Schools from the District of San Francisco and the New Orleans-Santa Fe District were represented at the annual gathering of Campus Ministry and Student Activities leaders. The group is pictured at St. Joseph’s Camp on the Russian River in California.

A Catholic, Lasallian school is a richly layered learning community that seeks to offer students not only excellent academics but also plentiful resources for developing spiritual life, social skills, leadership ability, and awareness of the needs of others. 

Key facilitators of progress toward those goals are the staff members in Lasallian schools who take on the challenging responsibilities involved in Campus Ministry and Student Activities.

Bringing directors of Student Activities and Campus Ministry together, and giving them time to reflect, share, pray, and plan, is the purpose of the annual meeting sponsored by the District of San Francisco’s Office of Education. This year’s gathering, held at St. Joseph’s Camp in Duncans Mills on the Russian River in northern California September 24-26, gave two dozen participants two-and-a-half days in which to share experiences, exchange ideas, report on activities, and set plans and priorities for the future.

One focus of this year’s meeting was consideration of how today’s tech-savvy teen-agers use communications technologies and how facilitators can effectively utilize these technologies to foster student leadership. Other discussions focused on the expression of Lasallian core principles in student activities, and developing tools for reporting progress on actions undertaken. The group also discussed relationships with the larger Lasallian family as exemplified in such activities as Twinning Programs, the VENAVER and Vanda Paaru immersion programs, and relationships between the secondary schools and Saint Mary’s College of California.

For complete information, contact Marilyn Paquette in the District of San Francisco’s Office of Education at mpaquette@dlsi.org.