What Makes a Jesuit School Different?

A few weeks ago, we welcomed Dr. Michele Murray here on AMDG. Dr. Murray is the new president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. To keep up this back-to-school theme, our two guests today are leaders of the Jesuit Schools Network of North America (JSN), which is the network of 90 Jesuit secondary and pre-secondary schools in our region of the world. JSN serves as a hub, bringing together faculty and staff from our schools to help them learn from each other and grow into even stronger institutions. Our first guest is Jen LaMaster, who began serving as JSN’s executive director this past July. Before taking on this role, she was a leader for secondary education for the Jesuits’ Midwest Province. She also spent 13 years in leadership roles at Brebeuf Jesuit Prep in Indianapolis. Our second guest is Lauren Hackman-Brooks, who is JSN’s director of mission formation. She spends her time helping schools to live out their Catholic, Jesuit identities in bold and creative ways. Lauren has spent her entire career in Jesuit education, from post-college volunteer service at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago to four years leading mission engagement at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Host Mike Jordan Laskey loved hearing Jen’s and Lauren’s 30,000-foot perspective on Jesuit education. He asked them about the biggest challenges school leaders are facing today and how Jesuit schools can stand out in a very crowded high school marketplace. What makes our schools unique? Jen and Lauren both bring a huge amount of passion, energy and insight to the work, and we think you’ll learn a lot about the state of Jesuit secondary education today. More about the JSN: https://jesuitschoolsnetwork.org/ AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. www.jesuits.org/ www.beajesuit.org/ twitter.com/jesuitnews facebook.com/Jesuits instagram.com/wearethejesuits youtube.com/societyofjesus www.jesuitmedialab.org/