Brother Guy Consolmagno spoke to students yesterday. He beautifully articulated how the values of Jesuit education enrich the goals of the STEAM initiative.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“Studying the universe is an act of worship.”

“Do you know where I learned to wave my arms like this and speak in front of people? In my drama class. In my speech class!”

“Do you know how I learned to create presentation board for science conferences? In my yearbook class.”

“Do you know when I first learned hot to analyze!? By studying poetry in English literature and learning Latin!”

“Science is collaborative! Scientists are great at it. If you notice, nearly all science papers are written by a team!”

The Rockhurst STEAM initiative is truly about creating opportunities that will unlock the potential of each and every student so that they may passionately pursue their dreams.

Below is an excerpt from Spanish teacher Mrs. Martha Drone:

“On August 16th we had the riddling and stirring visit of the Pope’s AstronomerBrother Guy Consolmagno. I was personally inspired when I listened to his presentation… it really had nothing to do with astronomy. It had everything to do with his life’s journey to become an astronomer. He conveyed in an entertaining manner for our teenage students and our faculty what his school years brought him to aim for choices and experiences he mostly had not plotted yet he had to strategically make them work. He slowly found enjoyment in the process and eventually he became more exposed and accepting of the nature of his existence. He told us how he found himself working in the Vatican and how he was quite happy and surprised at the same time. He explained how he reflected on possible non-important experiences that molded his path. He described how the arts, the humanities and sciences weaved a fantastic increase of understanding multidimensional possibilities. He helped me reflect on the idea that life itself is a tidal wave of abstractions where arts, humanities and sciences irrationally combine and produce a natural drive for creativity (action) and creative thinking. He explained how our experiences are the framework for working across disciplines and we must pay attention to all these experiences because this is the way we increase engagement not only in academics but in our life… in our humanity.
I would like to say he described in an efficient, engaging and delightful presentation how we can “see” our existence in color and depth versus black & white and two dimensional. Thankful!”

Special thanks to Mr. Paul Winkeler, STEM Coordinator, for setting up this wonderful event.

You can read more about his visit here.