A MESSAGE FROM FR. DEVRON
Dear Fordham Prep Community,
This issue of RAMVIEW you read today was finalized prior to
the global health crisis which has now radically transformed
our communities. This crisis has also transformed how
Fordham Prep carries out our mission
of faith, scholarship, and service. While I hope RAMVIEW
provides some good reading for you during these quiet days
of social isolation, I write to update our message in light of
these new challenging times.
Over the past several weeks, our administrators researched
best practices in strategies and methods to prepare for
distance learning. We developed our own comprehensive
Distance Learning Plan and provided our faculty with
professional development.
It is undeniably difficult to relinquish the interpersonal, face-
to-face dimension of our work. To put it simply, we miss
our students terribly. At the same time, this experiment
allows us to leverage the integration of technology into
our coursework introduced several years ago through
our innovative one-to-one computing program. Parents,
students, and teachers have shared with us positive and
encouraging reviews of our first week of distance learning.
We continue to advance our mission of faith and service
as well. Each weekday morning, we live-stream Mass from
the Prep’s student chapel. I always remember you and your
intentions in my prayers. Please consider joining us at 7:55
am ET, or sharing a specific intercession for our prayer.
We are exploring service opportunities too—whether by
inviting our students to call residents at our local nursing
homes, ensuring that POTS (a neighborhood outreach
center) has enough food for its soup kitchen, donating
personal protective equipment from our science labs to the
emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital and initiating a
local and national movement for other schools to follow suit.
As for the future, it is too early to tell how this new
environment will impact this summer’s planned work on
our East Wing Project; how families’ changed financial
situation will require additional tuition assistance; and the
outcome of next year’s enrollment. There are surely other
challenges we cannot anticipate.
Please be assured that the Board of Trustees and I have
stress tested various financial and enrollment scenarios
in order to sustain and strengthen the Prep’s 179-year
mission entrusted to us. Thanks in large part to our
generous alumni and parents, the past few years have seen
record-breaking giving, and growth in class participation
rates. The Prep’s endowment, which doubled over the past
five years, is managed conservatively for long-term growth
by outside professional advisors who report to the Board’s
investment committee. This year’s Annual Fund has
performed better than our year-to-date projections, and our
annual Igniting Our Mission dinner and auction netted more
than $400,000.00 for our new iSTEAM Program.
Despite present uncertainties, I know that our community has
always stepped forward to lead and serve when we have most
needed their generosity and care. I trust that we can count on
your support, as you are able, as we move forward in faith to
form Men for Others, dedicated to God’s greater glory.
In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius Loyola teaches that “love is
shown more readily in deeds than words.” Now we are being
urged to cease action, precisely as an act of service, as we
practice social distance to prevent the spread of this virus.
Maybe now is the time for us to seek the One who acts first,
in love, and labors in our hearts.
Through the Exercises, Ignatius invites us to “sentir y gustar
de las cosas internamente”—to taste and see the internal
movements of one’s heart. As one commentator writes:
“In a busy life filled with chores and tasks, options and
possibilities - often occupied and preoccupied - it is easy to
stop seeing, listening, tasting and feeling. Speeding through
life, and suffering from. . . ‘the mountain of too much,’ we
run the risk of becoming mere consumers of experiences,
hardly ever stopping long enough to taste and see how Life
(God) has been blessing us” (Philip Chircop, SJ).
I pray that you and your family may remain safe and healthy.
But I pray also, that as the world pauses, you may “taste
and see” God’s blessings in the internal movements and
quiet and perhaps less explored recesses of your heart.
Finally, a request: as you pray, please remember us--
especially our students and faculty.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Christopher J. Devron, SJ
President
To get the latest news and updates regarding Fordham Prep, please visit our website at fordhamprep.org and our social media channels.