District Mission Assembly
Day One

The Third District Mission Assembly began on Sunday afternoon at Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, with a welcome address by Brother Stanislaus Campbell, Visitor. The opening session featured a panel of students from Saint Mary’s College and District high schools who shared insights and stories of coping with the challenges of their college experience. Following Mass and dinner, Dr. Pedro Noguera of New York University presented an inspiring keynote address, Creating Culturally Responsive Schools, encouraging teachers and administrators to understand and connect with their students in an open manner, respectful of their unique histories and receptive to new ways of helping them learn.

Day Two

The 2010 Mission Assembly continued its consideration of the theme of “Accessibility” in the various educational institutions around the District of San Francisco. Presentations by Rev. Tim Scully, CSC, from the Notre Dame ACE Program, and by Dr. Mary McCall of Saint Mary’s College provided input about the national state of Catholic education, especially among Latino families, and the current statistical realities of the students from economically-challenged families within our schools. The focus groups began to process the provided information.

Day Three

On the third day of the Mission Assembly, the participants worked in their focus groups to hammer out lines of action that might advance accessibility to the District's institutions. In the afternoon, a number of the draft proposals were considered by the entire group, discussed, and returned to the focus group for further consideration. The final results will be shared tomorrow, prior to being prioritized for consideration by the entire District.

Day Four

On the final day of the Mission Assembly, the remaining focus groups presented their draft lines of action to the entire Assembly and received feedback on them. All focus groups went back to work, revising their lines of action based on the feedback of the entire Assembly, and presented their revisions early in the afternoon. Following this, all Assembly participants reviewed the 11 lines of action as a whole and spent an hour in discussion, offering further input on accessibility for the District Chapter to consider. The Assembly closed with a prayer service, during which all 11 lines of action were offered to God in a spirit of faith and gratitude, and a final dinner, during which time Brother Stanislaus Campbell thanked the Assembly participants and coordinators.