The Lasallian Leadership Institute (LLI) Cohort V has now completed the first session of its second year. The July sessions took place with 59 Midwest participants at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL and 71 DENA participants at Manhattan College in Bronx, NY. Fall and spring sessions will complete the second year of the three-year program, which meets three times a year.
LLI helps participants develop skills to deepen the Mission and association in their ministries. The second year focuses on spiritual leadership and St. John Baptist de La Salle’s spirituality. DENA participant Tim Dowd is looking forward to delving deeper into La Salle’s spirituality and will continue to study between sessions. “We had a strong foundation in the Meditations this past summer, which is a text that I think I’m really going to try to use as a focus for my pedagogy,” he explained.
Dowd is beginning his fourth year at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, NJ as an English teacher and Winter Athletics Supervisor. He had not heard of St. La Salle before joining CBA and now has aspirations of holding a leadership role there. “I actually realized after the first LLI session last summer just how passionate I was and how proud I was of being a teacher, especially at a Lasallian school,” he said.
Achieving a greater understanding of Lasallian roots is why Midwest participant Holly Hoey Germann joined LLI. She is Vice President of Faith Formation and a Theology teacher at Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in St. Louis Park, MN. Her school comes from three founders, including being Lasallian. Relying on her LLI experience, she has recruited faculty and staff members for formation activities to better understand their founders. “I would probably have to say the strongest way I have brought back my experience is through a sense of confidence that we are living the Mission,” she said. “De Le Salle would be proud of our school.”
Hoey Germann is impressed by how LLI targets all members of schools. “A math teacher, theology teacher, and principal all feel equally comfortable in LLI,” she said. “This helps to clearly and deeply integrate the mission of our school.”
The first year of LLI focuses on the founding story and its current reality, while the third year examines Lasallian leadership in the educational community. Brother Thomas Lackey, Regional Director of Mission Formation, said the program will be evaluated starting this fall with an online survey. Past participants and administrators will be asked their opinions on content and timing of the sessions. Brother Tom said the evaluation is intended to make LLI the most effective experience possible. Any changes would not take place until 2012 when a new cohort begins.