From Making Headway to Making HeadlinesZach Levine ’16

As a television news producer, Zach Levine ’16 knows a good story when he sees one. His own is pretty compelling, too.

Zach’s time at McLean might best be described as the Abilities Model® in action: being seen and celebrated for your strengths while receiving support and skills for learning–and for life. In 7th grade PE class, Zach often would chime in with entertaining real-time commentary and his teacher invited him to announce starting lineups for the Middle School basketball games.

Former science teacher, Cathy Noon, also took note. “She was a big sports fan, too,” Zach recalls. “She’d see me at games and invite me to sit at the scorer’s table, which helped me evolve my announcing role.”

It wasn’t long before Zach became “The Voice” for the Upper School basketball games, including play-by-play and highlights. “I didn’t even know this was a passion of mine until I started doing it,” he says. “I appreciate that people at McLean saw something in me and encouraged, and trusted, me to build on it because they thought it would be good for me and my personal growth.”

Zach expanded on his interests and started a McLean sports newsletter that, while short-lived, got him thinking about a career in news. He went on to Syracuse University, where he majored in broadcast journalism. “Syracuse is pretty big, and even though I was coming from a small high school experience, my time at McLean did a good job preparing me to make that jump to a larger environment,” he says. “McLean taught me to learn how to learn.”

Part of that, he says, included knowing himself well enough to align his abilities and aspirations. “Sports journalism can be cutthroat and those who go into it tend to be very competitive–and that’s just not me,” he says. “By my second year, I started to notice that news might be a better fit for my personality and that I might actually get more opportunities and experience doing that,” Zach says. “I felt more appreciated and liked that I had room to grow, which was certainly something I had at McLean.”

Appreciated he was: as an undergrad, Zach interned at a Syracuse news outlet and kept in touch with his boss, who reached out to Zach about a job opportunity at her new station. Just hours before a COVID-19 hiring freeze went into effect, and a few months before his June 2020 graduation, he accepted an offer as a producer for the local ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs, KRDO Newschannel 13.

“It was a huge leap, moving 1,500 miles away,” says Zach. “But knowing I had gone from McLean’s nurturing environment to a big university helped me understand that I could do it. And it’s really paid off.”

It was that nurturing environment that first attracted Zach to McLean back in elementary school. “I was struggling with the public school system,” he says, “it was increasingly competitive and I was falling behind because I needed more time to learn things and didn’t have the confidence or tools I needed.”

He started at McLean in grade 5, and although it was a bit of an adjustment, it wasn’t long before Zach hit his stride. “I remember feeling a lot of anxiety and negativity, holding myself to social and academic standards,” he says. “But soon I started to feel comfortable in my own shoes. The persona I took on as ‘The Voice’ helped shape my identity and gave me confidence as people began to show an interest in my abilities.”

“I’ll be honest,” he adds, “it took me a year to feel that way at work, too!”

Today, however, Colorado feels like home, and Zach enjoys taking advantage of all it has to offer. “I’ve developed some new interests since moving here, like skiing and hiking,” he says. But much remains the same, including his love for all things news and Washington sports teams.

One thing Zach will always appreciate about McLean, he says, is the School’s willingness to support him in pursuing his own path. “Even though my interests didn’t necessarily line up with the school’s existing clubs and activities, the teachers were always willing to work with me,” he says.

“That’s part of what makes it such a welcoming place,” he adds. “McLean is open to people of all abilities and learning types, but also passions. It sounds cliché, but it’s true that they want you to have opportunities you might not otherwise get, to grow and flourish in whatever ways possible.”