Labor of Love

Looking out at that last class and realizing how well I knew each of them was something important. And I'll never forget the service trips I’ve taken with Loyola students. There is something about visiting people where they live that changes how I think about my life afterward.

I want students to learn about themselves—What makes them the most creative, interested, and the deepest learner they can be. I also hope they learn that:

• You can find and make a community anywhere you go.
• Knowing people is the most important thing.
• You have gifts. Find them and use them.

Colleagues who are passionate about teaching and supportive of students, their colleagues, and me.

Now, it's the attention the students give to their electronic devices. I've seen the polo shirts get long, and then short, and then long again. I've seen changes, and many have related to changes in our society and how Loyola has responded to them.

As I continue teaching, I find that what the students share with me is far more valuable than any advice I might give them. That said, I think we should all take more risks and make mistakes. We really only learn from our mistakes.

When I gave the faculty graduation speech (at the last graduation), I looked at the graduates, and while I had only been teaching there a few years, I had an important point of contact with each of them. I either taught them in class, or moderated a club in which they participated, or joined them on Kairos. I knew them, I knew their stories, and they knew what to expect of me. The older faculty there were so encouraging and helped me to grow so much as a teacher and a person. I still have contact with many of them to this day.

Loyola is special because it gives much of that small-school feel, but with the opportunities of a larger school. We ask students to be involved, but there is not just one way to do that. You can be an athlete, a thespian, involved in ministry or service, a member of the band, or in one or more clubs offered. There are just so many ways to get involved, and all of them work together with the academics to form a stronger person. Scholar Athletes, Actor Scholars, Service Learning, at Loyola, it all goes hand in hand.

The spirit exists in the way I remember Sr. James and her vision for students who could govern themselves. The spirit of inclusion and achievement is present in the children of alumni, who are showing up year after year in my classroom.

They were public school kids who had hung around Loyola, and when it was time to go to high school, they felt the environment at Loyola was more focused on academics, was welcoming, and had a family environment. I loved it for the academics, the extracurricular offerings, and the whole-person focus on the students.

Over the course of two years, Loyola's Architecture Club, led by Mr. Jim Cleland, designed the house for a family. At the same time, Loyola's Mission Club, led by Mr. Bill Brandstrader, fundraised over $40,000 to fund the project. Then during one summer we organized eight different groups of students and adults on weekly trips to build the house.

C.O.A.P. selected the family who would live in the home, with the understanding that they would contribute back to C.O.A.P. over twenty years to help finance homes for other local families.

I enjoy traveling to many historical sites around the country and always find the interactions with the tour guides most interesting. In fact, I have even bumped into a retired administrator from another Jesuit school who is a park ranger/tour guide at a Civil War site in Virginia.

I cherish memories of coaching tennis and the young ladies, and their parents, with whom I was able to know and form friendships. Tennis memories are more about singing in the vans, laughing, and spending time together rather than what happened on the court, although the teams experienced a great deal of success. I was proud to be honored with the Frank Amato Excellence in Coaching Award in 2007. More than anything, I will always treasure the memories of the OSH students I have had the privilege of teaching, the relationships which have formed, and the incredible group of teachers with whom I was privileged to work. The OSH program, its students, and teachers are special people, and I will remember so many of them forever.

When I started there was one computer lab available to students and now everyone has an iPad. There have been various daily schedules and multiple dress codes. For many years the OSH Center was where the current STEAM classroom is located, and the library had two floors; now the OSH center is under the library. A positive change for the OSH program and our students was the addition of literacy specialists to help students make greater gains in their reading, writing and critical thinking skills. Our students are always reading a book they choose for fun, a practice that will helpfully expand throughout the entire school as the benefits are so important!