Information, Celebration, Inspiration (Academy President’s Blog)
08.18.10 - Happy New Year!
Our teachers have returned full of energy and enthusiasm for the new school year. Seeing all of these extraordinary people today reminds me that St. Mary's Academy is truly a great community.
Our day opened with a beautiful prayer service where we all re committed ourselves to this community that we share. In fact, as part of the service we passed loaves of bread to share with one another--such a beautiful symbol of community. As the day continued, we had the opportunity to hear Helen Thorpe speak, the author of the excellent book, Just Like Us. In the book, Ms. Thorpe chronicles the life of four young girls here in Denver as they go to high school and then to college. The interesting part is that two of the young women are documented citizens and two are undocumented. Helen Thorpe is an extraordinary observer of people and her explanations of these girls' lives is incredible. And since Ms. Thorpe is first and foremost a reporter, she really brings together these experiences without opinion and allows us all to have a bit of a birds eye view of what it is to be a young person involved in the immigration debates.
The teachers then ended the day together writing statements of belief. What do we believe we do in our daily work here at St. Mary's Academy? It's so exciting to hear folks talk about the mission of the school in such vibrant, enthusiastic ways. There is great passion on our faculty and staff. There is great love and respect for what we do here everyday. As I said in the beginning, what a great community to be a part of!
So the teachers are here with their joy and energy, but there is still a big part of our community that is missing: our students and their families. We need a few more days to get ready, but really, hurry back! We can't wait until you are here.
