“Attending Valley Christian was a life-changing event for me. Had I continued attending public high school, it’s quite likely that I’d have dropped out before graduating.”
A success story that almost never was, Jared “Mort” Schrieber ’93 started at Valley Christian in 1990. A sophomore transfer, he was heavily involved in athletics and credits longtime athletic director Marlin Broek, current faculty member and coach Al Nelson, and “legendary football & track coach Bernie Benson” as having the biggest impacts on him during high school. “Mr. Benson played an out-sized role in my transformation from an insecure loner to a confident leader.”
Jared went on to attend Scottsdale Community College on a football scholarship, where he also became a college decathlete. “The track coach there welcomed me on his team as a wanna-be decathlete, but made clear that my only shot at becoming an All-American was in the javelin throw.”
Thanks to that coaching, Jared says, he was able to earn a spot on Arizona State University’s track team, eventually earning a top 5 national collegiate ranking in his senior year.
“While at ASU, I became the president of the Sun Devil athlete student-government where I got to know my future wife and her friend, Pat Tillman,” says Jared. “Pat and I became good friends during his time with the Cardinals before fate led him to the Army Rangers and me to pursue a master’s degree at MIT.”
After the horrible news of Tillman’s death, Jared was among those left to carry forward Pat’s legacy.
“After Pat’s death in Afghanistan, I worked with his family to establish the Pat Tillman Foundation and its first scholarship program – an incredible experience that I would give up in a heartbeat to have Pat back in my life. He was by far the most amazing and inspirational person I will ever know, regardless of the heroic actions that have made him famous.”
Jared became one of the founding board of director members for the Pat Tillman Foundation and helped start its scholarship program. In addition to his work with the foundation, Jared’s professional career took him to IIntel, Teradata, and Retail Solutions, but his true passion was realized when he founded tech and data company, InfoScout.
“I fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an entrepreneur by founding InfoScout. My VCHS classmates may still recall how competitive I was during the Junior Achievement entrepreneurship game we played in our economics class.”
From Valley Christian to ASU to MIT to co-founder and CEO of a successful company on the cutting edge. But, perhaps surprisingly, it almost never was. “Had I continued attending public high school, it’s quite likely that I’d have dropped out before graduating.”
“My advice for current students is to set your goals so high that even if you don’t achieve them, you will achieve more than you (or anyone else) ever thought possible.”
Jared and his wife, Reka (who was an All-American tennis athlete at ASU and the Pac-10 medal of honor recipient her senior year along with Pat Tillman) currently live in Silicon Valley, California with their three kids. They most recently visited Valley Christian in 2013 for Homecoming and his 20th Reunion.
To read more about Jared’s “After Valley” story, click here.