Our Work
Catholic schools and their leaders today are faced daily with an ocean of competing priorities, making it increasingly challenging to keep up with day-to-day communications, emergencies, and urgent requests that absorb every available second while seeking to grow and deepen the mission and identity of their school. More complex stresses on Catholic educational leaders include: the struggle to afford living wages for teachers and administration, divisions between school and parish, disconnects with home-schooling parents, faculty and administrative professional training, certification, clarity of vision, knowledge of productive fundraising techniques along with a variety of other challenges. These and additional challenges leave Catholic schools struggling to meet even modest enrollment goals and establish financial sustainability.
Catholic Experience
In the face of all this, a movement is underway to revitalize education, not with one of the never-ending “new” educational methods, but as a retrieval from within the Catholic experience, drawing both classical education and Catholic cultural elements.
Often, the tyranny of the urgent means that critical priorities are left to chance or neglected–especially neglect of the spiritual formation of students, faculty and families. Yet, for Catholic schools, in addition to providing a quality education that encourages contemplation of truth, goodness and beauty, there is nothing more important than forming the spiritual lives of their student bodies, along with fidelity to the traditions of the Church: these, after all, form the foundation of our Catholic identity.
Without intentionally inculcating a shared and authentic sense of Catholic identity and comradery among students, faculty, and families, young people can quickly feel unconnected and isolated from Jesus Christ and His Church. This so easily results in their disaffection from the Church in their adult years. Too often schools will emphasize academic excellence to the loss of Catholic spiritual formation, or students may possess a clear knowledge of Church teaching without a relational experience of the Person of Jesus,or schools may selectively focus on some elements of the Catholic Life while overlooking others. Often the liturgical and devotional life of the school is left to ad hoc planning with insufficient time and thought, or is delegated to already over extended faculty and staff.
Healthy And Holistic School
A truly healthy and holistic school must be strategic and intentional—not left up to chance. It must successfully incorporate deep spiritual vibrancy, rich classical education, and school culture that creates and nurtures a thriving community that joyfully derives its identity from the worship of God.
This is the reason the St. John Henry Newman Institute exists. The Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and collaborating with schools in implementing strategic cultural and educational transformation initiatives, and to empowering and connecting schools to resources to accomplish these aims.
Our program is personalized and begins with a professional assessment of your school’s present internal culture and potential. For schools that are a good fit for this rigorous level of transformative change, the St. John Henry Newman institute will collaborate with you and place resources at your disposal to help you implement your plan.
Our Mission
The Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal is to form students who have a deep desire to know God, who recognize and seek the transcendentals of the good, the truth and the beautiful in His creation, and an experience of the liturgical elements that channel their faith, together creating a thriving school culture that students, faculty and parents love. To achieve this, the St. John Henry Newman Institute targets three particular areas of activity:
- Catholic classical education formation for school leaders, teachers, and parents
- Liturgical formation for priests, bishops, and lay parish and school leaders
- Virtuous entrepreneurial training and networking for priests, school leaders, and teachers
Targeting these areas of activity gives the Institute the necessary framework achieve the ultimate goal.
We invite your inquiry
Your questions about who we are, our work, or how to partner with our network are most welcome. Just reach out to us.
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