Post XIII: Taking Stock
Summer, the Frassati Teaching Fellowship, and the new year
It has been several months since our last post, and in that time we have gained quite a few followers and readers. Welcome to A View from The Summit!
The Summit Academy is a classical liberal-arts school rooted in the Catholic tradition, located in historic Fredericksburg, Va., serving students in grades 6-12. This newsletter informs readers about our school and the ways in which it is helping renew education and the Church.
In this post, we will take stock of summer and review a busy first month of this new school year. We’ll also preview upcoming events, including our fourth annual gala. I have yet to set for this academic year the newsletter schedule, so you can expect that in the next installment.
Frassati Teaching Fellowship in Catholic Education
Did you know that the number of new classical schools is growing faster than the number of new Starbucks locations across the country?
Really.
A substantial portion of these schools are Catholic. The growing movement of Catholic classical schools needs not only faithful Catholics to join in its work but also skilled teachers who are capable of leading students, parents, and schools at personal and strategic levels. These sorts of good leaders require development. Thanks to the generosity of mission-aligned benefactors, The Summit Academy has initiated the Frassati Teaching Fellowship in Catholic Education to address this need.
With top-notch faculty, visionary leadership, strong parent partnerships, and a flourishing community, The Summit Academy is an ideal place for cultivating crucial leaders in the nationwide renewal of Catholic education. Our students tend to be intellectually curious and faithful. Nearly all of our board members possess advanced degrees, including several PhDs. More than 80% of our faculty possess advanced degrees, and several are currently doctoral students. They are well-rounded leaders, mentors, and Christian witnesses who enjoy a high degree of collegiality and mutual support. Working in such an environment will prepare the teaching fellow for effective service to the Church.
The aim of the fellowship this year is to give dedicated support and formation to a promising young teacher who will continue serving in classical Catholic education. Secondarily, by measuring the progress of this first-year teaching fellow, we can prove the training model and aim to renew the fellowship year after year. Such renewal will enable a cohort of fellowship alumni to be forces for good in the rapidly growing classical-education movement. More details to come on on this fellowship.
Students this Summer
This past summer, The Summit Academy’s students were all over, visiting colleges, working locally, enjoying leisure, and volunteering for projects such as a local parish’s WorkCamp. Two rising juniors were quoted in this Arlington Catholic Herald article with thoughtful reflections on how the diocesan FIAT Camp affected their lives:
In contrast to the unpeaceful news swirling outside, peace and joy prevailed amongst campers. “Just being in nature, hearing the birds, looking at the sky, reminds me of God’s creation and how wonderful he is,” said Ava Malanga of St. Patrick Church in Fredericksburg. “The [Apostolic Sisters of St. John] are so filled with joy and you can see in everything they do that the Lord is shining through them. The Lord’s love is reflected upon everyone who is around them.”
“It’s really hard for me to find silence at home,” said Ava Grasso, who attends St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fredericksburg. “In the silence I can hear God’s voice, and right now, with the wind blowing, sitting on this hill, I feel like I can hear his voice.”
Grasso is just now thinking about what religious life means, but after two days of camp, she feels an “inkling” after seeing how joyful the sisters are. “I’ve never interacted with sisters before, it’s really eye-opening,” she said. “They are so funny and full of life. They have peace in their heart, and they bring everything back to God. I want to explore this more.”
A couple of alumni interned for me this summer. They assisted with grant-writing, event planning, board-meeting scheduling, and myriad other advancement tasks—none of which are particularly glamorous, but all of which are an important part of making sure our development, external affairs, and board programs are top-notch.
Advancement Updates
The Summit’s development program made significant strides this summer. Prior to this year, only a handful of donors were in our major-giving ranks, which means annual giving that meets or exceeds $10,000. This is to be expected for a school not even ten years old. Developing trust between an institution and its supporters takes time, and working within the existing priorities of donors does too.
In the past year, our group of major donors has tripled in size, and over the summer we added several new members. This increased enthusiasm reflects a desire among donors to secure the future by serving young people today. Supporters of The Summit are especially encouraged when they come to school, spend time in the classroom, and speak with faculty and students. These kinds of encounters illustrate the fruitfulness of our education. We are so grateful to those who have made these substantial investments in our students, programs, and teachers.
There is a great opportunity for to contribute to our school at our upcoming gala, which will be held on October 18. (We are now at capacity, and you may email me at nmarr@thesummitva.org to request to be placed on our waitlist.) Proceeds from this event go directly into our Annual Fund, which covers the gap between tuition revenue and operating expenses. So too do proceeds from our spring appeal, as well as monthly gifts.
This gap is typical of private, independent schools, and we remain around the mean nationally—each year, we need to raise about 30 percent of our total operating budget. Thanks to our benefactors, parents, and community members, we have been able to do so successfully. But with substantial growth projects on the horizon, we need more investment into our Annual Fund than ever before.
2024 Fall Forum
The Summit Academy is now hosting its Fall Forum, bringing mission-aligned speakers to the school to present thoughtfully and charitably about pressing issues of our time. The program exists to enrich the intellectual and spiritual life of our school community and the broader region.
This September, we hosted renowned journalist Tim Carney to discuss his new book Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be (HarperCollins, 2024). More than 50 Summit parents, friends, and donors gathered for a short lecture, a Q&A session, and a wine reception. Tim covered wide-ranging topics from child tax credits to online dating, modern marriage culture, parish best practices, and more. In response a series of thoughtful audience questions, he illustrated how culture and environment are important to fruitful family formation.
As an aside, I was pleased to see that all respondents in a follow-up poll rated the program four or five out of five stars. This encouragement helps lay the groundwork for future forum events.
What I’m Reading Now:
I’m currently re-reading The Lord of the Rings. This time, I have benefitted from the leisurely pace allowed when one already knows the basics of the plot. Rather than racing through songs and landscape descriptions, I can appreciate them in a much deeper way.
I’ve also started Marty Sklar’s Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms. The Walt Disney Company’s success has depended in large part on the kind of entrepreneurial, ambitious, creative spirit that Sklar embodied. The only way you can develop 28,000 acres of swampland into the most beloved theme park in the world is by always finding a way. I’ll have additional thoughts about the book once I’ve completed it.
Since podcasts are all the rage today, I’ll start including podcast recommendations in this section. My first recommendation is Catholic Preaching by Fr. Roger Landry. This podcast publishes Fr. Landry’s brilliant homilies that he gives every day. It also includes his various lectures to groups across the country. He’s a terrific preacher, as well as a devoted priest. (Thanks to my wife, I had the good fortune of having him celebrate our wedding mass.) He always reminds listeners to take care that we are attentive to the Word of God, a message that resonates with me as I sift through the distractions of life.
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