Fordham Preparatory School - Ramview Ramview FALL 2017 | Page 4

Message
This issue of Ramview acknowledges
with gratitude the generosity of those
who made a financial gift to Fordham
Prep during the past year. This makes
it Ignatian to the core. Ignatius Loyola
taught famously that gratitude is the
foundation of faith, so much so that
he identified the lack of gratitude as
the most serious sin one could
commit.
In his Examen — the well-known
practice in which we review our daily
experiences to search, find and
discern God’s presence — Ignatius
recommends an extended reflection
on reasons for us to give thanks to
God for his blessings and gifts. In this
sense, then, we can imagine this issue
of Ramview as a journal of our
collective and annual Examen
recording our gratitude to God for the
generosity of our donors.
The paradox, of course, is that the
experience of gratitude is also at the
heart of the generosity which
produced these gifts to begin with.
From all of the donors whom I meet
— whether they are alumni, parents
or past patents — I hear stories of
gratitude: gratitude for a
brotherhood which transcends time
and geography; gratitude for the
values of Jesuit education, which form
critical minds and questioning hearts;
gratitude for exposure to the diversity
of a student population that
embraces so many cultures,
ethnicities and communities in
metropolitan New York; gratitude for
a teacher who cared enough to get to
know her students personally;
gratitude for a coach who believed
that skills could be developed;
gratitude for discovering one’s gifts
and talents, whether on the stage,
court, field or classroom; gratitude
for learning that service, becoming
a Man for Others, is a joyful pursuit;
gratitude for the practice of reflection
and a spirituality and faith that finds
God in all things.
Your gifts — the gifts recorded on the
pages of this Ramview — advance
Fordham Prep’s transformative
mission to new generations of young
men. For this generosity, I am
profoundly grateful. Thank you. May
God bless you. And may our
reflection on God’s gifts continue to
produce the cycle of virtuous
generosity that finds its source in
God, and leads us back to Him in
gratitude.
Christopher J. Devron, SJ
President
The first days of a new school year
are always filled with a burst of
energy and excitement as the Prep
community returns from a time of
rest and renewal over the summer.
The night before our official return,
my five-year-old son, Gianluca, gave
me a big bear hug and with a beaming
smile exclaimed: “Good luck on your
first day of school tomorrow!”
Though he was on the eve of starting
Kindergarten (and just as thrilled for
that), it was a sure sign that this was
going to be the start of a great year
for both of us (though I didn’t tell him
this was my 34th “first” day of school!).
The summer months were busy ones
at the Prep. Our Global Education
program sent groups to Australia
and China, and our Christian Service
Immersion program ran eight trips to
Camden, Ecuador, Tennessee and the
Bronx. The weeks of July were filled
with academic study, sports and
activities for the 243 rising 8th
graders in HAP (Higher Achievement
Program) and the 54 rising 6th
graders in REACH (Recruiting
Excellence in Academics for Catholic
High Schools). Our 241 freshmen
took part in Freshman Technology
Orientation and over 175 students
participated in our Summer Sports
Camps for baseball, basketball, crew,
soccer and swimming. The generosity
of our faculty, staff and coaches
invited our students to a deeper
experience of themselves, of others
throughout the world, and of God
alive in their midst.
As we return this fall, two notable
changes will take shape for our
school community. First, we have
restructured our Counseling
Department into two distinct
programs: School Counseling and
College Counseling. Our counselors
and administration engaged in a
lengthy evaluation and review of our
existing program considering the
growing need to support both the
emotional and social needs of our
students through personal
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