Disclosure :: Many readers indicated via the Reader Survey that they crave more content geared to the school years. Today we are excited bring you this sponsored post via Saint Stanislaus on how religion integrated to education can prepare your child for college readiness.
What is College Readiness?
College readiness is not just academic.
When high schools talk about getting their students ready for college, they usually mean readiness for academic content and advanced skills. Saint Stanislaus has a highly successful academic readiness program that has shown steady annual increases in ACT scores. But we know that getting ready for college means a lot more than that.
Read what Carlos, a college freshman, said in a recen
t article in America magazine: “When I got to college, I wasn’t interested in drinking, but it seemed everyone else was. During the first couple of weekends, when other students decided to ‘go out,’ I usually would hang out with a small group of people who chose to engage in dry activities. But as the weeks went on, this group grew smaller and smaller. It seemed that for most people, the question was not ‘Should I drink?’ but rather, ‘Should I get drunk?’ This drinking culture, in which many of my peers seemed to disregard their own well-being, came as a shock to me.”
Carlos went on to say that it was his high school campus ministry program that gave him the resources and values to resist the negative pressures of campus life and to find healthy ways to relax. As at his school, Saint Stanislaus involves students of all ages in various required and optional retreats so they can strengthen their relationship with God and learn more about themselves. Through these retreats, student ministers emerge as leaders and models and even as directors and group
moderators at younger students’ retreats.
Faith and College Readiness
Deepening his relationship with God in high school helped Carlos to turn to God when he experienced rough times and to find consolation in the friendship he had 
with God. Because of high school campus ministry, he knew how to develop relationships with others who valued faith and prayer. He had the college readiness skills to seek out his university’s campus ministry department, become a Eucharistic minister, attend several retreats, go to adoration once a week, and attend some of the Masses offered on weeknights in the residence halls.
“The friends I made also helped me to surround myself with a feeling of consolation. I felt encouraged to be myself and live my faith, despite the challenge that the culture of drinking posed.” Besides retreats, Saint Stanislaus’ campus ministry program touches every student on a daily basis by surrounding them with classroom and school prayer, including school-wide liturgies. It calls together a regular group for Monday night prayer and personal sharing. It organizes days of sacramental reconciliation. It provides service opportunities and mission weeks on the Navajo reservation and in local cities, and it invites them to fast in order to enable students in Mozambique to eat better.
As Carlos’ experience shows, Saint Stanislaus’ campus ministry activities take college readiness to a higher level.
About Saint Stanislaus :: Saint Stanislaus is a Catholic day and boarding school for boys in grades seven through twelve. The campus is located just an hour’s drive from the cultural offerings of New Orleans, on the picturesque Gulf of Mexico coastline. The school welcomes students from across the United States and around the world. Would you like to learn more? Join Saint Stanislaus on December 12th for PRE-Camp, an evening of fun for prospective students grades 6-8. For more information or to sign up email [email protected].
Brother Bernard Couvillion
Bro. Bernard has written extensively and definitively on what it means to teach in the charism of the brothers’ founder, Fr. André Coindre, and he is a popular retreat director and presenter on spirituality and pedagogy in the thirty-three countries in which the Brothers minister. In 1996, Bro. Bernard was elected to lead the entire Institute of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart world-wide as Superior General. During his twelve years in Rome, Bro. Bernard was the liaison with the Vatican and the Institute’s leader around the globe. He has served at Saint Stanislaus as teacher, guidance counselor, Director of Residency, President and is currently the Director of Campus Ministry.
