"Welcome!" and "Why am I Here?"

So first, a heartfelt and happy welcome to all of our new students and families joining us for the 2012-13 school year – our 81st school year. I hope you all will experience, if you have not already, the hospitality of the Archmere community. I look forward to meeting all of our new students and parents in the coming weeks, and I also am looking forward to seeing our returning students and their families, as well.

And now second, the question: “Why am I here?” (And I hope this is not the question of the day for all our students after the first day of classes!) In all seriousness, this is probably one of the most fundamental questions of our existence, and it came to mind after reflecting on my summer experiences, as did the second question, “Do we ever really know?” This summer, our son’s after-college graduation experiences and our daughter’s co-op plans, the Saint Norbert Heritage Tour, and Archmere’s strategic plan have all underscored for me the questions, “Why am I here? and “How do we really find purpose?”

As many young people are searching for career and purpose in life, our son has begun that journey this summer after college graduation in May. Listening to him as we discuss things, I can recall the challenges of that time in my own life and the desire to find that meaningful profession or vocation that would allow me to feel fulfilled and to leave my “unique mark” on the world. Many years later, I think how impatient it was to expect “the” answer in the first job and even in the early years of my life’s work. And it seems that the young graduates of today are met with even more challenges than I was in an economy that is reformatting and in a world with so many choices and complexities. Our daughter is discovering all of the career possibilities in the field of information technology. The career iterations seem endless and constantly evolving. It seems that young people need to have even more patience to discern their purpose, with each year of lived experience helping to provide some of the answers.

We had a wonderful opportunity to partner with Saint Norbert College this summer and travel with a group of 21 teachers and administrators from the College and Archmere Academy to visit five Norbertine Abbeys in Belgium and France. Meeting the Norbertine priests from Tongerlo, Grimbergen, Averbode, Leffe, and Mondaye Abbeys offered a unique insight about the commitment of men in very distinct and separate communities that were united by a vision of a life articulated by Saint Norbert that included prayer and service with a commitment to poverty, chastity, and obedience. The work adopted by each Abbey over the years has conformed to the needs of the surrounding communities, but the spirit and the purpose of the work continues to be connected in a Norbertine approach that includes extreme hospitality, regular prayer, beautiful liturgy, education and scholarship, and partnerships with lay men and women to accomplish good work for those less fortunate. Humble, hospitable, and yet deliberate and faithful to their way of life, the Norbertines we met clearly were living the question, “Why are we here?” Sincere thanks to the organizers of the Heritage Tour from Saint Norbert College: Father Jay Fostner, O. Praem., Vice President for Student Affairs and Mission and Heritage, Dr. William Hyland, archivist, and Ms. Catherine Kasten, assistant to Fr. Jay and Dr. Bill. We look forward to future collaboration with the College and to other heritage tour opportunities to the members of the Archmere community.

Since January 2012, the school community has been engaged in a strategic plan. One of five key areas to be addressed is articulating, living, and promoting our mission as Archmere Academy. To do this, we need to understand from where we came - our origins – and where we want to go – our purpose. I feel very confident about both after having shared the Heritage Tour experience this summer with three of our faculty members: Ms. Leah da Ponte, Mr. Tim Dougherty, and Mr. Robert Nowaczyk, as well as our Board Chair, Mr. Bob Shields ’60 and his wife, Mary K. All of us who travelled together are looking forward to animating conversations with the Archmere community around our impressions and our ideas for future programs for our students, parents, alumni, and other members of the Archmere community. This key area of focus - mission - will guide and direct our work in the other four areas of the plan: attracting and retaining excellent faculty and staff; challenging motivated and talented students with 21st century skills; alumni engagement; and financial sustainability.

As we begin this new school year, I pray that all of our students will advance in their unique answers to “Why am I here?” as they move through their years at Archmere, so as to begin to understand their vocations in life. May God bless the Archmere Academy community and its extended family, and may the zeal and vision of Saint Norbert continue to be with us as we shape the future of the Archmere community together, so that in future generations, people may say of our Christian community, “See how they love one another, . . . see how they serve each other, [and] . . . see how they pray to their God.” (Nouwen, “Clowning in Rome,” c 1979, p.9).