In an attempt to combine resources, the Society of Jesus recently decided to merge the provinces of Maryland, New York and New England into a generalized Northeast Province.
In response to this news, Loyola Blakefield and Fordham Preparatory School, located on the campus of Fordham University in the Bronx, have begun piloting a teacher exchange program.
“We wondered if there was some way, in anticipation of the merge, to share resources among faculty across all Jesuit schools in the Northeast,” said Bob Schlichtig, Religious Studies teacher at Loyola Blakefield.
The goal of the program is to have teachers from each school in the province spend 3-4 days immersed in another school’s environment to observe cultural and educational similarities and differences.
The idea first came about at a Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA) symposium that took place at Marquette University last summer.
“The theme of the symposium was collaboration,” said Schlichtig. “That theme is what really sparked the dialogue about collaboration between our schools.”
After the symposium, Schlichtig met with Loyola Blakefield Assistant Principal John McCaul and Principal Anthony Day to further develop the idea of broadening the world view of Loyola’s teachers, while inviting teachers from other Jesuit schools to Loyola Blakefield to do the same.
“We call it an Ignatian Teacher Exchange,” said McCaul. “As the New York, New England and Maryland provinces continue to merge, this program provides an opportunity to foster an environment in our schools that encourages collaboration among teachers and students, familiarity with other campuses and a clear understanding of the strengths we share and the challenges all of our schools face as 21st century Ignatian Educators.”
Dr. David Gelpi, a religious studies teacher at Fordham Prep, was the first to pilot this program. During his visit to Loyola Blakefield, he did not just limit his time to observing religion classes. His schedule reflected a bit of everything that Loyola offers including courses like creative writing, engineering, photography and even mathematics.
“I teach a class that involves using a lot of stories,” said Dr. Gelpi. “So I wanted to visit English classes here and see how the teachers involve stories in their lessons. I also sat in on a few technology classes to see how teachers, as well as students, are using the broad range of tools available to them.”
McCaul notes that the exchange also provides a perspective beyond academics. “The teachers aren’t just visiting to observe classes. They are visiting to learn more about the school’s culture as well,” said McCaul, who is acting as somewhat of a travel agent, working with teachers in the exchange to help coordinate visits, figure out what classes they will visit and what activities they will attend.
During his visit, Dr. Gelpi noticed one major difference between Loyola and Fordham Prep: the overall demeanor of the students.
“Fordham seems a little noisier. There’s a different feel here at Loyola. Everyone talks to each other with a great deal of respect in the classroom. It seems a little bit more orderly here as the students understand what’s expected of them.”
After Dr. Gelpi’s visit, he was required to fill out a brief reflection worksheet to share with his fellow faculty members.
“The Jesuit mission revolves heavily around reflection,” said Dr. Gelpi. “These questions will help me think about how I felt during my experience at Loyola and how I can advance upon my own teaching when I return to Fordham Prep.”
Schlichtig will spend a few days at Fordham Prep in April and go through the same process. Meanwhile, both teachers look to recruit more candidates from other schools to participate in the program.
“We plan on running a small workshop at the JSEA colloquium next summer to gain some more interest in this program and to get more teachers from different schools involved,” said Schlichtig.
“The JSEA offers a lot of great programs for educators to attend, but I’m going to these events with people from Dallas, San Francisco and Oregon,” said Dr. Gelpi. “I’m not doing anything with the people right down the street and this program looks to change that.”
The Northeast province, now the largest in the country, consists of 12 Jesuit schools. Seven of which are located in New York.
“We have Canisius, McQuaid, St. Peter’s, Regis, Xavier, Fordham, and Loyola. Four out of seven of those schools are in downstate New York. We’re just so wrapped up in our own practices and our own cultures that we don’t even think to look to each other for help.”
McCaul believes the sky is the limit for a program like this.
“The 46 Jesuit High Schools in North America serve nearly 44,000 young men and women. I would love to see this program create fertile ground for collaboration with all of the other Jesuit High Schools and the students,” said McCaul. “I think this is part of the process of globalizing our students’ and teachers’ educational and service experiences. This type of one-on-one, face-to-face collaboration is true to Jesuit ideals reaching as far back to Matteo Ricci (16th Century Italian Jesuit who helped found the Jesuit China Mission), and will enhance our plans for blended learning experiences through the Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy.”
With the merging of the provinces, a program like this becomes harder to organize, but the end reward is all the more gratifying for these 12 schools that have invested so much over the years to provide an extraordinary Catholic education for thousands of young men and women.
Dr. David Gelpi graduated Cardinal Hayes High School in 1982 and went on to earn his B.A. in Religious Studies in 1986 at Siena College in Loundonville, NY. Later on, he received his M.S. (1995) and Ph.D (2008) from the School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University. He has been a part of the Religious Studies Department at Fordham Prep since 1992 where he currently teaches Christology, Sacramental Theology, and The Quest for the Male Soul.Dr. Gelpi has spoken at conferences for the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, the JSEA Colloquium in Santa Clara and the New York Province Jesuit Secondary Education Colloquium in New York. He has been presenting on character development and boys since 2009.