Rock Talk

Welcome to Rock Talk!

• Steve Redmond & Beth VanDyke • Season 1

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Discover the heart and soul of Rockhurst High School through our brand-new podcast, Rock Talk! In this premiere episode, meet your hosts Beth Van Dyke and Steve Redmond from the Admissions and Marketing team as they share their personal connections to "The Rock" and set the stage for what promises to be an enlightening journey into Jesuit education and excellence.

Steve, a proud Rockhurst alumnus from the Class of 2004, brings his perspective as both a former student and current Director of Admissions and Marketing. Beth shares her remarkable family legacy spanning four generations of Hawklets—from her grandfather who attended in the 1940s to her nephew who represents the future Class of 2030. Their combined experiences offer a unique window into why families continue choosing Rockhurst for generations.

The conversation delves into what truly distinguishes Rockhurst from other educational institutions. Beth highlights the transformative power of service immersion trips and the lifelong brotherhood that extends decades beyond graduation, while Steve reflects on the profound impact of teachers and mentors who prioritize developing young men of character over simply teaching subjects. "Accountability and love go hand in hand," Steve notes, capturing the essence of the Rockhurst approach.

Looking ahead, Beth and Steve reveal exciting plans to enhance how they share the Rockhurst story through expanded digital content, student-led initiatives, and authentic storytelling across multiple platforms. They recognize that the most powerful testament to Rockhurst's impact comes from the students themselves—young men who are genuinely excited to be part of this community.

Whether you're a prospective family exploring educational options, a current community member, or an alumnus wanting to stay connected, Rock Talk invites you to experience the brotherhood, excellence, and transformative mission that continues to define Rockhurst High School. Subscribe now and join us next week when we welcome senior student government leaders to discuss what brotherhood means to today's Hawklets!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Rock Talk, the official podcast of Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, missouri, where we explore the voices, values and vibrant life of our Jesuit college prep community, hosted by the admissions and marketing team. Each episode features conversations with students, faculty alumni and special guests as we share stories of academic excellence, faith formation, brotherhood and service. Whether you're a prospective family, a proud alumnus or simply curious about what makes Rockers unique, this is your inside look at life at the Rock. Hello, good afternoon. We're excited for our first rendition of Rock Talk with myself, beth Van Dyke and Steve Redman, my counterpart in the Office of Admissions and Marketing. Today we just want to give you a little background on what this podcast is all about, what you can kind of expect from us over the coming year, and hopefully get you excited to be our listeners and contributors. To start off, I thought we'd introduce ourselves, steve, if that works for you, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think that's a great idea. For sure you want me to go first. Sure, I'll go first. Welcome everybody, I'm glad you're here and if you're listening to this, it's obviously going to be a blessing to you, hopefully. But I'm Steve Redman. I am a Rockhurst High School alumni in the class of 2004, the great class of 2004. There's a lot of people who could say that, but recently hired on as the director of admissions and marketing and I'm excited to be back. I think over the course of the next several episodes we can kind of highlight some other things, but just an alumni looking to get involved with the community and keep the Rockhurst greatness going. So what about you?

Speaker 1:

I'm Beth Van Dyke. This is my seventh year at Rockhurst in the Admissions and Marketing Office Recently was promoted to Director of Admissions alongside Steve, so I'm excited to work with Steve and bring some new, fresh ideas, including this podcast Delight to really offer our prospective families the best view we possibly can and most holistic view we possibly can of Rockhurst High School. I worked for about 10 years in the Diocese of Kansas City, st Joseph, before making my way to the Rock and, quite frankly, what brought me here was the students, faculty and staff of this school. I was really impressed with everything that they had going on and kind of the full formation of young men that I see going on on this campus, and it was something I wanted to be a part of.

Speaker 2:

So let me ask you this, beth, because I know you have a longstanding history at the school and I would love for you to explain how your family has been involved with Rockhurst over the years.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely so. Like Steve said, I come from a long line of hawklets, my grandfather being the first in our family to attend Rockhurst back in the 1940s. He lived actually just two doors down from the Jesuit residence at Rockhurst back in the 1940s. He lived actually just two doors down from the Jesuit residence at Rockhurst University and so the Jesuits have been a huge part of our family's lives, Just a support system, kind of a shepherding grace.

Speaker 2:

I guess you would call them.

Speaker 1:

for many generations Following my grandfather, both my father and my uncle attended Rockers High School and another one of my uncles also attended. That is married to my aunt.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

My dad and my uncle are both proud alumni of the year, so they've both been graced with that honor from the alumni committee. So very active in the school. Both my brothers attended my older brother, Joe, graduating in 99. My younger brother, Jimmy, graduating in 06. And then I'm really excited because our newest Hocklett of the bunch so he will be our fourth generation Hocklett Actually, our second fourth generation Hocklett my nephew Bo, is in the prospective class of 2030.

Speaker 2:

Hocklett, my nephew, bo, is in the prospective class of 2030. Love it, I love it, and that was one thing. Just a little caveat that I've always been super impressed with, or I just thought was a really cool thing, is when you have such a significant like there's so many guys that come through here and they're like the 10th male in their family, whether it's a brother or cousin or whatever. Um, so you know, that was a I really enjoy. That about you is like you.

Speaker 2:

You, you're connected to this school in a way that is, um, I think, pretty, you know, pretty deep, you know, cause there's obviously something about this place that a family would send just about every male, if not each one uh through this institution. Uh, I was fortunate, my I was the first and, uh, my brother Benjamin came through in 2013 and it's just me and him, so that's all we got, and I have all girls and my sister has a niece, but that's pretty cool for sure. Um, I. That leads me to this question what is your favorite thing about Rockhurst, given that you've been able to, um, know guys that went here? You, you know, I mean and not I mean not just friends, but like your family has been here. What is one of the one of the favorite things about this institution?

Speaker 1:

There's a couple of things I think. Actually, one of our first topics that we're going to talk about in next week's episode is the idea of brotherhood, and I think that that is one thing that strikes me as unique about this school. Both my brothers, my dad, are very close to their classmates at Rock. Still to this day, my dad has Wednesday night dinners, now that he and his buddies are mostly retired from their careers, where they get together and have dinner together, catch up on life, support each other through difficult times. So I've really seen this idea of a lifelong brotherhood that carries throughout.

Speaker 1:

My favorite thing as a faculty member myself, faculty and staff is really the experiences that I've had going on our Total Ignition experience trips, which are service immersion trips with boys in situations and in countries in which the service we're providing really makes a huge difference in families' lives and seeing how eye-opening that is for our students who, no matter where they've come from in the Kansas City Metro, may have never truly experienced poverty at the level that we have on these trips, and so I think seeing how that impacts them, seeing how it reiterates how fortunate we all are in our country and in this school to have access to an education, to have access to everything we need in life, is really kind of a neat experience, and watching them kind of transform during that process is really cool.

Speaker 2:

For sure. The transformative process is amazing here. And when I think about One of my favorite things about Rockhurst High School, I look at it kind of a two pronged way that overlap at the same time as a student when I was here, and not to be cheesy, but the love that I was shown here as a student, as a young man, and that love I think accountability and love go hand in hand. I think expectation and love go hand in hand. So this is just this overarching love that the leaders of this school were showing me, that they were willing to show. And as a man, one of my favorite things is that last part, which is the leaders of this school. The depth at which they operate is so challenging to articulate because you know they're signing up for that, not just here to teach math, I'm not just here to teach PE, I am signing up to lead and help young men grow.

Speaker 2:

And the older I get, the more I appreciate, um, that I was able to be a part of, uh, of this institution. So, um, cool, cool, cool, cool. Let's, um, let's talk about this. Beth, we are both directors, which is uh, which is a fun experience. I I'm very grateful for you, um and and, just to help and you've shown me being new in this seat, but I also am very appreciative of the like mindedness we have around marketing and where we can go with. You know, I don't want to say low hanging fruit, but just some ideas that we've thrown on the board. So let's talk a little bit about some of the marketing changes and the things that we got coming down the pipe to tune the listeners into.

Speaker 1:

Well, Steve, to start off, I already have our first corrections corner here.

Speaker 2:

My brother.

Speaker 1:

Jimmy graduated in 2005, not 2006. Clearly really great on the spot. But in relationship to marketing, that actually ties really directly to, I think, what we're aiming to do here and that is to give people out in the Kansas City community a true and see an accurate depiction of what it means to be a rocker's young man, what it means to work in this environment to support these young men. You know there's constant fun. I know you've kind of. Steve came in during the summer and so he's seen some of the fun. But you know, starting next week he's going to get to see it in full gear and full action with our orientation kicking off on Monday. But there's a lot of fun that goes on on this campus and one of the things that I think we have potential to grow in is to showcase um, this amazing stuff that our students are up to.

Speaker 1:

And I say stuff that is a very general term for some pretty excellent things that they're doing. So I think having a forum, having a place where families can go and seek information about rockers uh, seek to experience rockers- in some way.

Speaker 1:

Um is really important. So, um, I know one thing like you said, we're very like-minded in that way. Um, steve has brought a really great perspective on looking at different formats, different platforms, like this podcast. Um, that we could better tell the story of rockers. And so, steve, do you want to talk a little bit about some of our ideas around? Some YouTube programming, some original content generated by our students, things like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I don't want to give too many of the secrets away, but definitely want to just make you all aware that the big reason that we're even taking these steps is because there is so much that happens at Rockhurst High School, that's connected to Rockhurst High School, and there's so many great people that make this place go. It's hard to put that in a pamphlet, it's hard to put that on a mailer that you send out, and being able to create content that communicates that story well, um, articulate some of our messaging well, on why Rockhurst is the choice for your son, um, why Rockhurst has this long standing tradition of excellence and greatness. And you know, just work in the community. It's going to require more avenues. This podcast is going to be a great one where we can just, you know, peek behind the curtain of what some of our young men are doing.

Speaker 2:

You know some of the YouTube content that I want us to be able to put out that truly articulates, maybe, just as an example, a message to parents from other parents about stuff that me and you we might not even think about saying. Right, I have all daughters. Right, I know what it was like to go here, but what does that parent need to hear that only another parent could communicate. We have the ability to put that out there. So, when people are trying to make this decision an informed decision you know, I know that's what you and I both care about I want you to make an informed decision about where you educate your son and here's the ways that we're presenting and communicating our message to where, when you look at us externally because that's what a lot of people do you can confidently say that's what I want for my son.

Speaker 2:

I want my son to go to Rockhurst High School and I have been able to get as much information as I can in the formal way and in the informal way to make that decision. It's going to be an exciting time because it's needed, in my opinion. Um, as I said you'll hear me say this a million times this is one of the experiences I still talk about to this day to other parents, other young men. Uh, my wife is probably sick to death of it, but that that's how impactful this place is, and if there's another way for me to help a family or a young man experience what I experienced, um, you know, this marketing effort is going to be the biggest show of it.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, absolutely, and so some of that will look like a bit of a remodel, a dusting off of our YouTube channel um and looking at other avenues to really engage students in um, having that learn, like that learning experience that's hands-on right.

Speaker 1:

So much of what we do at Rockhurst is prepare students for a life, a future, in which they're out in the workforce, out doing great things, promoting just causes all of that good stuff. So one of the things we really want to give is a platform for our students to have that hands-on learning experience um, and so this year we're excited to have some interns joining us um to be determined at this point but, you've got a son in advanced movie making or advanced graphic design that wants some hands-on real life experience, we welcome them as admissions interns.

Speaker 1:

So we're really looking forward to that and creating some more student-generated content for our families, Because really I say this to parents all the time our boys are the biggest walking billboard for our school. The way they conduct themselves, the way they interact with people, the way they show care for people, the way that they are excited to be at school, to come to school. They don't run out at 2.45, they hang around, and I think that that really is more of a telling sign than anything else. All of us who deal with youth or have our own children know that getting a kid excited to come to school is a difficult task at times, even at the beginning of the school year sometimes. So having boys that are excited to be here every day, excited to engage on campus and various different activities, I think is something that is incredibly valuable, and I'm just really excited that we're going to be able to offer them their own chance and their own voice to really um exhibit some of those things that are involved in 100%, 100%.

Speaker 2:

So, with that said and you know we didn't want this first episode to be too long Just wanted to give you guys, um, some awareness around the fact that there's going to be some things changing and you need to be able to have your radars up for it and keep your eyes out for it. What, um? Have your radars up for it and keep your eyes out for it. What does our next episode look like, beth?

Speaker 1:

I'm really excited about our next episode. Actually, Today was the first day we got to see some of our students back on campus, including our Student Government Association, so our SGA. They are our governing force of students on campus that represent the needs, the wants, the desires of our student body. So we are really excited to welcome Brendan Ortballs, who is our current student body president, and Jack McShane, who is our current senior class president, both of the class of 2025. 2025?

Speaker 2:

2026? Yeah, it's 2026. 2026. 2026, sorry.

Speaker 1:

So this is the fun of being in admissions when you're dealing with many years and I think that might be my name from now on is the girl that can't remember what year it is. But, yes, our class of 2026. So they're both members of our senior class. We're super excited to see what they have planned. I did get a little bit of a preview.

Speaker 1:

I listened in a little bit on some exciting things that our SGA are up to, but really what we're welcoming them to do is to come in and talk not just about what student government has as far as activities planned for next year, but really to talk on this idea of brotherhood and what brotherhood means to them, and also to look at some advice maybe they wish that someone had given them as they entered Rockhurst, and so if you have a prospective Hawklet, if you have an incoming freshman, I really highly recommend you listen in, and if you're a current parent, I mean great content from these two guys that are really leading the charge here at Rockhurst today.

Speaker 2:

Cool, cool, cool, cool. Well, gang, that's all we have for you. We're excited about this journey we're going on. Obviously, you know we're passionate about what we do here at Rockhurst and we're just trying to bring that to you all in a different way that helps you understand who we are, what we're about, and you know why we keep ringing the bell that you know. If you've got a young man that is looking to grow, not just academically, not just, you know, in a co-curricular standpoint, but just as a whole person, you need to give us a check. You need to come, reach out to us and see what we're all about. So this is Steve, this is Beth, this is Rock Talk episode one, and we'll talk soon.