Brebeuf Jesuit faculty and staff
teach by example

By Brandon A. Evans

Just as the students at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis are expected to perform community service, so are the faculty and staff.

About 125 members of the faculty and staff of the private Catholic high school—just about all of them—gave their example of Christian living by helping out at two Indianapolis center-city schools on March 7.

The adults split into two groups—one spending the day at All Saints School and the other at St. Philip Neri School.

Maureen Reynolds, principal of St. Philip Neri School, said that it is nice to know that people care about the school.

“Even though it’s not our fault that we can’t do all the maintenance … I do think it’s a way of letting the kids know that they’re important,” Reynolds said. “I think when the building looks nice, it’s an indication that we care about what goes inside of it.”

She said that the Brebeuf Jesuit faculty and staff were painting parts of the hallways, replacing lights, cleaning the cafeteria, preparing lunch, fixing computers and repairing water damage in some closets.

“I figure even if everything doesn’t get finished, the fact we’ve gotten a start makes it more likely that it is going to get done,” Reynolds said.

Brebeuf Jesuit students had the day off, and normally the faculty and staff spend the day on retreat working on professional development.

Still, the students at both center-city schools were in class. As they walked about St. Philip Neri School, the students could see the host of people working to maintain the building.

And what the students at the center-city schools could see with their eyes, many of the Brebeuf Jesuit students were at least aware of.

“Part of the reason why we’re doing it is [that] we want to model behavior for the students,” said Kate McVey, director of college counseling at Brebeuf Jesuit.

Iris Manton, who teaches mathematics at the high school, said that the day was “an opportunity for us to give back, just like we expect our students to give back to the community.

“One of the main components at Brebeuf is community service,” Manton said.

“I think it’s great,” said Andy White, a U.S. history teacher. “We kind of substituted our faculty retreat for this so, instead of focusing on ourselves, we get to focus on somebody else.”

Being able to help out a less fortunate school is “the main point” of the day, said art teacher Joe Winhusen. The day also gave the faculty and staff a chance to build their own community outside of school.

For Winhusen, it was also a chance to experience a part of the Indianapolis Catholic community that he had never seen.

The same was true for Margot Gehrung, a cafeteria worker at Brebeuf Jesuit who helped out by painting hallways at St. Philip Neri School.

“I think all of us are having a good time,” she said. †