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A
new office at Saint Mary's College, sponsored jointly by the College
and the District of San Francisco, is quickly becoming a productive center
of
outreach and support, connecting the College to the District and
the world in new and fruitful ways.
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The first-ever Special Assistant to the President for Lasallian
Initiatives at
Saint Mary's College of California is Carole Swain, Professor of
Education.
"In this job I want to promote throughout the College an understanding
of the
Lasallian heritage that will result in educational action that enhances
learning
and service, and makes for more fully developed, healthy human beings.
And I want to build enduring connections between Saint Mary's College
and
the works of the District and the International Institute."
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Putting
the District Action Plan of 1999 into action –a virtual whirlwind
of action –is a new office at Saint Mary's College and its dynamic
first occupant, Professor Carole Swain of the Saint Mary's School of Education.
Swain says, "After the District Chapter in 1999, Dean Fannie Preston
of the School of Education and I took some modest proposals to the College
President, Brother Craig Franz, about the School of Education's faculty
doing some work with District high schools. But Brother Craig had a bigger
idea in mind."
In
cooperation with both District and College leadership, Brother Craig instituted
the office of Special Assistant to the President for Lasallian Initiatives,
a faculty position, funded jointly by the College and De La Salle Institute.
In July 2000, Carole Swain became the first holder of the office, in which
she will serve for a term of up to five years. "The term limit is an intentional
way to ensure that this work at the College becomes institutionalized,"
says Swain.
The
job description says: "Reporting to the President of the College, the
Special Assistant to the President for Lasallian Initiatives assists with
matters relating to the De La Salle Christian Brothers' San Francisco
District Action Plan, and functions as the primary administrative officer
for promoting, coordinating, and implementing Lasallian initiatives among
all constituents of the College and with external constituencies, especially
Lasallian high schools."
The
prospective teachers and their tentative assignments are, from
left to right:
Sara
Headd, who will teach science and math at Christian Brothers
High School in Sacramento;
Annemarie Beretta, who will teach history at De La Salle
High School in Concord;
Francisco Lopez, who will teach history, government, and
Spanish at La Salle High School, Yakima;
Angela Martinez, who will teach Spanish, history, and religion
at Justin-Siena High School in Napa; and
Adelaida Duenas, who will teach Spanish at Sacred Heart
Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco.
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"I would like to be the kind of Lasallian teacher I had here at
Saint Mary's,
people like Ron Isetti, Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, and Myrna Santiago.
To me a Lasallian teacher is not just an authority figure but
someone
who is there to help however it's needed, to help students grow."
–Francisco Lopez
These
Saint Mary's grads of 2001 are the first recipients of Lasallian
Educator Fellowships.
Having agreed to teach in District high schools, they are earning
their teacher certification in
Saint Mary's School of Education tuition-free, with grants awarded
by the College,
and will begin teaching full-time in the fall of 2002.
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Cultivating
Positive Relationships
It
is notable that this is not an administrative position but a faculty position.
The office is thus a clear signal that the Lasallian mission is central
to the College's educational work. And it requires a professor with a
wide set of skills: a doctorate in education or related field, a proven
record of teaching, scholarship, and service, an ability to articulate
the College's mission, and the ability to "cultivate positive relationships
among the programs, departments, centers, schools at Saint Mary's College,
the District, and the International Institute."
A
tall order. But for Carole Swain, an inspiring challenge. She says, "I
took the job because I felt that my colleagues in the College might get
as much out of relationships with the Brothers' schools as I have, both
locally and internationally. We at the College have resources to share,
and the mutual benefit of working together appeals to me. I felt those
mutual benefits deeply myself when I first went to St. La Salle University
in the Philippines in 1992. I went there to do some teacher-training work,
and I saw teachers there with very few resources energized by their faith
and their sense of community. I came back filled with ardent zeal about
what an educational community can be."
Doing
the Simple Things
That
zeal propels her as she fulfills the office's mandate. Says Swain, "I
go around doing fairly simple things. I tell people in the College about
all the opportunities through the College and the District to connect
with other educational works. And I ask the high schools and other works
in the District what they need that the College might supply. Based on
the answers, I try to put together needs and resources."
Here
are two examples of needs and resources coming together in the past year,
illustrative of the many levels on which connections are being made. One
example involves a new experience for one person; the other is the creation
of a whole new program.
The
person: In summer 2001, for the first time, a College faculty member
took part in the District's Summer Immersion program in India and Sri
Lanka. Thomas Cooney, coordinator of the Master of Fine Arts program in
Creative Writing, calls his trip to India "one of the best experiences
of my life. Before I left, I asked the whole College community to donate
school supplies, which I took with me for the kids in the orphanage there.
I interacted with the kids, worked on school buildings, and helped the
De La Salle Brothers' postulants with their English. I had left California
exhausted, and I came back from India refreshed." How did he find out
about this link to the International Institute? "Carole Swain came to
a meeting of the College's program directors to tell them about the District's
programs."
The
program: Viki Aquistapace, a biology teacher at De La Salle High School
in Concord, says, "I was new at the school in fall 2000, and I asked the
Principal, Brother Chris Brady, how we could reach out to science professionals
to enrich our biology curriculum. He phoned the College, and Carole Swain
got to work." In January 2001, with two College science professors, Judd
Case and Jacob Lester, volunteering their time and talent, the inaugural
Jan Term High School Science Experience took place. Sophomores from De
La Salle High did a month of work in the new teaching labs of J.C. Gatehouse
Hall at Saint Mary's. Plans call for the program to become an annual event
and to expand to include chemistry and physics. In addition to getting
college-level science experience, the sophomores got a bonus on their
last day: SMC tee shirts handed out by Carole Swain.
"Especially
Lasallian High Schools"
As it says in the job description, the Special Assistant is to focus especially
on Lasallian high schools. The principal focus has indeed been there,
particularly in the training and formation of teachers. One important
initiative of the past year was the first-ever Service Learning Institute.
In January 2001, the College, its CILSA office, and De La Salle Institute
combined to bring teachers, staff, and students from District high schools
to the Saint Mary's campus to confer about service and service learning
in their high school curricula. "I'm incredibly impressed and inspired
to see something like this finally happen," said one participant. Another
innovative project was the inaugural Religious Studies Institute held
on campus in June 2001, another joint venture of the College and the District
for the benefit of teachers in District high schools. "The Religious Studies
Institute is a promising step in the right direction," says Sorin Spohn
of Saint Mary's College High School in Berkeley.
"But
as far as the College's outreach to the District high schools is concerned,"
says Carole Swain, "the top story of our first year has to be the
Lasallian Educator Fellowship Program just created in cooperation with
the Saint Mary's School of Education and overseen by Joan Peterson of
the School of Education. This really had its start, like so many other
things, in the process of asking the District schools, 'What do you need?'
The high schools said, 'We need teachers.'"
Through
this program, the College awards grants to graduating seniors or to recent
College graduates who agree to teach in District high schools. In exchange
for their commitment to a three-year term of teaching, the Saint Mary's
graduates are enabled to spend a year in full-time work toward their teaching
credential in the Saint Mary's School of Education, tuition-free, with
the prospect of beginning their high school teaching the following fall.
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"You have inaugurated something very worthwhile
with solid potential."
"A
well-connected combination of theory and practice."
So
said participants in an important new initiative in teacher formation
–the Religious Studies Institute –
held at Saint Mary's College in June 2001 as a joint venture
of the College and De La Salle Institute.
High school teachers from throughout the District came for
a week of workshops and presentations
on adolescent spiritual development and religious education.
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Grants
for Teachers in Training
The
five graduates of 2001 currently in the program (one student, Jazareth
Lopez, was accepted but has deferred her studies until next year) are
excited and grateful. Says Annemarie Beretta, "I was applying to Lasallian
Volunteers, but Brother Michael Avila knew that my ultimate goal was teaching,
and he told me about this new fellowship program, and when I interviewed
with the people from De La Salle High I felt right at home." Francisco
Lopez says, "I would like to be a teacher like the ones I had here at
Saint Mary's, people like Ron Isetti, Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, and Myrna
Santiago. To me a Lasallian teacher is not just an authority figure but
someone who is there to help however it's needed, to help students grow."
Angela Martinez says that for her the fellowship program is perfect: "First,
it pays the cost of getting my credential. Second, I get to teach in a
Lasallian school. Third, I do my credential studies in the Saint Mary's
School of Ed. I found out about the program because my teacher handed
out flyers in class and there was a meeting about it that very afternoon.
For me, it just fell out of the sky."
Of
couse, those flyers didn't come from the sky. They came from the office
of the Special Assistant to the President for Lasallian Initiatives. Enduring
connections are indeed being made, by simple means pursued energetically:
A word dropped here, a flyer posted there, a phone call answered, a program
started. "I'm a kind of broker," says Carole Swain modestly. Other applicable
metaphors might be town crier, networker, bridge builder, resource, catalyst,
and talent scout.
However
you characterize what Carole Swain does, it seems to be working. Schoolkids
in India toting SMC notebooks and folders, and sophomores at De La Salle
High in Concord wearing SMC tee shirts are small but vivid markers of
the many links being created –living connections that will, we hope,
endure.
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Copyright 1999-2002. All Rights Reserved De La Salle Institute
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