the drinking age is 18) want to be able to have a place to go and have a good time without feeling like they have to drink to fit in. Mr. Cosgrove wants to fill that void by creating a fun space with ping pong, video games, foosball, mocktails, live music, a flight simulator (thanks Aviation Club for that idea!) and darts. He has the name of it picked out, in honor of his closest in age brother who passed away two years ago this month, due to his battle with alcoholism. “So many people battle an addiction, and this is one of the things I am proud to do in his honor. Brian, like my mother who passed from her losing battle to cancer back in 2011, they were such amazing role models who lost their respective battles. As Mr. Stackhouse can tell you in his psych class, we are a mixture of both our environment/upbringing and DNA.” Thankfully I don’t have a desire for alcohol, and I hope cancer doesn’t take me down, at least anytime soon.
And that’s where Mr. Cosgrove’s advice to us, his beloved students comes in.
His biggest yet simple advice he wishes to spread is to “be kind to yourself.” He emphasized that “everyone knows Magnet is a strong academic school but getting a failing grade or something you feel you don’t deserve is just a right of passage.” He quotes Taylor Swift and High School Musical as he explains that sometimes you need to just breathe, “shake it off” and get your head in the game! He also recommends using organizational strategies to make sure you are fulfilling your responsibilities, as “figuring out how you can be the most efficient version of yourself is always an important skill to establish.”
To those wondering when or if he will return back to Charleston he says he plans to come back for graduation and that “he wants to work towards having a place both in Galway and Charleston” as it has always been a dream of his. He says although he is excited for his journey, downsizing from the old, building the new, he will most definitely miss “the sun, the weather, Hampton Park and Sullivan’s Island.” Charleston is a magical place, as is Galway. He also hopes to see students at the homecoming alumni tailgate from 5:30 to 7:30 this Friday as it is his last sendoff celebration. So if you were thinking about going, do it, we know he would love to see you there!
Despite feeling that it’s time to spread his wings he wants to make sure students know that he will “always bleed green and black.” He says “The Magnet community has had such an amazing impact on him and he will forever cherish his experiences being part of what felt like family.” Much love Cosgrove we wish you the best!
