Fordham Preparatory School - Ramview Ramview Spring 2018 | Page 4

Message
successive nor’easters! Even so, much of the natural
world has no choice but to grow.
For human beings, however, growth cannot be taken for
granted. It is a spiritual and moral process which involves
God’s grace and our choice to accept this grace. Of
course, there are obstacles to growth in human life. We
can become stuck in routines which stultify us; we can
resist change and cling fearfully to the status quo; we can
put up barriers or wear blinders to protect us from the
challenging risks and perspectives that growth entails.
Fordham Prep articulates it core values—the outcomes
by which we evaluate our success—in the Jesuit Schools
Network document, The Profile of the Graduate at
Graduation. The Profile lists five descriptors by which
we judge whether our graduates have been formed
according to Ignatian values. At graduation, and as a
result and consequence of four years at Fordham Prep,
we desire our graduates to become Open to Growth,
Intellectually Competent, Loving, Committed to Justice
and Religious.
As we move toward this year’s commencement for the
Class of 2018 through the slow progress of the season of
this New York spring, my mind turns to the Profile of the
Graduate at Graduation and its first descriptor, Open to
Growth.
Open to Growth is, perhaps, the most popular “Grad at
Grad” descriptor among Prep students. When quizzed on
these descriptors, “Open to Growth” rolls frequently off
the tongue first. Maybe this is to be expected: there is,
after all, tremendous potential for growth of all kinds —
physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual — during the
transformative years of secondary school in the life of a
young man.
But in the 4th century, St. Gregory of Nyssa revealed a
subtle feature of the phenomenon of human growth
when he stated that “sin happens whenever we refuse to
keep growing.”
Imagine for a moment if during this springtime, flowers
refused to bloom; or trees decided not blossom; or grass
failed to return to its green hue. Perhaps this is not so
hard to imagine, given our interminable winter, with its
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Fordham Prep aims to help our students accept and
cooperate with God’s grace and the growth that it
engenders. This is the purpose and point of our advanced
and honors courses, our retreat program, our lavish
offering of extra-curricular activities, our faculty
professional development program, our renewed
emphasis on the performing and fine arts, and even our
new global education program, in which nearly 80
students will travel this year to explore new cultures in
order to grow and learn from students at Jesuit high
schools in Europe, Australia and Africa. Growth is also the
organizational goal behind the Prep’s Strategic Plan, and
our educational commitment to undertake a curriculum
review beginning next year.
As we prepare to
congratulate the
Class of 2018 on
their success, it is a
good moment for our
graduates to discern
how they have grown
during these four
years, and for us to
invite them to
continue to maintain
an openness to
future growth
throughout their
lives. These questions are not only valuable to our
graduates. In this season of Easter — of springtime — all
of us are invited to seek and find God in new growth; in
ways which God desires to stretch our minds and hearts;
in pursuing new directions and endeavors; in developing
new habits. During this season of springtime and the
promises and hope it holds, my prayer is that you will
renew your commitment to growth. In light of this growth
and renewal, may you emerge just as the flowers and trees
on the Rose Hill campus have: reinvigorated and reflecting
God’s greater glory.
Christopher J. Devron, SJ
President