Cole Devitt

Attended Gulf Stream School for 11 years, Pre-K through Eighth Grade



How did your years at GSS benefit you in all of your post-graduate experiences and help make you who you are today?
Gulf Stream School instilled the etiquette, manners and work ethic that would allow any young professional to succeed in life. At a young age, Gulf Stream taught me the importance of listening to others and evaluating situations with an open mind. They taught the value of hard work and if one wants to be successful, one has to put in the hours. But, at the same time, Gulf Stream taught the importance of community. Having grown up in the Town of Gulf Stream, I spent most of my weekends playing around the school and climbing the big banyans out front (Don’t tell the headmaster, but my initials are carved in a couple of them!). The school was always a meeting point for the community, and I always felt welcomed as if it were a second home.

Who were your favorite teacher(s) and/or subject(s)?
This is kind of a funny question because math was always my strength, but I somehow ended up becoming an attorney.

Any special experiences, memories or quotes?
One of my greatest memories was our seventh-grade trip to Costa Rica. This trip was every other year, so it was my grade as well as the eighth-grade class. Some of my best friends were in that class, too, and I still see many of them on a weekly basis. Anyway, one of the hotels we stayed in was along a river, and a small group of us, along with Mr. Mahady, went for a swim. Next thing we know, we’ve swum to the other side and are climbing up a tree to jump out of it. We were probably 15 to 20 feet up, trying to decide who should jump first. All of a sudden, and completely unexpectedly, Mr. Mahady dives in — we judged it a 1.5 (a full front-flip rotation and then another half-flip finishing in a dive). The rest of us looked at each other in disbelief and then jumped in after him.