The halls of Pascack Hills High School knew Max Spelling as the football and baseball player with big muscles and rosy red cheeks. The Class of 2014 alum walked the halls of Pascack Hills for four years with #hillspride in each step. This pride did not cease when graduation caps were thrown in June of 2014. Checking back in with Max, he tells us how Pascack Hills has set the path for his college career and made him the student he is today.

A brother of Zeta Beta Tau, majoring in Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Max has a new school to be proud of. However, #indianapride just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

“I love my college and am proud of its programs and reputations,” he says. “That being said, in the smaller community atmosphere that is Pascack Hills, people can more easily work together to change and improve in all facets.”

Max has ventured far from his high school in Montvale, New Jersey. Yet, however many miles this distance may be, what he has learned at Hills still comes into play each day in Indiana.

“I learned the importance of discipline and organization with regard to my schoolwork throughout high school, and this has undoubtedly transferred to my undergraduate studies,” he says.

Balancing classes, exams, fraternal duties and his new job as the Growth Marketing Manager for the on-campus food delivery service, EnvoyNow, Max does wish that he learned what it means to be truly busy—and more importantly, how to handle it.

“Learning how to handle such situations and budget your time is essential to collegiate success,” Max says. “What high school doesn’t prepare you for is being on your own and not having anybody to tell you that you need to work rather than do less productive things.”

Max is proud to have sported Cowboys apparel both on the baseball field, on the football field, and around the halls of Pascack Hills. Despite wearing red and white on campus at Indiana, Max will always bleed brown and orange.

“Be it the support of my teachers in the classroom or the encouragement of the student body at sporting events, Hills was always an enjoyable place to be,” Max says. Lucky to report, that has not changed.