Pro-Life Allows 600,000 to become 1 Team

-
One of the great things about going to high school is the opportunity to be part of a team. Whether a student chooses to play a sport or not, he or she has the opportunity to show up and root for the team. When Borgia wins "State," we all win State. Especially at Borgia, team spirit is plentiful. Sometimes, we have the opportunity to rally around other causes much like we rally around our teams. And in the case of the Pro-Life trip, the team is much bigger than our students experience with the other teams they support.

The Pro-Life Trip experience, however, begins with Borgia rallying together as a team. This past fall, our campus minister Andy Halaz put extra energy into helping students to recognize that the Pro-Life trip is an opportunity to come together spiritually. We wanted to fill a bus with Borgia students going to Washington D.C. to march for this worthy cause. We succeeded! This was our first victory as a team. 

In doing so, we had to remind students that a trip to D.C. for this march will be different from year to year. Many students go on this trip in 8th grade, so we had to show them that the trip would be different. Importantly, we also needed them to understand that their contribution to the thousands of people walking would be important this year, just as it was in 8th grade.

This year, when we got to Washington, we immediately stepped onto the streets for the walk. It is estimated that 600,000 people walked, and we tried to let our students know that the individual commitment of each one of them was crucial to this cause. At a Mass in D.C., our own Bishop Rice reminded the students that one way or another each one of them had to say "yes" to going on this trip. They may have said "yes" for varying reasons, but they said "yes," and that's very important. Somewhere, God led 600,000 peope to say "yes" to going for one reason or another, and that's how we made such an impact on the Washington streets on January 22. I am confident that our students will never forget being part of such a large "team" walking the streets. In a different Mass, Archbishop Carlson told the students that even if they had saved one life, they had made a difference. And while I think we agree that this walk saved more than one life, I hope that statement alone made our students feel like being part of this team was heroic.

The trip to D.C. is not just about the March. The diocese has "Generation Life" programming where our students had the chance to grow spiritually through praise and worship together. They experienced Adoration with nearly 2,000 St. Louis Area students, they participated in Reconciliation, and they participated in Mass. As an adult, it is hard to express how awesome it is to see so many of our young people bound together because they are part of a common team. These students have sometimes competed with one another in the athletic arena, and sometimes our schools compete with each other for students. However, when you see a room full of students praising The Lord together, it is an amazing sight.

When the programming wasn't happening, we had time to see some of the sites in Washington. A group I had was able to visit everything from the top of the Washington Monument to the dome of the Capitol. However, I don't think it would have mattered what we saw, we were there to grow together as a team. The camaraderie I witnessed among our students was amazing, once again. They may have come from different social circles, but on this trip, they rallied together as part of one team.

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 26, 2015 at 2:55 PM

    As soon as we got in the car on the Kennedy parking lot, my son said, "I am going back next year!" Our family heard about the March, the Masses he attended, the historical landmarks he saw and how he spent $25.00 riding on the Metro. He also got to know kids he had never talked to before at school. I am so thankful that Borgia gives our kids this opportunity. He experienced D.C. in a very different way than he did in 8th grade. It was great experience that I am glad he was able to be a part of.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Build Culture, One "Pin" at a Time

-
This year, our principal came up with a fun way for the administrative team to appreciate teachers. She purchased three different types of "pins" that principals can distribute to faculty or staff. We have pins to give teachers who make notable contributions to our PLC teams and we have pins for adults who go above and beyond for our students. In addition, we have an "apple" pin to give to teachers following a good lesson. We didn't make an official announcement about these pins. We just started distributing them, here and there, in November. As a result, faculty and staff have been pleasantly surprised when we have had something to share, aside from some positive words.  Earlier this month, I put an inordinate amount of time into a presentation. It was the type of presentation that did not require extensive preparation. In short, we had decided that students weren't taking our district writing prompt seriously. The sophomores who had to participate did
Read more

Leaving "The Rope" on the Ground is Easy with Powerful Practice

-
Among the messages featured in the CPI family of posters, the reminder not to “pick up the rope” is among the most-appreciated. The poster, which reads “Don’t Pick Up the Rope” features a boy holding a rope in a tug-of-war; he sports an intense look on his face. Unseen is the person on the other end of the rope, deciding whether or not to engage in the tug-of-war with this young man. Unit Five in the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention course really focuses in on this idea of avoiding “picking up the rope.” It’s easier said than done! Unfortunately, our clients (and even our colleagues) can put us in situations where we have a hard time leaving “the rope” on the ground. When a person is confronting us, demonstrating defensive-level behaviors, it is a challenge to keep our composure. However, this unit gives us some perspective and some helpful advice. First, this unit covers “precipitating factors,” defined by CPI as “factors that influence behavior.” I teach this topic with the
Read more