September 1, 2025 • 37 mins
Step inside the thoughtful, intentional process of welcoming freshmen to Rockhurst High School through this revealing conversation with Chris Bosco, Assistant Principal for Student Life. Discover how this Jesuit college preparatory school has carefully crafted a freshman transition experience that begins months before the first day of school and continues throughout the critical first year.
What makes the Rockhurst welcome unique? It starts with special events like signing days and summer socials where incoming students begin building relationships with upperclassmen who become mentors and guides. The formal orientation day includes a meaningful welcome Mass where parents join their sons as they symbolically walk up the McGee steps into their new community. After being enthusiastically greeted by upperclassmen, freshmen are guided through their schedules and introduced to key resources that will support their journey.
The heart of the freshman experience is the comprehensive CURA program that combines small group counseling, freshman seminar, and the Camino project. This intentional approach helps students navigate the transition to high school while introducing them to the five ideals that will shape their four-year journey: being open to growth, loving, religious, committed to justice, and intellectually competent.
Mr. Bosco reveals what he calls "the secret sauce" of Rockhurst—the vibrant club life that offers approximately 50 different organizations where students can pursue existing passions or discover new ones. From Culinary Club to Robotics, these student-led activities create spaces where young men develop leadership skills, form deep friendships, and find their place in the community.
Ready to discover how brotherhood is built from day one? Listen now to understand why Rockhurst graduates become such well-spoken, thoughtful young men ready to make their mark on the world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Rock Talk, the official podcast of
Rockhurst High School in KansasCity, missouri, where we explore
the voices, values and vibrantlife of our Jesuit college prep
community, hosted by theadmissions and marketing team.
Each episode featuresconversations with students,
faculty alumni and specialguests as we share stories of
academic excellence, faithformation, brotherhood and
(00:21):
service.
Whether you're a prospectivefamily, a proud alumnus or
simply curious about what makesRockers unique, this is your
inside look at life at the Rock.
Hello everyone.
Today we are excited to welcomeAssistant Principal for Student
Life, chris Bosco, to kind oftalk with us a little bit about
that idea of welcome andbrotherhood that you heard from
(00:43):
our SGA leaders about last week.
Mr Bosco's main focus on campusis not only just student life,
as in clubs, activities,co-curriculars, but also looking
at how we wrap around servicesfor our students through our
counseling department and someof the work they do there.
Thanks for coming today, mrBosco.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you for having me.
Hello and hello everyone.
Thanks for coming today.
Mr Roscoe, thank you for havingme.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hello and hello everyone, great.
So, as I said, our theme forthis set of four podcasts is the
idea of welcome and brotherhood, and now we're just moments
away.
We record these podcasts alittle in advance, but next
Monday, the 18th, is our kind ofkickoff for the freshmen, our
orientation.
So take us back.
(01:25):
You know, how are some ways wewelcome our incoming freshmen
class, how do our upperclassmenkind of play a part in that and
kind of what do you see as avalue of some of the things we
have in place?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, there's a lot of programming that goes into
that process of welcomingfreshmen and we're talking about
freshman orientation and trulythe process began back in the
spring and even over the winter,I think there were it's called
something like signing days,where incoming freshmen were
invited to come in and have alittle special time as they
(01:58):
accepted their acceptance intothe school and then in the
freshman registration night withfreshmen and their parents.
That was, I believe, in Aprilof last year and part of that
was hearing from administratorsand some other key people about
that transition of ending middleschool and working towards the
summer and working towards beinghere as freshmen and we're
(02:22):
drawing close to that point now.
But then we also took thefreshmen out of that setting and
we're drawing close to thatpoint now.
But then we also took thefreshmen out of that setting and
we we moved them over to kindof a fun side where a bunch of
upperclassmen were prepared togive them kind of a rocker's
welcome, peer-to-peer with loudmusic, drums and some other sort
of silly fun.
And it's a great night becausewhat the upperclassmen are
(02:44):
trying to do is give everystudent who is there wondering
is this a place for me?
What's this going to be like?
Am I going to know anybody?
Am I going to make friends?
What am I going to do?
Can I do this, am I going tomake it here?
And we give them lots ofexamples of students who are
(03:06):
just a few years older kind ofstepping forward and saying here
are all the things that I'mdoing, here's how I did it, you
can do it too.
There's a place for you, youcan be just like me, but you can
kind of write your own way too.
So from that moment in thespring, there's the freshman
summer social that occurs injune, which is really just
getting the, the young men, oncampus and having some fun
together, and there's a lot ofupperclassmen involved in that.
Then freshman orientationcoming up is really, I think,
(03:29):
where we say, okay, you're oursnow, you're truly ours now, and
we've got a whole day plan of ofhow we want to introduce you to
important people, and thatincludes each other, not just
the adults in the building.
But we want them to startestablishing and, frankly, by
this time, reinforcingrelationships that they have
with peers and kind of get theminto the system that will start
(03:52):
on freshman orientation day andthen continue all through
freshman year.
So they'll be able to walkthrough their schedules with
upperclassmen showing themaround.
They'll be able to hear fromthe academic assistant principal
at the dean's office.
They'll get to meet with theircounselors.
They'll get to meet withupperclassmen brothers who will
(04:14):
kind of be ushering themthroughout the day but also
having opportunities to talk tothem about transition topics.
How do you make friends?
For example, what's it likebeing a student in an all-boys
school?
What do I do for lunch?
Sometimes, as adults, we thinkof these really broad conceptual
things of well, we're going totalk to them.
(04:35):
Freshmen, on the first day ofschool, they just want to know
where is my classroom Am.
I supposed to be seated in thefront of it or in the back of it
, and so, as orientation goes,it's really just trying to break
through all those scary moments.
By the time they leave, okay,yeah, this is my place, I feel
(04:55):
comfortable here, it's morecomfortable.
First day of school comes yeah,it's jitters, but they'll
understand.
Like, okay, I know, I knowwhat's happening.
As we tell the brothers andtrain them for freshman
orientation, the goal is to beas welcoming and inclusive and
the goal is to make the freshmenfeel comfortable, they are
(05:17):
welcomed here, they have a placeand that there are lots of
resources around them includingeach other.
If you have any questions, letus know so way back when when.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I was a freshman.
I remember the experience thatI had because at the end of the
day, I was fortunate.
You know, not all of ourstudents go to Catholic schools.
You know, especially nowthere's the population is
growing increasingly from youknow different schools than you
(05:51):
know the Catholic schools.
But I came in familiar withguys, whether it was through
sports, classmates, all of thosethings.
And now, being on this side ofit, I'm curious when I hear you
saying all this stuff, how muchthought has gone into making
(06:12):
sure our freshmen come intoRockhurst prepared to have as
much success as possible, likeyou just mentioned.
I'm just listening to you andyou know the conversations Beth
and I've had and it's like, ohman, I wonder how much, like at
(06:33):
what point one had it changedover the years.
But like, at what point do youstart even thinking about, hey,
we need to make sure we havethis, we need to have this, this
thing in place, we need to makesure this doesn't become a
barrier, because coming intothis environment can be
intimidating.
But you know how much have thisthing in place, we need to make
sure this doesn't become abarrier, because coming into
this environment can beintimidating.
But how much thought andplanning goes into that freshman
experience.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That never stops.
We're already thinking about,we assess how things are going
in one year.
We're always thinking, okay,and how might we want to
consider doing that differentlynext year?
It's just the constant part ofour reflection.
Students to do that, so weshould model that as well.
(07:14):
We start conversations inspring, or I also work in our
summer, so we have a lot ofincoming freshmen, various
coursework camps, camps as well,and that process starts in
December of the year before theyget here.
When we're talking aboutorientation, those plans take
(07:34):
place in the spring as well, andthen they really start over the
summer and we're just lookingat okay, how did this event go,
this portion of the event go theyear before, the years before?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It was only a couple years ago that we started doing
a welcoming mass in which weinvited parents to that, instead
of just having the freshmenwalk in at that point in time
and then be told to go to aclassroom.
And they're going to go to aclassroom and they're going to
hopefully find it, and if theyneed help we'd have people along
the way.
But I mean, it was kind of likethat solitary walk.
(08:08):
This is what you experience,right, go to the classroom, you
can find it, and that awkwardmoment of not wanting to look at
anybody.
Right, it's almost like youknow a dance.
You're along the side of thewall, like I don't want to call
any attention to myself.
But we realized we were missingan opportunity there to not
only make that first experiencebetter but also to invite
(08:28):
parents to it.
And so a couple years ago weadded freshman welcoming student
mask with parents to it, andnow they're walking up those
mcgee steps, which I think is apowerful in itself.
Right, didn't walk up thosesteps.
For some it's the first timethey've stepped foot on campus.
That sounds crazy to think butfor some it really is Not for
(08:50):
most.
We have some students who onlylearned about rock first, maybe
a couple months ago.
We have other students.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, a couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
But then we also have a large group of students who
have been thinking about rockers, knowing about rockers, told
about rockers from an early age.
So how do we create a moment inwhich all of those and their
parents are like no, we'rewelcome, we're part of this
community and we're happy to behere.
It doesn't matter if you'recoming from north of the airport
(09:21):
or south of 199.
Everybody has that place ifthey want to be here.
And so the mass.
Now we have the students walkingdown and sitting with a parent
or two and it's just a beautifulmoment.
And then it's celebrated in thesacrament itself.
And then after that of an hour,they get a little bit of a
(09:43):
talking from Dave Laughlin, ourpresident, and a couple other
people that will say somewelcoming things.
But at that moment, that's whenwe ask the freshman to then say
goodbye to your parents and tostart walking to your classroom.
And as they come out of therose theater where we'll have
that mass I can now say thisbecause it'll be released after
(10:03):
that's when the upperclassmenand student government
association will be banging thedrum and, you know, giving them
more of us up here to peerwelcoming right and then
ushering them to the classroomwhere they'll continue
activities.
It's just a far differentexperience.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I think one thing both Chris and I can
attest to is that since MrLaughlin, our president, has
been back at Rockhurst one ofthe driving forces really behind
this idea of welcoming studentswell before they actually are
freshmen.
And so my predecessor, mikeComiskey, and I, when we first
(10:39):
started here at Rocker six yearsago, one of the first things we
talked about was what does thatspring of eighth grade year
look like for these students andhow do we make that obviously
known that they're wanted here,they're welcome here, and so
over the years and I'm going togive some credit to some other
schools we've begged borrowedand stolen some really great
(11:02):
ideas, one of which youmentioned that ceremonial
signing that we do right aftertheir admissions letters go out
and that I actually picked upfrom Cristo Rey High School in
Los Angeles.
We were at a Jesuit schoolscolloquium, which is a meeting
of all the Jesuit schools in thenation, and we got to visit
their Cristo Rey High School.
(11:22):
And they do not only highschool signing for every kid
that has made the choice to goto Cristo Rey, but they do one
for every student who'sgraduating, no matter where
they're going on to next.
So if they're going to collegegreat.
If they're going to trade school, great.
But they celebrate eachstudent's success and I thought
that was really cool and itdidn't have to be because they
were playing sports, it was just.
You know, we're proud to haveyou as part of our community and
(11:46):
we're proud to send you outfrom our community, so we really
like that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
By the way, a whole other podcast would be talking
about the Jesuit Schools Networkthat system yeah.
There are so many opportunitiesthat we have as a school on the
whole, but also individualdepartments and different levels
within it, from assistantprincipals, teachers to the
president and the board to beable to look at what other
schools around the countryreally frankly around the world,
(12:09):
but other Jesuit schools aredoing that are not that
different from us and the amountof wonderful communication and
ideas that get shared, that wayis really an asset.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And then for the summer social, we actually stole
that from Casha Hall down inTulsa, oklahoma.
I had gone to visit my cousinsdown there and their son was
entering sixth grade there asthey start their school, their
upper school in sixth grade, andhe had just gotten back from
what he called his summer funday.
And I said, well, what's asummer fun day?
And he kind of told me about itand I thought, well, this is
(12:41):
something I think ourupperclassmen could really get
behind.
And let me tell you, this yearSteve joined us in July, so I
was running it solo this yearfor the first time ever, and the
squad of upperclassmen leaderswas outstanding and I could not
have done that, yeah, theyreally enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, I think for them, they like it because
they've been away from campusfor a couple of weeks.
You know the exams are finishedand announced, like, oh, we can
come back and have some fun.
And then our guys like, I thinkthey recognize the value, the
importance of being leaders andokay, oh, it's our turn now to
welcome in these freshmen.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And these guys were the first ones to experience
that summer social too, so it'skind of like full circle.
So that was cool.
So we've talked a little bitabout how we welcome them
leading up to and at orientation, but so much of the freshman
experience continues on throughthat first year.
So I know one of our majorefforts in the last several
(13:40):
years has been to develop theCura program, which Mr Bosco
oversees.
So can you tell the folks athome a little bit more about
what the Cura process is andwhat that program is and why
it's here, what it's designed todo?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah Well, like a lot of schools, we kind of
recognized years ago that thiswhole topic is about how we are
transitioning freshmen into thecommunity and learning our
expectations and trying to setthem up for success.
Like just trying to rethink howthat process works.
Our teachers do great work inthe classroom, but recognizing
okay, what on top of that can weadd to the freshmen as they're
(14:16):
kind of getting ingrained intothe community?
So we started off several yearsago with a freshman small group
program that was happening atthe same time as the freshman
seminar program.
Freshman small group prettysimple, pretty simple.
It's meeting in small groupswith their counselor on a
regular scheduled basis anddiscussing a lot of different
(14:36):
topics related to the highschool transition, everything
from social matters andcommunication to academic tips
and strategies, includinghearing from upperclassmen that
come in, and then some of theother things as well.
Just like saying if you needresources, here they are.
And most important to all ofthe freshman small group was
that the counselor wasestablishing relationship with
(14:56):
the students.
The students got to know thecounselor immediately and with
some regularity.
Freshman seminar Matt Darbylikes to say it's all the things
.
He's our dean of students, allthe things that I want freshmen
to know, but I just haven'treally had the time beforehand
to be able to tell him.
So I have a toolbox and I'mjust putting those tools in the
toolbox by being able to meetwith the freshmen on a regular
(15:18):
basis and discuss these thingsor to bring outside people in
like myself, for example, Italked a couple of times.
Well, that eventually becamethe Cura program when we added a
third component, just aboutwhat, maybe four years ago I
believe it was coming out ofCOVID and recognizing that you
know it's like so many thingsthat were changing, so many
needs that were changing.
You know, coming out of covid,connection, face-to-face
(15:39):
connection, relationshipconnection, trying to.
You know everybody is going tore-establish what normal is
right we remember that.
So the hero program really beganthen in the sense of now most b
days, which is we have arotating schedule in A and a B
day, and so most B days all ourfreshmen come in 45 minutes, 8
(16:01):
to 8.15.
And we divide them up intothree groups and a third of the
freshman class will be meetingwith their freshman small groups
, with their counselors.
So a third of the freshmen willbe meeting with the dean or his
guests in freshman seminar andthen a third of them will be
meeting with Beth and TylerBaker to discuss the Camino
project.
Camino is looking at the wecall it a graduate at graduation
(16:25):
, the values that we hold forall of our students that by the
time they graduate they will beon the road well, on the road in
fact towards reaching the fiveideals of the grad to grad, the
open to growth.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Would you mind, just for the listeners, will you go
ahead and just tell us whatthose five are?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think thosepeople are confused.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Absolutely yeah, and this has been around Jesuit
schools for several decades.
I believe that this came out ofa Jesuit conference in the 70s.
I could be wrong on that, so ifthere's any Jesuit listening to
me right now, direct your callsto Beth Van Dyke.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Don't call me please, Not, Steve yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So by the time a student graduates from a Jesuit
high school, they are on theroad towards being open to
growth, loving, religious, wesay, committed to justice and
intellectually competent.
I've been here this is my 25thyear starting and since I
(17:30):
arrived, that was the firstthing that students hear about
then and it's what they hearabout now and in the CURA
program, and specifically thefreshman Camino portion of it.
That's when freshmen will meetas a group and be able to hear
from people that are invited into talk about.
What does that mean for thegroup?
(17:51):
What does that look like to afreshman?
What does that look like to afreshman?
What does it look like as afreshman doing practicing that
value of being open to growth?
So it's not a talking to asmuch as it's trying to get the
freshman to reflect like wheream I seeing this?
Where do I have the opportunityto do this myself?
Where am I maybe not meetingthat expectation?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
not practicing being open to growth?
Where can I change that in thefuture?
And that's called the examineby the way, that's a whole other
topic too, but that's part ofIgnatian spirituality is to be
practicing that sense ofreflection, to say what are the
things that are happening, whatare the voices that are
happening in my experience?
What am I listening to when Isay voices?
(18:34):
Are they leading me in a goodway or are they leading me in a
not so good way?
And what are the graces that Iam seeking to make improvements?
And so we have thoseopportunities for freshmen to
hear about that with regards tothe grad, at grad, and then they
begin to map out what theyconsider as their artifacts,
(18:54):
what are their things that theycan point to and say you know
what?
Here's where I'm alreadypracticing being open to growth.
And then what the caminoproject does over four years is
try to give them a portfolio ofsense that they can show that
growth.
And that's five different areasover four years.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And they cannot just know that themselves as an
important point of reflection,but they can also share that
with their peers, their familiesand the outside world, and and
that's an exciting project,that's occurring, and so help me
out, because I had a veryinteresting conversation at
lunch and for folks listening ata place like this, you have a
(19:28):
lot of interesting conversationswith a lot of different folks
and it was about the rockers.
I call it the rockers man, butit was in relation to, as we've
been doing this orientations forthe last seven days, I think,
for me being through it right,got to interact with the student
panel.
(19:49):
then we had our sga come thisyou know to all, you know know
to the all faculty and we weretalking about how I was just
always impressed and appreciatehow well spoken and thoughtful
our young men are.
You have a conversation withthese upperclassmen, some of
(20:11):
them juniors, some seniors, withthese upperclassmen, some of
them juniors, some seniors, andthey can actually have a
dialogue with you as an adultand thoughts and opinions and
knowing that that's wherethey're heading when they leave.
Where or how have you seen?
You know the program that,whether it's Camino, cura,
(20:33):
personalis, impact those youngmen as they grow.
Like, okay, you hear it, youdeal with it.
Freshman year, like, when doyou see the light bulb go off?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, you touched on something that, like, really is
near and dear to me and italways has been.
At Rockhurst we have highexpectations.
We want students to feelchallenged, to be more, to be
more of what we believe they'recalled to be.
They're created to be by God asa gift.
So we have those expectations,but we also give them the
opportunities to practice it.
Like it's not enough just tosay this is what we want for you
(21:05):
or this is what we want you towant for yourself.
We're going to give them theopportunities to go through that
experience of recognizing I'mdeveloping it or, oh, I'm not
developing it.
I might need a little bit ofhelp.
And so those students that youtalk to, those were guys who've
had opportunities to own theirexperiences that they have when
they've been asked to dosomething, or if they say they
(21:26):
want to do something on anathletic field and owning what
it means to be a member of theteam and having to have the
responsible leadership toperform, to meet expectations
and to put in the hard work andto bring people along with them
or in a club or even in theclassroom.
When it comes to saying weexpect more and that's not a
(21:47):
threat.
That's more like a wonderfulinvitation to say let's do it
together.
But I think what you're tappinginto are just moments when our
students are not just told hey.
I think I want you to thinkabout what would you say to
these new faculty and staff asthey're coming in Now we're
going to give them lots ofopportunities, even as freshmen,
(22:08):
to get in front of one anotherand talk about things that are
important, things that excitethem, and then develop that over
four years.
So, going back to the FreshmanCura program, how is that like a
stepping stone or likebeginning step towards what you
experienced last week with someupperclassmen?
Number one, I saidrelationships, the Freshman Cura
(22:28):
program.
I think at the top ofeverything else, it's all about
forming relationships with peersand adults and recognizing like
I like these people, I knowthese people yeah, do I get
along really well with all ofthem?
Of course you know it's a realworld out there.
However, we're kind of werecognize that we're brothers,
we recognize that we're rockerstudents with each other and
they kind of start forming thatrelationship and then
(22:50):
friendships kind of ensue fromthat, adult connections that
occur in the freshman CURAprogram.
You know, similar manner ofkind of recognizing, like I see
that teacher a lot because she'shelping with you know she comes
into the Camino Project andshe's reviewing you know what
we're talking about and thatjust kind of sparks an
(23:12):
opportunity for him to developthat communication back and
forth with an adult.
I think what I hear fromstudents who visit from other
schools, what I think what Ihear from new teachers who might
be coming from other places, isjust kind of recognizing that
our students feel reallycomfortable being here.
They feel like when they'rehaving conversations with their
teachers.
Of course they respect them butthey also recognize like it's
(23:34):
fun to be in the classroom.
You hear from the students wecall them shadows.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I don't like that term.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It's just me I'm losing that battle for 25 years.
Our guest eighth graders.
When you ask them about theirexperiences shadowing, one of
the things that they'll oftensay after they talk about how
much they enjoy the food- that'strue yeah, ice cream goes a
long way.
Frozen yogurt, though, that veryfew people recognize.
When you ask them, though,about the day what they enjoyed,
after they say food, they saywell, the classes just seem like
(24:02):
different.
What does that mean?
To say the classes seemdifferent?
Well, what's different is thatthere's a bunch of brothers in
that classroom and the teacherhas a role in there to teach and
to guide and to direct and tochallenge.
There is that authority andrespect, but the teachers are
(24:24):
enjoying that experience as muchas the students are, and that
community, I think you know, isfound in those classrooms as
much as it's found in a club,which is a voluntary experience
or an athletic experience.
Maybe, steve, you can talkabout that kind of going through
that as a student.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, go ahead, steve I, yeah, and my mind is
swirling over there, but yeah,it's the enjoyment of the
process and being in thebuilding is is where we were at
Right.
I'm just, and I don't know Iget emotional about it.
I'm trying, I'm trying to, I'mtrying to center myself a little
(24:53):
bit because it's true, you know, when you you talk about, the
thing that jumps out at me whenyou're saying that, and it's
really close to my experience,is when we're talking about
forming those relationships andthose relationships creating
this environment that we're in.
That was one of the things thatI I can't shake.
Every before I was in this roleI was preaching that to the
(25:17):
high heavens, to any young manor family considering coming
here, because those were thethings that, no matter what I
was going through and I wasgoing through a lot when I was
here I always felt comfortable.
I always felt like if I neededto talk to them not that I did,
(25:39):
but if I needed to talk tosomebody I knew I could right,
if, if I was, was willing toshare or say something, that
people would listen and theywould support me and they would
pick me up and it's cool to see.
It's cool to see that stillhappening.
I know I don't know who wassaying that today when we were
(26:04):
talking, but it was talkingabout rockers evolving but not
changing.
Yes, yes years, because part ofthe success that we're able to
create is young men coming intothe same environment, the same
expectations, the same love, thesame all of that.
(26:27):
And you know you call givingopportunities to grow and learn
and hey, and make mistakes,right, you know I think of grace
Absolutely.
Hey, and make mistakes.
Make right, you know, I thinkof grace absolutely.
You're not coming in here andbeing smacked over the head, if
you will, when you areacclimating to such a impactful
(26:50):
environment and I call itimpactful in hindsight, but I
know, being young it could seemintimidating yeah, you're coming
in with a lot of guys comingfrom a lot of intimidating.
You're coming in with a lot ofguys coming from a lot of
different places.
You're coming in with a lot ofguys that are good at a lot of
stuff.
Oh yeah, you know, you'recoming in with teachers that are
really good at what they do andhave expectations and, at the
(27:11):
same time, you were afforded andare afforded room to be a young
man, growing into yourself.
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
by the way is not predictable right there's not a
written book on what my lifewill be you know when I'm, when
I'm 14, what it's going to be bythe time I'm 18.
And that's the real world, thatit's not 100, and I think,
given given the young men thatopportunity to explore what
interests them and also maybeeven accidentally stumble into
things like oh my gosh, thejuggling club was like a really
(27:43):
big deal here back in the teens.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
You said the juggling club.
The juggling club, oh, okay,yeah yeah, there's a shout out
there.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
That was the most absurd thing in the world that
suddenly the Berry Commons was aplace that you had trouble
walking through during activityperiod because there were
bowling pins plastic ones, thankGod and juggling balls and
rings and everything else flyingaround.
Of these kids that werejuggling, not many of them ever
thought about being a jugglerwhen they first stepped foot in
(28:14):
Rockers, but somehow becausethey kind of formed some
relationships with some friendswho are like, yeah, let's check
this out, and they felt thatcomfort to be able to goof
around a little bit at first.
But suddenly, you know, threeyears later they're running the
juggling club and in our missionas a school.
What I loved about that storytoo is that like they're going
to go to a nursing home andthey're going to perform in
(28:34):
front of the residents.
They're going to go to schoolsand they're going to perform.
They're going to, they're goingto perform in front of the
residents.
They're going to go to schoolsand they're going to perform.
They're going to meet up withthe improv club and do two shows
a year in which they take theproceeds of that and donate to
an organization of theirchoosing that they feel strong
about.
And the beauty of all that isthey're taking that risk of I
(28:56):
don't know anything about this,but why not?
They feel comfortable enough tobe able to do that and they do
that together and they getchallenged by it.
But they have that sense oflike resolve, that resiliency.
That's a big, big, importantword, right.
But they keep kind of movingthat direction of like yeah, I'm
just going to keep kind ofhoning my craft at it because
they're falling in love withsomething and then, as they're
doing it and they're enjoying itwith the people they're doing
(29:17):
it with, they suddenly startdreaming even bigger, which is
like we could put on a show, wecould raise money if we put on a
show, and then we could take itto a local place that we
volunteer at, for example.
there's a lot of examples ofthat.
That was, from you know, acouple of years back, but those
still exist today.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I was going to say.
I think the bowling pins andsuch have been replaced with
ping pong balls and hacky sackswhich I'm very excited to see a
comeback as a child of the 90s.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But I can't wait to blow out my ACL or whatever.
I'm trying to keep the hackysack up Right.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So on that note, actually it's a perfect segue,
another huge part of what you dobesides this very important
mission of making sure our boysare comfortable in the school,
have people and resources attheir fingertip Another big
thing that you do and I will say, as I'm going to self-proclaim
myself a prospective rocker'smom favorite because the calls I
(30:12):
get quite frequently and I havesome really great meaningful
conversation with prospectivemoms and some dads around.
really, this worry like is mychild going to meet people?
Are they going to make friends?
So you've talked a little bitabout how the CURE program does
that.
But this other side of your job, which is a huge job, is to
oversee our 45 different clubsand student organizations and
(30:35):
part of that freshman experienceis the freshman club fair.
So can you let the people athome know a little bit more
about what that experience lookslike?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, yeah, of course the club life here is really
important because we see it asjust an extension of what's
happening in the classroom interms of learning about the
world, learning about self,learning about interacting with
others what we see, you know,say, from an athletic standpoint
as well, with teams.
But we're also trying to givestudents the opportunities to
just develop interests outsideof the world in a variety.
(31:03):
If we don't have a club that astudent is interested in, they
know to come talk to me andwe'll start figuring out how can
we start that.
Or if we think we can do a clubstronger than we are, we'll
talk about that In our fewminutes ago, our past
conversation we were talkingabout we want to give students
opportunity to grow and it'salmost like the secret sauce, I
(31:25):
think.
Sometimes I refer to our clubsas like the secret sauce where
we're giving a young man who hasno prior experience in doing I
think of a name of a club thatwe do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Culinary club.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Culinary club, I think, is a great example, yeah,
but because he just kind ofeither said yes to an
announcement that invited him toit, or many times it's a friend
that just forms like let's gocheck it out.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Culinary Club's a bad example too, because there's
going to be food, so that'salways enticing, or 99% of them,
that's why they're going tothat meeting is they want to get
some food.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But what happens there is that they get to own
that.
It's their club.
Yes, there's a moderator therewho is going to support them and
guide them, but most of ourmoderators are pretty clear
about saying no, students, youhave to come up with the ideas.
You have to figure out.
You know how is this working.
I'm going to kind of guide youalong the way.
But it's your club.
We see a lot of strongfriendships come out of that.
(32:16):
We see a lot of excitingprogramming that affects the
community, comes out of the kindof spirit of the community, not
just the rah-rah spirit, butjust that sense of that
community life.
So we want freshmen to tap intothat One.
We have to.
You know we just graduated theseniors.
We need people to step intotheir shoes and we make that
pretty clear to the freshmen.
Like this is not just an invite, like we're asking you please
(32:40):
to get involved.
That conversation is alwayshappening.
Many of the presenters at thatspring freshman registration
that I refer to, they're comingand talking about their club.
They try to excite the studentinto maybe looking into that
club.
Freshman Kuro will early starttalking about club.
We understand freshmen need tohave a few weeks to kind of get
(33:01):
settled.
You know there's a lot ofadjustment that happens from
middle school to high school.
But then about three to fourweeks into the school year we do
have the freshman club.
Fair, this has been going on fordecades as well.
We fill up our largest gym, theLoyola Gym, with typically
about 50 different groups thatare in there.
That is kind of a wild showsometimes because you might have
(33:23):
the outdoors club in one cornerwith their tent set up and fly
fishing.
Across from them we have thedrone club.
That's flying drones.
We have across from them therobotics, that's driving around
a robot that's shooting eitherT-shirts or rubber chickens at
people as they walk by.
And then you got the album club, that's, you know, headsets
(33:43):
playing music and kind ofchilling and listens.
Really, you know good musicthere for sure, and so forth and
so forth.
It's I call it gauntlet,because you just walk up and
down the rows with with clubs onboth sides as the freshmen kind
of walk through it and thoseare upperclassmen behind those
tables trying to demonstrate.
You know what the club is, butinviting them Please, if you're
(34:04):
interested, if you want to knowmore, write your name down here.
We'll put you on a list.
We'll get information to you.
Listen to us on theannouncements when you hear we
have a meeting.
You know some that might havesocial media pages.
You know, follow us on this wayor that way.
They really want to get thefreshmen involved in that and
that's just an integral part ofwhat we do in every early
September, mid-september, andthen we follow up by then saying
(34:28):
, okay, coming October, what arewe doing to see which freshmen
are starting to follow up onthat, like?
which which are freshmen, areactually doing something, as
opposed to just writing theirnames down on a piece of paper
and then that goes on all year.
Would I like to think thatwe're able to catch every
freshman at the exact same timeand light that fire of
engagement and commitment in aclub?
No, it doesn't work that way.
You have to give thatindividual young man time to
(34:51):
adjust and find what reallysinks in for him, and for some
it's immediate, for others itmight take some time and, yeah,
it's a little bit challenging tohave that patience and that
sense of confidence thateverything's going to work out
in that regard, in terms ofgetting engaged beyond just the
classroom.
But then our process is, as thetime goes by, we're kind of
(35:13):
starting to look out, okay, whoseems like he's not getting
engaged in that way and what canwe do as the adults to step in?
What can peers do to maybe kindof turn up that attention to
try to lure that young man in?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Great.
Well, thank you so much, mrBosco, for joining us on what is
a very busy planning week foryou.
So thank you again for yourtime and for visiting with us.
Like Mr Bosco noted a littlepreview for next week's episode.
I'm going to step back on theother side of the microphones
and let Steve run things nextweek, because I'm going to be
joined by my counterpart, mrTyler Baker, our director of
(35:47):
STEAM, to talk about the CaminoProject, which is that portfolio
project that Mr Bosco referredto, and fill you guys in a
little bit about this excitingopportunity that is a four-year
formative experience for ouryoung men.
So be sure you turn in nextweek for a Rock Talk, thank you.
Welcome to Rock Talk, the official podcast of
Rockhurst High School in KansasCity, missouri, where we explore
the voices, values and vibrantlife of our Jesuit college prep
community, hosted by theadmissions and marketing team.
Each episode featuresconversations with students,
faculty alumni and specialguests as we share stories of
academic excellence, faithformation, brotherhood and
(00:21):
service.
Whether you're a prospectivefamily, a proud alumnus or
simply curious about what makesRockers unique, this is your
inside look at life at the Rock.
Hello everyone.
Today we are excited to welcomeAssistant Principal for Student
Life, chris Bosco, to kind oftalk with us a little bit about
that idea of welcome andbrotherhood that you heard from
(00:43):
our SGA leaders about last week.
Mr Bosco's main focus on campusis not only just student life,
as in clubs, activities,co-curriculars, but also looking
at how we wrap around servicesfor our students through our
counseling department and someof the work they do there.
Thanks for coming today, mrBosco.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you for having me.
Hello and hello everyone.
Thanks for coming today.
Mr Roscoe, thank you for havingme.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hello and hello everyone, great.
So, as I said, our theme forthis set of four podcasts is the
idea of welcome and brotherhood, and now we're just moments
away.
We record these podcasts alittle in advance, but next
Monday, the 18th, is our kind ofkickoff for the freshmen, our
orientation.
So take us back.
(01:25):
You know, how are some ways wewelcome our incoming freshmen
class, how do our upperclassmenkind of play a part in that and
kind of what do you see as avalue of some of the things we
have in place?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, there's a lot of programming that goes into
that process of welcomingfreshmen and we're talking about
freshman orientation and trulythe process began back in the
spring and even over the winter,I think there were it's called
something like signing days,where incoming freshmen were
invited to come in and have alittle special time as they
(01:58):
accepted their acceptance intothe school and then in the
freshman registration night withfreshmen and their parents.
That was, I believe, in Aprilof last year and part of that
was hearing from administratorsand some other key people about
that transition of ending middleschool and working towards the
summer and working towards beinghere as freshmen and we're
(02:22):
drawing close to that point now.
But then we also took thefreshmen out of that setting and
we're drawing close to thatpoint now.
But then we also took thefreshmen out of that setting and
we we moved them over to kindof a fun side where a bunch of
upperclassmen were prepared togive them kind of a rocker's
welcome, peer-to-peer with loudmusic, drums and some other sort
of silly fun.
And it's a great night becausewhat the upperclassmen are
(02:44):
trying to do is give everystudent who is there wondering
is this a place for me?
What's this going to be like?
Am I going to know anybody?
Am I going to make friends?
What am I going to do?
Can I do this, am I going tomake it here?
And we give them lots ofexamples of students who are
(03:06):
just a few years older kind ofstepping forward and saying here
are all the things that I'mdoing, here's how I did it, you
can do it too.
There's a place for you, youcan be just like me, but you can
kind of write your own way too.
So from that moment in thespring, there's the freshman
summer social that occurs injune, which is really just
getting the, the young men, oncampus and having some fun
together, and there's a lot ofupperclassmen involved in that.
Then freshman orientationcoming up is really, I think,
(03:29):
where we say, okay, you're oursnow, you're truly ours now, and
we've got a whole day plan of ofhow we want to introduce you to
important people, and thatincludes each other, not just
the adults in the building.
But we want them to startestablishing and, frankly, by
this time, reinforcingrelationships that they have
with peers and kind of get theminto the system that will start
(03:52):
on freshman orientation day andthen continue all through
freshman year.
So they'll be able to walkthrough their schedules with
upperclassmen showing themaround.
They'll be able to hear fromthe academic assistant principal
at the dean's office.
They'll get to meet with theircounselors.
They'll get to meet withupperclassmen brothers who will
(04:14):
kind of be ushering themthroughout the day but also
having opportunities to talk tothem about transition topics.
How do you make friends?
For example, what's it likebeing a student in an all-boys
school?
What do I do for lunch?
Sometimes, as adults, we thinkof these really broad conceptual
things of well, we're going totalk to them.
(04:35):
Freshmen, on the first day ofschool, they just want to know
where is my classroom Am.
I supposed to be seated in thefront of it or in the back of it
, and so, as orientation goes,it's really just trying to break
through all those scary moments.
By the time they leave, okay,yeah, this is my place, I feel
(04:55):
comfortable here, it's morecomfortable.
First day of school comes yeah,it's jitters, but they'll
understand.
Like, okay, I know, I knowwhat's happening.
As we tell the brothers andtrain them for freshman
orientation, the goal is to beas welcoming and inclusive and
the goal is to make the freshmenfeel comfortable, they are
(05:17):
welcomed here, they have a placeand that there are lots of
resources around them includingeach other.
If you have any questions, letus know so way back when when.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I was a freshman.
I remember the experience thatI had because at the end of the
day, I was fortunate.
You know, not all of ourstudents go to Catholic schools.
You know, especially nowthere's the population is
growing increasingly from youknow different schools than you
(05:51):
know the Catholic schools.
But I came in familiar withguys, whether it was through
sports, classmates, all of thosethings.
And now, being on this side ofit, I'm curious when I hear you
saying all this stuff, how muchthought has gone into making
(06:12):
sure our freshmen come intoRockhurst prepared to have as
much success as possible, likeyou just mentioned.
I'm just listening to you andyou know the conversations Beth
and I've had and it's like, ohman, I wonder how much, like at
(06:33):
what point one had it changedover the years.
But like, at what point do youstart even thinking about, hey,
we need to make sure we havethis, we need to have this, this
thing in place, we need to makesure this doesn't become a
barrier, because coming intothis environment can be
intimidating.
But you know how much have thisthing in place, we need to make
sure this doesn't become abarrier, because coming into
this environment can beintimidating.
But how much thought andplanning goes into that freshman
experience.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That never stops.
We're already thinking about,we assess how things are going
in one year.
We're always thinking, okay,and how might we want to
consider doing that differentlynext year?
It's just the constant part ofour reflection.
Students to do that, so weshould model that as well.
(07:14):
We start conversations inspring, or I also work in our
summer, so we have a lot ofincoming freshmen, various
coursework camps, camps as well,and that process starts in
December of the year before theyget here.
When we're talking aboutorientation, those plans take
(07:34):
place in the spring as well, andthen they really start over the
summer and we're just lookingat okay, how did this event go,
this portion of the event go theyear before, the years before?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It was only a couple years ago that we started doing
a welcoming mass in which weinvited parents to that, instead
of just having the freshmenwalk in at that point in time
and then be told to go to aclassroom.
And they're going to go to aclassroom and they're going to
hopefully find it, and if theyneed help we'd have people along
the way.
But I mean, it was kind of likethat solitary walk.
(08:08):
This is what you experience,right, go to the classroom, you
can find it, and that awkwardmoment of not wanting to look at
anybody.
Right, it's almost like youknow a dance.
You're along the side of thewall, like I don't want to call
any attention to myself.
But we realized we were missingan opportunity there to not
only make that first experiencebetter but also to invite
(08:28):
parents to it.
And so a couple years ago weadded freshman welcoming student
mask with parents to it, andnow they're walking up those
mcgee steps, which I think is apowerful in itself.
Right, didn't walk up thosesteps.
For some it's the first timethey've stepped foot on campus.
That sounds crazy to think butfor some it really is Not for
(08:50):
most.
We have some students who onlylearned about rock first, maybe
a couple months ago.
We have other students.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, a couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
But then we also have a large group of students who
have been thinking about rockers, knowing about rockers, told
about rockers from an early age.
So how do we create a moment inwhich all of those and their
parents are like no, we'rewelcome, we're part of this
community and we're happy to behere.
It doesn't matter if you'recoming from north of the airport
(09:21):
or south of 199.
Everybody has that place ifthey want to be here.
And so the mass.
Now we have the students walkingdown and sitting with a parent
or two and it's just a beautifulmoment.
And then it's celebrated in thesacrament itself.
And then after that of an hour,they get a little bit of a
(09:43):
talking from Dave Laughlin, ourpresident, and a couple other
people that will say somewelcoming things.
But at that moment, that's whenwe ask the freshman to then say
goodbye to your parents and tostart walking to your classroom.
And as they come out of therose theater where we'll have
that mass I can now say thisbecause it'll be released after
(10:03):
that's when the upperclassmenand student government
association will be banging thedrum and, you know, giving them
more of us up here to peerwelcoming right and then
ushering them to the classroomwhere they'll continue
activities.
It's just a far differentexperience.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I think one thing both Chris and I can
attest to is that since MrLaughlin, our president, has
been back at Rockhurst one ofthe driving forces really behind
this idea of welcoming studentswell before they actually are
freshmen.
And so my predecessor, mikeComiskey, and I, when we first
(10:39):
started here at Rocker six yearsago, one of the first things we
talked about was what does thatspring of eighth grade year
look like for these students andhow do we make that obviously
known that they're wanted here,they're welcome here, and so
over the years and I'm going togive some credit to some other
schools we've begged borrowedand stolen some really great
(11:02):
ideas, one of which youmentioned that ceremonial
signing that we do right aftertheir admissions letters go out
and that I actually picked upfrom Cristo Rey High School in
Los Angeles.
We were at a Jesuit schoolscolloquium, which is a meeting
of all the Jesuit schools in thenation, and we got to visit
their Cristo Rey High School.
(11:22):
And they do not only highschool signing for every kid
that has made the choice to goto Cristo Rey, but they do one
for every student who'sgraduating, no matter where
they're going on to next.
So if they're going to collegegreat.
If they're going to trade school, great.
But they celebrate eachstudent's success and I thought
that was really cool and itdidn't have to be because they
were playing sports, it was just.
You know, we're proud to haveyou as part of our community and
(11:46):
we're proud to send you outfrom our community, so we really
like that.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
By the way, a whole other podcast would be talking
about the Jesuit Schools Networkthat system yeah.
There are so many opportunitiesthat we have as a school on the
whole, but also individualdepartments and different levels
within it, from assistantprincipals, teachers to the
president and the board to beable to look at what other
schools around the countryreally frankly around the world,
(12:09):
but other Jesuit schools aredoing that are not that
different from us and the amountof wonderful communication and
ideas that get shared, that wayis really an asset.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And then for the summer social, we actually stole
that from Casha Hall down inTulsa, oklahoma.
I had gone to visit my cousinsdown there and their son was
entering sixth grade there asthey start their school, their
upper school in sixth grade, andhe had just gotten back from
what he called his summer funday.
And I said, well, what's asummer fun day?
And he kind of told me about itand I thought, well, this is
(12:41):
something I think ourupperclassmen could really get
behind.
And let me tell you, this yearSteve joined us in July, so I
was running it solo this yearfor the first time ever, and the
squad of upperclassmen leaderswas outstanding and I could not
have done that, yeah, theyreally enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, I think for them, they like it because
they've been away from campusfor a couple of weeks.
You know the exams are finishedand announced, like, oh, we can
come back and have some fun.
And then our guys like, I thinkthey recognize the value, the
importance of being leaders andokay, oh, it's our turn now to
welcome in these freshmen.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And these guys were the first ones to experience
that summer social too, so it'skind of like full circle.
So that was cool.
So we've talked a little bitabout how we welcome them
leading up to and at orientation, but so much of the freshman
experience continues on throughthat first year.
So I know one of our majorefforts in the last several
(13:40):
years has been to develop theCura program, which Mr Bosco
oversees.
So can you tell the folks athome a little bit more about
what the Cura process is andwhat that program is and why
it's here, what it's designed todo?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah Well, like a lot of schools, we kind of
recognized years ago that thiswhole topic is about how we are
transitioning freshmen into thecommunity and learning our
expectations and trying to setthem up for success.
Like just trying to rethink howthat process works.
Our teachers do great work inthe classroom, but recognizing
okay, what on top of that can weadd to the freshmen as they're
(14:16):
kind of getting ingrained intothe community?
So we started off several yearsago with a freshman small group
program that was happening atthe same time as the freshman
seminar program.
Freshman small group prettysimple, pretty simple.
It's meeting in small groupswith their counselor on a
regular scheduled basis anddiscussing a lot of different
(14:36):
topics related to the highschool transition, everything
from social matters andcommunication to academic tips
and strategies, includinghearing from upperclassmen that
come in, and then some of theother things as well.
Just like saying if you needresources, here they are.
And most important to all ofthe freshman small group was
that the counselor wasestablishing relationship with
(14:56):
the students.
The students got to know thecounselor immediately and with
some regularity.
Freshman seminar Matt Darbylikes to say it's all the things
.
He's our dean of students, allthe things that I want freshmen
to know, but I just haven'treally had the time beforehand
to be able to tell him.
So I have a toolbox and I'mjust putting those tools in the
toolbox by being able to meetwith the freshmen on a regular
(15:18):
basis and discuss these thingsor to bring outside people in
like myself, for example, Italked a couple of times.
Well, that eventually becamethe Cura program when we added a
third component, just aboutwhat, maybe four years ago I
believe it was coming out ofCOVID and recognizing that you
know it's like so many thingsthat were changing, so many
needs that were changing.
You know, coming out of covid,connection, face-to-face
(15:39):
connection, relationshipconnection, trying to.
You know everybody is going tore-establish what normal is
right we remember that.
So the hero program really beganthen in the sense of now most b
days, which is we have arotating schedule in A and a B
day, and so most B days all ourfreshmen come in 45 minutes, 8
(16:01):
to 8.15.
And we divide them up intothree groups and a third of the
freshman class will be meetingwith their freshman small groups
, with their counselors.
So a third of the freshmen willbe meeting with the dean or his
guests in freshman seminar andthen a third of them will be
meeting with Beth and TylerBaker to discuss the Camino
project.
Camino is looking at the wecall it a graduate at graduation
(16:25):
, the values that we hold forall of our students that by the
time they graduate they will beon the road well, on the road in
fact towards reaching the fiveideals of the grad to grad, the
open to growth.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Would you mind, just for the listeners, will you go
ahead and just tell us whatthose five are?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think thosepeople are confused.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Absolutely yeah, and this has been around Jesuit
schools for several decades.
I believe that this came out ofa Jesuit conference in the 70s.
I could be wrong on that, so ifthere's any Jesuit listening to
me right now, direct your callsto Beth Van Dyke.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Don't call me please, Not, Steve yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So by the time a student graduates from a Jesuit
high school, they are on theroad towards being open to
growth, loving, religious, wesay, committed to justice and
intellectually competent.
I've been here this is my 25thyear starting and since I
(17:30):
arrived, that was the firstthing that students hear about
then and it's what they hearabout now and in the CURA
program, and specifically thefreshman Camino portion of it.
That's when freshmen will meetas a group and be able to hear
from people that are invited into talk about.
What does that mean for thegroup?
(17:51):
What does that look like to afreshman?
What does that look like to afreshman?
What does it look like as afreshman doing practicing that
value of being open to growth?
So it's not a talking to asmuch as it's trying to get the
freshman to reflect like wheream I seeing this?
Where do I have the opportunityto do this myself?
Where am I maybe not meetingthat expectation?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
not practicing being open to growth?
Where can I change that in thefuture?
And that's called the examineby the way, that's a whole other
topic too, but that's part ofIgnatian spirituality is to be
practicing that sense ofreflection, to say what are the
things that are happening, whatare the voices that are
happening in my experience?
What am I listening to when Isay voices?
(18:34):
Are they leading me in a goodway or are they leading me in a
not so good way?
And what are the graces that Iam seeking to make improvements?
And so we have thoseopportunities for freshmen to
hear about that with regards tothe grad, at grad, and then they
begin to map out what theyconsider as their artifacts,
(18:54):
what are their things that theycan point to and say you know
what?
Here's where I'm alreadypracticing being open to growth.
And then what the caminoproject does over four years is
try to give them a portfolio ofsense that they can show that
growth.
And that's five different areasover four years.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And they cannot just know that themselves as an
important point of reflection,but they can also share that
with their peers, their familiesand the outside world, and and
that's an exciting project,that's occurring, and so help me
out, because I had a veryinteresting conversation at
lunch and for folks listening ata place like this, you have a
(19:28):
lot of interesting conversationswith a lot of different folks
and it was about the rockers.
I call it the rockers man, butit was in relation to, as we've
been doing this orientations forthe last seven days, I think,
for me being through it right,got to interact with the student
panel.
(19:49):
then we had our sga come thisyou know to all, you know know
to the all faculty and we weretalking about how I was just
always impressed and appreciatehow well spoken and thoughtful
our young men are.
You have a conversation withthese upperclassmen, some of
(20:11):
them juniors, some seniors, withthese upperclassmen, some of
them juniors, some seniors, andthey can actually have a
dialogue with you as an adultand thoughts and opinions and
knowing that that's wherethey're heading when they leave.
Where or how have you seen?
You know the program that,whether it's Camino, cura,
(20:33):
personalis, impact those youngmen as they grow.
Like, okay, you hear it, youdeal with it.
Freshman year, like, when doyou see the light bulb go off?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, you touched on something that, like, really is
near and dear to me and italways has been.
At Rockhurst we have highexpectations.
We want students to feelchallenged, to be more, to be
more of what we believe they'recalled to be.
They're created to be by God asa gift.
So we have those expectations,but we also give them the
opportunities to practice it.
Like it's not enough just tosay this is what we want for you
(21:05):
or this is what we want you towant for yourself.
We're going to give them theopportunities to go through that
experience of recognizing I'mdeveloping it or, oh, I'm not
developing it.
I might need a little bit ofhelp.
And so those students that youtalk to, those were guys who've
had opportunities to own theirexperiences that they have when
they've been asked to dosomething, or if they say they
(21:26):
want to do something on anathletic field and owning what
it means to be a member of theteam and having to have the
responsible leadership toperform, to meet expectations
and to put in the hard work andto bring people along with them
or in a club or even in theclassroom.
When it comes to saying weexpect more and that's not a
(21:47):
threat.
That's more like a wonderfulinvitation to say let's do it
together.
But I think what you're tappinginto are just moments when our
students are not just told hey.
I think I want you to thinkabout what would you say to
these new faculty and staff asthey're coming in Now we're
going to give them lots ofopportunities, even as freshmen,
(22:08):
to get in front of one anotherand talk about things that are
important, things that excitethem, and then develop that over
four years.
So, going back to the FreshmanCura program, how is that like a
stepping stone or likebeginning step towards what you
experienced last week with someupperclassmen?
Number one, I saidrelationships, the Freshman Cura
(22:28):
program.
I think at the top ofeverything else, it's all about
forming relationships with peersand adults and recognizing like
I like these people, I knowthese people yeah, do I get
along really well with all ofthem?
Of course you know it's a realworld out there.
However, we're kind of werecognize that we're brothers,
we recognize that we're rockerstudents with each other and
they kind of start forming thatrelationship and then
(22:50):
friendships kind of ensue fromthat, adult connections that
occur in the freshman CURAprogram.
You know, similar manner ofkind of recognizing, like I see
that teacher a lot because she'shelping with you know she comes
into the Camino Project andshe's reviewing you know what
we're talking about and thatjust kind of sparks an
(23:12):
opportunity for him to developthat communication back and
forth with an adult.
I think what I hear fromstudents who visit from other
schools, what I think what Ihear from new teachers who might
be coming from other places, isjust kind of recognizing that
our students feel reallycomfortable being here.
They feel like when they'rehaving conversations with their
teachers.
Of course they respect them butthey also recognize like it's
(23:34):
fun to be in the classroom.
You hear from the students wecall them shadows.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I don't like that term.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It's just me I'm losing that battle for 25 years.
Our guest eighth graders.
When you ask them about theirexperiences shadowing, one of
the things that they'll oftensay after they talk about how
much they enjoy the food- that'strue yeah, ice cream goes a
long way.
Frozen yogurt, though, that veryfew people recognize.
When you ask them, though,about the day what they enjoyed,
after they say food, they saywell, the classes just seem like
(24:02):
different.
What does that mean?
To say the classes seemdifferent?
Well, what's different is thatthere's a bunch of brothers in
that classroom and the teacherhas a role in there to teach and
to guide and to direct and tochallenge.
There is that authority andrespect, but the teachers are
(24:24):
enjoying that experience as muchas the students are, and that
community, I think you know, isfound in those classrooms as
much as it's found in a club,which is a voluntary experience
or an athletic experience.
Maybe, steve, you can talkabout that kind of going through
that as a student.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, go ahead, steve I, yeah, and my mind is
swirling over there, but yeah,it's the enjoyment of the
process and being in thebuilding is is where we were at
Right.
I'm just, and I don't know Iget emotional about it.
I'm trying, I'm trying to, I'mtrying to center myself a little
(24:53):
bit because it's true, you know, when you you talk about, the
thing that jumps out at me whenyou're saying that, and it's
really close to my experience,is when we're talking about
forming those relationships andthose relationships creating
this environment that we're in.
That was one of the things thatI I can't shake.
Every before I was in this roleI was preaching that to the
(25:17):
high heavens, to any young manor family considering coming
here, because those were thethings that, no matter what I
was going through and I wasgoing through a lot when I was
here I always felt comfortable.
I always felt like if I neededto talk to them not that I did,
(25:39):
but if I needed to talk tosomebody I knew I could right,
if, if I was, was willing toshare or say something, that
people would listen and theywould support me and they would
pick me up and it's cool to see.
It's cool to see that stillhappening.
I know I don't know who wassaying that today when we were
(26:04):
talking, but it was talkingabout rockers evolving but not
changing.
Yes, yes years, because part ofthe success that we're able to
create is young men coming intothe same environment, the same
expectations, the same love, thesame all of that.
(26:27):
And you know you call givingopportunities to grow and learn
and hey, and make mistakes,right, you know I think of grace
Absolutely.
Hey, and make mistakes.
Make right, you know, I thinkof grace absolutely.
You're not coming in here andbeing smacked over the head, if
you will, when you areacclimating to such a impactful
(26:50):
environment and I call itimpactful in hindsight, but I
know, being young it could seemintimidating yeah, you're coming
in with a lot of guys comingfrom a lot of intimidating.
You're coming in with a lot ofguys coming from a lot of
different places.
You're coming in with a lot ofguys that are good at a lot of
stuff.
Oh yeah, you know, you'recoming in with teachers that are
really good at what they do andhave expectations and, at the
(27:11):
same time, you were afforded andare afforded room to be a young
man, growing into yourself.
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
by the way is not predictable right there's not a
written book on what my lifewill be you know when I'm, when
I'm 14, what it's going to be bythe time I'm 18.
And that's the real world, thatit's not 100, and I think,
given given the young men thatopportunity to explore what
interests them and also maybeeven accidentally stumble into
things like oh my gosh, thejuggling club was like a really
(27:43):
big deal here back in the teens.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
You said the juggling club.
The juggling club, oh, okay,yeah yeah, there's a shout out
there.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
That was the most absurd thing in the world that
suddenly the Berry Commons was aplace that you had trouble
walking through during activityperiod because there were
bowling pins plastic ones, thankGod and juggling balls and
rings and everything else flyingaround.
Of these kids that werejuggling, not many of them ever
thought about being a jugglerwhen they first stepped foot in
(28:14):
Rockers, but somehow becausethey kind of formed some
relationships with some friendswho are like, yeah, let's check
this out, and they felt thatcomfort to be able to goof
around a little bit at first.
But suddenly, you know, threeyears later they're running the
juggling club and in our missionas a school.
What I loved about that storytoo is that like they're going
to go to a nursing home andthey're going to perform in
(28:34):
front of the residents.
They're going to go to schoolsand they're going to perform.
They're going to, they're goingto perform in front of the
residents.
They're going to go to schoolsand they're going to perform.
They're going to meet up withthe improv club and do two shows
a year in which they take theproceeds of that and donate to
an organization of theirchoosing that they feel strong
about.
And the beauty of all that isthey're taking that risk of I
(28:56):
don't know anything about this,but why not?
They feel comfortable enough tobe able to do that and they do
that together and they getchallenged by it.
But they have that sense oflike resolve, that resiliency.
That's a big, big, importantword, right.
But they keep kind of movingthat direction of like yeah, I'm
just going to keep kind ofhoning my craft at it because
they're falling in love withsomething and then, as they're
doing it and they're enjoying itwith the people they're doing
(29:17):
it with, they suddenly startdreaming even bigger, which is
like we could put on a show, wecould raise money if we put on a
show, and then we could take itto a local place that we
volunteer at, for example.
there's a lot of examples ofthat.
That was, from you know, acouple of years back, but those
still exist today.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I was going to say.
I think the bowling pins andsuch have been replaced with
ping pong balls and hacky sackswhich I'm very excited to see a
comeback as a child of the 90s.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But I can't wait to blow out my ACL or whatever.
I'm trying to keep the hackysack up Right.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So on that note, actually it's a perfect segue,
another huge part of what you dobesides this very important
mission of making sure our boysare comfortable in the school,
have people and resources attheir fingertip Another big
thing that you do and I will say, as I'm going to self-proclaim
myself a prospective rocker'smom favorite because the calls I
(30:12):
get quite frequently and I havesome really great meaningful
conversation with prospectivemoms and some dads around.
really, this worry like is mychild going to meet people?
Are they going to make friends?
So you've talked a little bitabout how the CURE program does
that.
But this other side of your job, which is a huge job, is to
oversee our 45 different clubsand student organizations and
(30:35):
part of that freshman experienceis the freshman club fair.
So can you let the people athome know a little bit more
about what that experience lookslike?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, yeah, of course the club life here is really
important because we see it asjust an extension of what's
happening in the classroom interms of learning about the
world, learning about self,learning about interacting with
others what we see, you know,say, from an athletic standpoint
as well, with teams.
But we're also trying to givestudents the opportunities to
just develop interests outsideof the world in a variety.
(31:03):
If we don't have a club that astudent is interested in, they
know to come talk to me andwe'll start figuring out how can
we start that.
Or if we think we can do a clubstronger than we are, we'll
talk about that In our fewminutes ago, our past
conversation we were talkingabout we want to give students
opportunity to grow and it'salmost like the secret sauce, I
(31:25):
think.
Sometimes I refer to our clubsas like the secret sauce where
we're giving a young man who hasno prior experience in doing I
think of a name of a club thatwe do.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Culinary club.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Culinary club, I think, is a great example, yeah,
but because he just kind ofeither said yes to an
announcement that invited him toit, or many times it's a friend
that just forms like let's gocheck it out.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Culinary Club's a bad example too, because there's
going to be food, so that'salways enticing, or 99% of them,
that's why they're going tothat meeting is they want to get
some food.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But what happens there is that they get to own
that.
It's their club.
Yes, there's a moderator therewho is going to support them and
guide them, but most of ourmoderators are pretty clear
about saying no, students, youhave to come up with the ideas.
You have to figure out.
You know how is this working.
I'm going to kind of guide youalong the way.
But it's your club.
We see a lot of strongfriendships come out of that.
(32:16):
We see a lot of excitingprogramming that affects the
community, comes out of the kindof spirit of the community, not
just the rah-rah spirit, butjust that sense of that
community life.
So we want freshmen to tap intothat One.
We have to.
You know we just graduated theseniors.
We need people to step intotheir shoes and we make that
pretty clear to the freshmen.
Like this is not just an invite, like we're asking you please
(32:40):
to get involved.
That conversation is alwayshappening.
Many of the presenters at thatspring freshman registration
that I refer to, they're comingand talking about their club.
They try to excite the studentinto maybe looking into that
club.
Freshman Kuro will early starttalking about club.
We understand freshmen need tohave a few weeks to kind of get
(33:01):
settled.
You know there's a lot ofadjustment that happens from
middle school to high school.
But then about three to fourweeks into the school year we do
have the freshman club.
Fair, this has been going on fordecades as well.
We fill up our largest gym, theLoyola Gym, with typically
about 50 different groups thatare in there.
That is kind of a wild showsometimes because you might have
(33:23):
the outdoors club in one cornerwith their tent set up and fly
fishing.
Across from them we have thedrone club.
That's flying drones.
We have across from them therobotics, that's driving around
a robot that's shooting eitherT-shirts or rubber chickens at
people as they walk by.
And then you got the album club, that's, you know, headsets
(33:43):
playing music and kind ofchilling and listens.
Really, you know good musicthere for sure, and so forth and
so forth.
It's I call it gauntlet,because you just walk up and
down the rows with with clubs onboth sides as the freshmen kind
of walk through it and thoseare upperclassmen behind those
tables trying to demonstrate.
You know what the club is, butinviting them Please, if you're
(34:04):
interested, if you want to knowmore, write your name down here.
We'll put you on a list.
We'll get information to you.
Listen to us on theannouncements when you hear we
have a meeting.
You know some that might havesocial media pages.
You know, follow us on this wayor that way.
They really want to get thefreshmen involved in that and
that's just an integral part ofwhat we do in every early
September, mid-september, andthen we follow up by then saying
(34:28):
, okay, coming October, what arewe doing to see which freshmen
are starting to follow up onthat, like?
which which are freshmen, areactually doing something, as
opposed to just writing theirnames down on a piece of paper
and then that goes on all year.
Would I like to think thatwe're able to catch every
freshman at the exact same timeand light that fire of
engagement and commitment in aclub?
No, it doesn't work that way.
You have to give thatindividual young man time to
(34:51):
adjust and find what reallysinks in for him, and for some
it's immediate, for others itmight take some time and, yeah,
it's a little bit challenging tohave that patience and that
sense of confidence thateverything's going to work out
in that regard, in terms ofgetting engaged beyond just the
classroom.
But then our process is, as thetime goes by, we're kind of
(35:13):
starting to look out, okay, whoseems like he's not getting
engaged in that way and what canwe do as the adults to step in?
What can peers do to maybe kindof turn up that attention to
try to lure that young man in?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Great.
Well, thank you so much, mrBosco, for joining us on what is
a very busy planning week foryou.
So thank you again for yourtime and for visiting with us.
Like Mr Bosco noted a littlepreview for next week's episode.
I'm going to step back on theother side of the microphones
and let Steve run things nextweek, because I'm going to be
joined by my counterpart, mrTyler Baker, our director of
(35:47):
STEAM, to talk about the CaminoProject, which is that portfolio
project that Mr Bosco referredto, and fill you guys in a
little bit about this excitingopportunity that is a four-year
formative experience for ouryoung men.
So be sure you turn in nextweek for a Rock Talk, thank you.
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