What a wonderful Catholic Schools Week 2018 it was! Any time we have a week devoted to a particular celebration it takes a lot of planning and collaboration. Much like homecoming, it was a successful and busy week. To all staff and families who had a hand in making this week come to fruition, I thank you! Our community thanks you!
Our theme for the week was Draw the Circle Wide. While our logo is a small circle focused on our Lord, Gospel values, and our four pillars, we know our circle has no boundaries when it comes to the inclusion of others, or being welcoming to all. We truly celebrated our international exchange students and our guest students from Argentina. We also recognized the other countries of the world in which Loyola has had an impact. There is a big hope and belief here within Loyola that we will continue to draw our circle wide.
As we continue to move Loyola forward we will continually need to stay focused on our mission which is centered on our four pillars. Here is a look at this week and how we grew to understand, communicate, nurture, and celebrate our four pillars and our mission: Leading through Faith, Academic Excellence, and Service.
Faith:
Understand
: We celebrated and joined other Catholic schools across our nation and world in celebrating Catholic Schools Week with a most beautiful Mass, prayer partner activities, and beginning each day by praying for the people and environmental needs of each continent.
Communicate
: We were able to communicate the importance of our faith at our Mass and in morning prayer.
Nurture
: It took a great amount of planning and collaboration to put together this week. Nurturing one's mission takes teamwork, generating new ideas and perspective to better understand our mission, which we did by drawing the circle wide.
Celebrate
: Our Mass was a celebration of our faith! We were acknowledging our faith and expressing our gratitude for our heritage to those who came before us and allow us today to continue to celebrate our faith together. In addition, our seniors were on retreat the last half of the week. This is a celebration for their time and presence at Loyola! We hope you had a great week seniors!
Academic Excellence:
Understand
: We know the success of our students is important. It is important to them and you as a family. Our junior students benefited from three days of ACT preparedness and we have received overwhelming positive feedback from our students and families.
Communicate
: These juniors saw going in, the importance of the training and now have an even greater appreciation for the work they put in.
Nurture
: How about our Robotics teams who are going to state? Nurturing our academics fosters teamwork, which the Robotics competition is all about. They took their nurturing one step farther by taking a risk and doing a demonstration in front of the entire student body. Our Math Counts team took on the challenge of going to MSU and competing on behalf of Loyola. It takes courage and grit to put yourself out there and compete in a tough competition. The same could be said for our Knowledge Bowl teams. And our One Act Play team. We're proud of the way you carry on Loyola's strong tradition by going out and advancing to sections. While starring at State last year, they could have taken a step back, but instead, rose to the challenge by working together and advancing on. Thank you, Robotics team, One Act, Math Counts, and Knowledge Bowl for nurturing our academic excellence through teamwork and risk-taking.
Celebrate
: We celebrated our academic excellence by having a pep fest for our Robotics teams and recognizing our One Act Play team as they head on to sections this weekend. We will continue to celebrate each other and our successes.
Service:
Understand
: We focused on our service by partaking in Crusaders in the Community.
Communicate
: By participating in the Crusaders in the Community event, our students were able to role model service for our other students; they were able to see it in action, and truly feel what service for others is.
Nurture
: This service event allowed for and required teamwork. One of the groups worked outside in the -20 wind chill. By working together, they were able to accomplish the task at hand. They took a risk by working outside in those temps but, by working together accomplished their task.
Celebrate
: Many of the students came back feeling grateful for the opportunity that was presented and certainly felt an intrinsic reward for their work and efforts. There was no need for a medal, no asking for recognition for what they did. Service is at the heart of Loyola and helps us live out our mission.
Our younger students enjoyed the MSU Theater production of Bluebird's Secret on Thursday afternoon. After each of the characters tried--and failed--to find Bluebird and discover her secret to happiness on his/her own, one of our first graders suggested, in the sweetest voice, "You could work together!" He is six years old and already knows friendship and teamwork are essential for happiness.
What about Leadership? All four pillars are about leadership. How do we lead in all aspects of the school? I hope you are able to have discussions at home about leadership and how leadership looks here at school, no matter what grade your child is in. We can all be leaders. Thank you to all of our students for showing us leadership this week. May you continue to model it, work together, and be grateful the opportunities this wonderful school provides.
