FROM THE PRINCIPAL
1
I am most grateful for our efforts as a community to keep one another safe and healthy under these unique circumstances. Students, faculty, and staff in the school building have cooperated with our safety and health protocols with tremendous generosity and a genuine care for one another. A core group of adults are responsible each morning for daily health screenings, faculty proctor large areas of the building with careful attention to how our students interact with one another, and our facilities and cleaning staff work tirelessly to ensure that classrooms, offices, and the campus as a whole is properly maintained and disinfected each and every day. When members of our community have been sick with COVID-19, our nursing staff and trained contact tracers collaborate with Prep families with clear communication and immediate action for necessary quarantines. Keeping Fordham Prep open for in-person and remote learning in a time of pandemic has truly given new meaning to what it means for us to be a community rooted in patient understanding, loving compassion, and hopeful vision for the future.
2
For what are you most grateful in the past 12 months?
Can you think of any ways the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic will change the way the Prep educates its students?
In one respect, I believe that the way the Prep educates its students will remain unchanged in the core dimensions of what makes Fordham Prep such a special place: the relationship between faculty and students, the brotherhood and sense of belonging found in the Commons, and the desire for academic excellence rooted in character formation and a faith that does justice. In another respect, the lessons learned this year will afford us the opportunities to reimagine how to deliver effective, meaningful instruction to students. I can envision courses at the Prep that would be completely online, either during the academic year or for enrichment over the summer. The ways in which teachers deliver assessments and how students produce original work for their classes and the wider public are all open to new possibilities when the pandemic ends. For this exciting new chapter, I believe that our students’ experiences and perspectives will be essential for us to shape teaching and learning with them as they engage with a rapidly changing world, whether that is through iSTEAM initiatives, the classics, or the humanities. It’ s all connected.
Joseph A. Petriello, PhD’ 98
18 RAMVIEW