Posts Tagged ‘Education’

Jesuit Father Joseph Costantino has been appointed as the new president of Canisius High School, in Buffalo, N.Y., beginning July 1. Fr. Costantino is returning to the site of his first assignment as a Jesuit novice in 1978.

His appointment also marks a return to a Jesuit president for the 143-year-old school. He succeeds  John Knight, the first lay president in the school’s history. Knight left Canisius in 2012 to lead St. Ignatius Preparatory School in San Francisco. In the interim, P. Joseph Koessler served as president while the Canisius High board searched for a permanent replacement.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to have a Jesuit back at the helm of Canisius. That was one of our key objectives we were seeking to fulfill,” said the chair of the school’s board of trustees David Kersten.

Fr. Costantino has been the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in New York City since September 2006.. A Brooklyn native, Fr. Costantino entered the Society of Jesus in 1977 and was ordained in 1987. Fr. Costantino is also a member of the board of trustees at Canisius College, where he spent three years teaching philosophy. He holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University, a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University and both a Master of Divinity and Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass. (now the Boston College School of Theology).

He was executive director of St. Ignatius Retreat House in Manhasset, N.Y., for seven years, and is a former board member of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, which provides service opportunities for retirees with the poor. Fr. Costantino also served as director of vocations for the New York and Maryland Province Jesuits.

“Living in community with the Jesuits who served at the high school and working alongside a group of seasoned Canisius lay faculty members in the Higher Achievement Program, I experienced the joys of teaching and learned about the magnificent work of this special Jesuit apostolate in Buffalo,” said Fr. Costantino, recalling his time at Canisius High as a Jesuit novice. [Buffalo News, Business First]

Loyola High School in Detroit and the board of trustees have announced the election of their fifth president, Jesuit Father Mark Luedtke, effective July 1, 2012.  Fr. Luedtke will succeed Jesuit Father David Mastrangelo, who has served at Loyola for 19 years as teacher, principal, and president.

Fr. Luedtke is a native of Chicago and a graduate of St. Ignatius College Prep and Georgetown University. After working in retail sales and marketing after college, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1999. He taught and worked in campus ministry during his three-year regency at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. Upon completion of his studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2010. For the past three semesters, he has been interning at Jesuit high schools in Sacramento, San Francisco, and New York City. In January, he will move to Detroit and begin immersing himself in the Loyola community.

As a member of Loyola’s Board of Trustees, Fr. Luedtke is very familiar with the school and is fully committed to its unique mission that has been fostered so carefully by Fr. Mastrangelo and Loyola’s staff.

To read the full announcement from Fr. Mastrangelo and other news in Loyola High School’s “Landmark” magazine, click here.

To view a video featuring Fr. Luedtke reflecting on his Jesuit vocation, click here.

The Jesuit Conference is pleased to announce that it now features Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education on Jesuit.org’s Press and Publications page.

The goal of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education and its publication of Conversations is to strengthen the Jesuit identity of our 28 colleges and universities. Each issue is written to stimulate the campus dialogue – through departmental discussions or faculty symposiums – on the pursuit of various ideals.

The following articles are excerpts from the current issue of Conversations magazine. An archive of past issues may be found here.

Dear Faculty, Ask for More
Experiencing The Spirit
How We Got Here
Seeking Work-Family Balance: Perils and Possibilities
So You Want to Be A President?
The Importance of Good Coffee

The opinions stated in the articles herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Jesuit Conference of the United States.

Feedback or comments? Click here to contact the editor.

Fifth grade students from Our St. Joseph Jesuit Parish Primary School in Kasungu, Malawi visit the site of the future Loyola Jesuit Secondary School with their headmaster (back left), Fr. Peter Henriot, SJ, development director of Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (back center) and Fr. Alojz Podgrajsek, SJ, project director of Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (back right).

Serving in Zambia on sabbatical in 1989 had a life-changing affect on Jesuit Father Peter Henriot. “Working in a village development project with local people and doing simple tasks did almost more for my education than all the other learning I gathered while studying and working in the United States. And at the end of that year, the people there gave me the best gift – the desire to stay.”

And for the next 21 years that’s exactly what Fr. Henriot was able to do, having joined the Zambia-Malawi Province (transferring from the Oregon Province) while working with the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia after having spent the previous 16 years with Center of Concern in Washington, D.C.  And, then in 2010, he was assigned to another purpose – to help establish Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (LJSS) in Malawi.

Although it is a country rich in natural resources, Malawi, whose nickname is “The Warm Heart of Africa,” continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of human development. It ranks a somber 153 out of 169 on the United Nations Human Development Index, which is largely caused by lack of educational opportunities for its youth.

“There simply is no future for Malawi without better education for the young people,” Henriot states.

Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Miller/The World-Herald

Jesuit Father Timothy Lannon, who began his first official day as the 24^th president of Creighton University on August 1, is the university’s first alumnus to serve as president. He is happy to return to his roots.

“I have a sense of this place,” said Fr. Lannon, who credits previous president Jesuit Father John Schlegel with being instrumental in his decision to become a Jesuit priest. “It’s been a long time since I was here. But one thing that has not changed is that students’ lives are changed here,” he said.

Lannon said he plans to take the next few months to “listen and learn” before announcing any changes or plans for the university.

“I want to get a better feel and build upon those dreams for the university,” he said.

One plan Lannon does have is to try to encourage more young men to join the Jesuit priesthood, something he actively pursued in his previous position as president of Saint Joseph’s University.

Lannon said that as a kid, the priests at his home parish in Iowa “seemed almost too holy” while the Jesuits at Creighton appealed to him. “I am a Jesuit priest first,” he said, “and a university president second.”

Read more about Lannon in the Omaha World-Herald.