Dear Parents,
I hope that your son’s year at Bellarmine has gotten off to a good start, and that he’ll enjoy a little bit of a respite during this long weekend while the faculty and staff participate in an in-service on Monday. During this in-service, we’ll continue our own training relative to this year’s Summit on Human Dignity, with a particular emphasis being placed on using our 7 Principles of Constructive Dialogue.
As some of you know, this Sunday is the Feast Day of our Patron Saint, St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine. In recognition of his Feast Day, your son attended Mass either yesterday or this morning with his Foreign Language class. We enjoy finding these opportunities when we can pray together in smaller groups, and have a time to reflect. With 7 Masses in just over 24 hours, different Masses have different Priests celebrating, and different language teachers or Jesuits offering their reflection. The Mass I attended was presided over by Fr. Shinney, who offered St. Robert Bellarmine as a great example for our students, because he was a great intellect, and also had a great heart. Bellarmine was renowned for his scholarship and for his lifelong commitment to learning. Certainly, this is a part of the model of who and how we hope our students will become. But he also was known for having tremendous care for the poor, and was particularly concerned that his own work and the work of his students should not solely reside in the life of the mind, but should also extend to the streets where they could be of help to others. What a great model for us all!
Examples of this same approach abound here on campus. Whether it’s the moms working hard to put together this year’s Fashion Show, the upperclassmen who were training last week to prepare for next month’s freshman retreat, or the robotics team getting ready to host a tournament this weekend, there are models wherever I turn of men and women serving others. If you haven’t ever seen a robotics tournament, you might consider checking out the action here on campus this weekend at the Chezy Champs Robotics Tournament. One of the things I love about robotics is that in addition to building machines that can do amazing things, central to the ethic of the program is an expectation that teams collaborate with and assist one another. What a great example of finding one’s gifts and talents and putting them at the service of others!
This coming week is our Club Day on Wednesday, when representatives from all of our campus clubs will be set up during an extra long lunch period. If your son hasn’t yet found his niche at Bellarmine, this is a great opportunity for him to find others with similar interests. I always love this day, because it’s such an amazing collection of diverse activities, from the very serious to the wonderfully silly, from those trying to save the world to those looking to have a good laugh. There is literally something for everyone, and I hope your son will enjoy having the chance to make new friends via our clubs and activities.
It has been great to see so many of you on campus already at Back to School night, the Tailgate last weekend, or at various sporting events. I want to remind you that you are invited to a parent coffee next Friday morning from 8-9 in West Liccardo, which presents an informal opportunity for you to meet other parents, and talk with your son’s counselor and a variety of administrators as a way of integrating you as part of the Bellarmine family. If you have questions, concerns, suggestions, or just want to meet some other parents, this is a great opportunity. I hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
Chris Meyercord ‘88
President
cmeyercord@bcp.org