President's Message

Summer 2009

 

Greetings from the Prep!

At graduation in June, I had the pleasure of joining many of my classmates of celebrating not only our 50th reunion but also the completion of my first year as Prep president. How proud we were of the talented young men of the class of 2009 who received diplomas that day! We wanted to let them know about all the things we had learned in the last 50 years!

I knew when I began my work at the Prep that other men really enjoyed their leadership positions in our Jesuit schools. But it did not occur to me that consolations would fill practically every day of my first year's tenure. A list of them would fill pages but here they are in general:

Competent, tireless staff and faculty   Parents who prepare their sons well for a tough curriculum and for experiences outside their comfort zone   An infectious generous spirit. The standard answer of a Prep student to me asking or thanking him for help: "No problem, Father."   The countless displays of varied student talent honed and refined by practice and commitment   Alumni and trustees generous in so many ways   A spirit of service demonstrated in service commitments by so many

The Scriptures teach us that God creates human nature with the potential to become perfect, to share love in the way that God shares it with us. Nothing is more exciting at the Prep than tracking our students as they experience the challenges and wonders of this humanity. The Prep helps them adopt strategies to acquire the human characteristics we desire in a graduate of a Jesuit high school: loving, religious, open to growth, intellectually competent, committed to justice. Do we stumble sometimes along the way? Of course we do but as the spiritual goes: "We fall down but we get up."

One of our new freshman in the class of 2013 provided us with the encouragement we need here at the Prep to commit ourselves to our mission. I introduced myself to him after he had made his decision to attend the Prep. He told me his name and I, thinking it sounded familiar, asked him, "That's a famous name, isn't it?" He answered without missing a beat, "It will be!" We want to work with boys like this. We can help them be famous in all of the characteristics of a Prep grad. Nothing will make us happier.

 

Yours sincerely,

George W. Bur, S.J. '59
President, St. Joseph's Preparatory School