The job of assistant principal is one that requires certain skills and a determined mindset. Working with students, counselor, and all other student support staff to ensure that all students are looked after, and taken care of is a major responsibility and time commitment. DGS Assistant Principal Vince Walsh-Rock has been dedicated to the student population here at DGS and across District 99 for over a decade.

Walsh-Rock began working in District 99 as a music teacher at DGS 24 years ago in 1993. From there he worked at DGN for four years, later returning to DGS becoming the assistant principal that he is today.

On his return to DGS, Walsh-Rock wanted to make some kind of an impact on the student body. In the beginning of every school year, Walsh-Rock gives a speech to the incoming freshman class in the auditorium, where he tries to inspire them to be caring people in high school. Originally there wasn’t a main goal, but it soon changed after he began doing it for a few years. “When I first started doing that, I didn’t really know the purpose of it necessarily, and over time I’ve really come to understand that it’s a way to open the door and set the stage for what it is to be a student at South,” Walsh-Rock said.

Part of that speech involves drawing a very interesting and beautiful chalk drawing, as a way to inspire imagination in the new coming students; however, Walsh-Rock wasn’t always gifted with such drawing abilities. During his time at DGN, he attended a chalk camp in 2002 hosted by Ben Glen, a professional chalk painter, where for a week, he learned how to make very intricate designs and scenes with nothing but a blank canvas and chalk.

Beyond the amazing artwork, Walsh-Rock always reminds students every year at the DGS Mad Dash to leave South better than you found it. He makes that statement to really give students a goal to strive for in their time at DGS. And as he explains it, it doesn’t have to be some profound change.

“I love that phrase because you can take it in any direction that you want to, I don’t think it has to be something where someone goes ‘Oh, that’s what that person did in high school’ but I think it’s more of an internal journey. I know we have these students, the students who look for others that don’t have friends, and just say hi to them every day, maybe eat lunch with them. That’s just one way to make South High better than you found it. I think every student has an opportunity to do that in their own individual way,” Walsh-Rock said.

One impressive thing that Walsh-Rock strives it to accomplish is to always have students committed to that level of excellence, even if he isn’t at DGS.

“When I’m gone here, no one is going to remember me, I’ll be gone and someone else will take over, we’re all replaceable and I know that. But I’m hoping that some of the positive work that I’ve done in the building over the years continues to perpetuate itself, or someone else picks up the ball and does it even better than I did. And hopefully, I’ve set the stage for that to occur in some way. That’s my goal,” Walsh-Rock said.

In the eyes of many students here at DGS, he has done that and much more.