Rock Talk
Rock Talk is 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 Rockhurst unique — this is your inside look at life at The Rock.
Rock Talk
Beyond the Classroom: Where Faith Meets Action
Alan Ratermann's journey from Alumni Service Corps volunteer to Director of Ignatian Service at Rockhurst High School embodies the school's mission of forming men for others. In this revealing conversation, Alan takes us behind the scenes of a comprehensive service program that transforms young men through meaningful encounters with community needs.
At Rockhurst, service isn't a checkbox requirement but a foundational experience woven throughout all four years. Freshmen participate in quarterly service days working alongside faculty, sophomores and juniors engage with nonprofits of their choosing, and seniors culminate with a three-week immersive service project. Alan shares how these experiences deliberately interrupt students' self-focus, inviting them to recognize Christ in others and respond with compassion.
The conversation explores distinctive aspects of Rockhurst's service immersion trips where students surrender their phones, live simply in community, and discover joy in human connection. Perhaps most moving is Alan's description of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, where students serve as pallbearers for those who pass away without family – a profound ministry honoring human dignity even in death.
What emerges is a portrait of service as transformative education. When students stand before classmates reflecting on their experiences, something remarkable happens. They articulate not just what they gave, but how profoundly they were changed. With Rockhurst students donating over 40,000 service hours annually, the impact extends far beyond graduation, creating lifelong connections to community organizations and embedding service into their identities.
Ready to see how service can transform your son's education? Visit rockhursths.edu to learn more about our Jesuit approach to forming men of competence, conscience, and compassion.
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 Rockhurst unique, this is your inside look at Life at the Rock. What's going on everybody? This is Steve. I'm here with Beth and we got our guest for this week, alan Rotterman, and we're excited to have him. Alan, if you would take a moment and introduce yourself to our community of listeners and tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're looking forward to this year, yeah, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone. My name is Alan Rotterman and I have been at the.
Speaker 2:Rock for just over 10 years now Got to celebrate 10 years just this past spring.
Speaker 2:And what first brought me to Rockhurst was the Alumni Service Corps program.
Speaker 2:I volunteered for a year as a teacher and a coach, and I really got to immerse myself in the community by living here in the building, and after that first year of diving in I'd never done anything that I enjoyed as much as teaching here at Rockhurst, and so after that I was able to join the English faculty full-time and I started teaching English full-time and then, after three years of that, I transitioned into the director of Ignatian service, and so for the last seven or eight years I've been directing our Ignatian service office and really enjoying the way in which I'm able to kind of put our tagline of forming men for others into practice.
Speaker 2:I'm able to give that that saying legs, and I get to see it come to life every day all across our Kansas City community, and that really fires me up. It's a super engaging job. It's a wonderful opportunity to see our boys at work doing incredible things throughout every part of our city, and so I love the work that I get to do with our students in still in the English classroom, but also out in the Kansas City community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I want to rewind a little bit because when Beth correct me on this because I'm still getting all the lingo right, I am currently doing my new Ignatian teacher formation teacher formation and what you just brought up, the alumni service core that came up today and they were talking about how you know we're, we've got some stuff in the works, because is that still a thing or is it not a thing anymore?
Speaker 2:I think it's undergoing a transition, if it's still going, I think that you know there's. The program itself lasted over 25 years, I want to say 27 or 28 years, when within the last year they had. The last few years they've had very small classes and so I'm not sure if, as a province, they're still directing that program. But many other schools within our province have school-specific alumni service corps programs where alumni can come back and volunteer for you at their high school.
Speaker 3:We didn't get into what it was but I was intrigued by it, so it's like a volunteer thing yeah so it's kind of similar to some programs like out of the University of Notre Dame, does the ACE program of Notre Dame, does the ACE program.
Speaker 3:But really what it is designed to do is give an opportunity for people that are graduating from college and maybe seeking guidance on what their next step might be to test out teaching as a career. I would say most of them actually come out of the goodness of their heart. I mean, they're attached to the Jesuit schools. They feel like the Jesuit schools have given them something that's really valuable and so they want to give back for that year, gotcha. So the cool thing about being in ASC at Rockers now is that you actually live on campus. They actually have a little apartment on campus, not in Allen's Day, but more recently, and so my first year here at Rockers, my favorite alumni service core story is that that was during COVID, right. So that spring one of our alumni service core teachers decided that he was going to ride out COVID on Rockers campus.
Speaker 3:So he kind of was home alone, if you will, on Rockers campus and holding down the fort while we were all in quarantine. So it's a great program. I think it's a great opportunity for us to grow the desire to teach. I think, like Alan said, it's undergone a little bit of a decline in the last couple of years. I think people are seeking employment right away for all the right reasons. So the idea of giving up a salary for a year to do this as a volunteer gig is a little intimidating for students exiting. I would say it's a great opportunity and I hope they keep it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I decided to do the alumni service core without any intention of teaching after that first year.
Speaker 2:It was on my radar, but I had made no decision that I wanted to be a teacher.
Speaker 2:My mom was a teacher and so perhaps some of that was already ingrained in me, but I wanted to give back to the Jesuit education that I received out of high school.
Speaker 2:I went to St Louis U High on the east side of the state and then attended Rockhurst University, and so when it came time for me to put down which city I would prefer to work in, they never gave you the school that you necessarily wanted right away, or sometimes it worked out that your top choice was where they needed you, but they tried to meet the needs of the schools with the applicants that they had, and so I could have been placed in Denver, kansas City or St Louis, and so with my family in St Louis. That would have been wonderful. I had gone to college here in Kansas City and come to know and love it, and you know what, early 20-something doesn't want to live in Denver. So I told them place me wherever you'd like. I don't really have a preference. I'll do whatever's needed, although I did specify that I wanted to work in high school. I really loved my high school experience and doing the Alumni Service Corps was my way of giving back for that experience and it has been the best decision.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now I'm really intrigued and we're going to go off cuff a little bit. Sure, Because I, as I've been at Rockhurst and been getting to meet I was just telling Beth before we got on this is really cool because I get to get more familiar with who's around and what they do, which really is, is exciting and helpful in my position and in this office and I have been having a strong desire for my children, who are girls, so they won't be able to go here. But I'm curious because I love Jesuit education. We all obviously love it because we're a part of it in some form or fashion. But I'm more and more curious about a Jesuit university experience.
Speaker 2:And so, as a guy who went to a high school Jesuit high school and then went to a Jesuit university, like what for not just me in the convo, but also for folks listening, like what are some of the commonalities or what are the things that you liked about making that transition into that field? I think, quite naturally, it really goes back to this desire to participate in this mission of Ignatian service. That's where I landed ultimately being the director of Ignatian service. But really, why I wanted to go to Rockhurst University was that desire to continue with the understanding that the education that I was receiving was not going to be just for myself, but that it was going to be put into work for the greater glory of God ultimately.
Speaker 2:But to be of service is how that was most readily actualized in my life was that I wanted to go to a school that valued service and that valued putting that education to work as immediately as I could. And so when I got to Rockhurst University, I participated in their freshman orientation, which included the Finucane Service Project, which is a longstanding service day opportunity for all of their incoming freshmen. And now here at Rockers High School I've been able to coordinate a very similar project we do, four of them interspersed throughout the school year, but basically the same kind of a project I find myself leading four times a year and really it was that desire to, from a kind of a foundational perspective, that this education is not going to be selfish and not that other schools make it about themselves but it is purposefully about others, and we say that from day one.
Speaker 2:Everybody that comes to a Jesuit school understands that community service is going to be an element of their education, that we are forming men and women for others, and we're going to do that in an intentional way, and so that was a really important element for me.
Speaker 1:Cool and I appreciate that answer because I just I was intrigued by that as I'm here and I'm like I'm curious about that. So cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you kind of teed us up perfectly for the next question. So these four episodes center around faith and formation. So, as you think about that, I mean you've noted in your own life how you've seen that through Jesuit education, whether it was at Slough High or at Rock U, and you kind of started with our freshman day of service, which, I do, agree with you, I love that. That's how our young men start out. Their journey at Rockhurst is in a day of service from the get-go. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's been. One of the great challenges and opportunities that I've faced in this role is that blending of faith and formation, of making sure that our students are doing the things, putting it into action. But it's never just about the action. In that kind of Jesuit pedagogical cycle of experience, reflection, action, experience, reflection, action, it's a cycle that we continue and so we're giving them constant experiences. We hope that they're engaging regularly throughout their four years in different service experiences that are going to take them outside their comfort zone, that are going to make them uncomfortable in very direct ways and that hopefully, in the reflection that will help them decide where do I next need to take action for the greater glory of God, to put all of this back in that context of faith, right that there's a foundation there that goes back to the Gospels and goes back to what they're learning about in their theology classes with Catholic social teaching, and, hopefully, what they're reflecting on in their daily examine.
Speaker 2:What moments today did I choose to be of service to others? Did I choose to act generously? We have that beautiful prayer, the prayer for generosity, that encourages us, that inspires us to try to be more generous in our lives, and so it's a constant interplay of faith and formation and faith and service, one that I continue to work on and try to figure out how we can help our boys better reflect on the work that they're doing, so that they understand how this is all connected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a big fan. So you know, last week we spoke with Matt Nixon and you know a couple of the students that are involved in the freshman retreat, and I will say it again because you know I don't know about you, beth, but there are more and more people who are listening to our podcast and this is an opportunity to help them not just understand Rockhurst and it's a great school footprints along the way and how that actually helps them form and shape in their relationship with Christ is so unbelievably impactful. And you know I don't you know I was, I was sharing last week. Like you know, I've done some ministry work and I know the obstacles that these young people are facing and trying to take ownership of their faith and I commend you, I commend everybody here, for being committed to that work of no like. We're going to do some work and then we're going to reflect and we're going to do some more work and we're going to reflect and getting them to really like process.
Speaker 1:I'm not just randomly doing stuff. You know this actually has a benefit to your well-being down the road, and I mean, I'm a big fan of it, obviously. So thank you.
Speaker 2:We talk a lot about the power of stories and the power of individual stories, and so, especially on our service immersion trips and working around the Kansas City area, we try to emphasize that skill of being able to recognize Christ in others, and it takes practice. This is an ongoing faith development that they're enjoying, and so, yeah, to be able to capture the dignity of others through stories, to be able to put themselves in their shoes but also to learn about what's important to them and what challenges do they face and what's unique in their life that they can celebrate together. There's just so much goodness comes from those interactions, and our young people today definitely need those face-to-face interactions. And especially when you might sit down with someone for dinner and you don't know what kind of connections you have off the bat, but then you're sharing a meal together, you can discover, uncover all sorts of connections that are definitely there, and of course they're there, and so we need to be better at practicing taking down some of those obstacles that are in our way.
Speaker 3:For some of our folks listening that aren't as familiar with the program, maybe they went to Rockers before it was a formal program or maybe they're looking at Rockers for the first time. Can you kind of walk us through that journey? You talked about Freshman Dave for others for a little bit. You talked a little bit about our service immersion trip. So can you kind of walk through that, freshman through senior year service experience?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And yeah, just to kind of echo what's already been said, these are happening within the context of their theology classes and going on the freshman retreat and participating in other retreats along the way, and so I like to think that all of these are very much going hand in hand. But the kind of Ignatian service specific content that we make sure that every student experiences we start off with our freshman days. For others, which we have four of those, one each quarter and there are about two hours of community service work at any number of our local agencies I think each time we partner with between 10 and 12 different agencies and we have from litter cleanup to helping out with local Catholic parishes, to cleaning up cemeteries, more direct service of stocking food banks and more traditional types of community service that you might think of.
Speaker 2:But we do all sorts of different things with those freshman service days and the goal is that they are doing good work together, that they're making friendships together, and they're doing good in the process. They're getting to meet their teachers working alongside them, sorting produce at Canby's markets any number of great service work opportunities, but also being done together in community. So we really value those freshman service days, and again, those are four times a year. Once each quarter.
Speaker 2:Our sophomores and juniors are currently asked to do 20 hours of community service on their own. So they get to choose what kind of agencies they want to volunteer with, what kind of projects they want to become involved with. The only requirement is that we ask them to work with an organized nonprofit, and so that's kind of our guideline is to making sure that the quality of their service is what we expect, and so we want them to volunteer with a nonprofit and to be engaged, and so our hope is that after freshman year they've met for at least four different agencies and so they can get involved with their friends. They can go back to one that they already have served with, and so those opportunities hopefully give them the knowledge and the willpower to say yeah, I want to go do my 20 hours with this agency, and they can also choose different agencies. They don't have to do all 20 at one, so they can divide up their time. We have students that do all sorts of amazing things with those hours.
Speaker 1:And so that's again sophomore and junior year. Do they real quick? So do you see, and this is tied to a combo, beth and I have all the time, so, like, for the young men that are a part of sophomores and juniors, do you see that are a part of sophomores and juniors? Do you see, like ownership taken on their behalf of, like, okay, I have 20 hours that I'm going to go serve my community and I am actively seeking out, or I have an idea of where I want to go, or is there some pulling of teeth to get the young men out there?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a blended response. For sure. We have students that knock them out the summer before they can complete their hours anywhere from June 1st to May 31st.
Speaker 2:So, they have from from. They have a whole calendar year to get those 20 hours, and so we have students that are knocking them out that summer. We have students that are going on our service trips, which I'll talk about in a moment, okay, and they're earning their hours through participating in those service immersion trips. We have students that do have those partnerships that you know maybe their families are involved with an organization and this is their way of continuing their family's involvement which has been super cool to see the generational involvement with certain agencies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we have. Then we have students that are needing a little more prodding and a little more direction, and here's the list of places you can go. Okay, make sure that you sign up for one by the end of the year.
Speaker 3:And I think that's a really important component, that formation component, right, because some students are maybe coming from either life where service hasn't been a part of their normal family moments or normal school moments. So it may be this kind of fear or intimidation of giving back to the community, especially maybe a community that you aren't familiar with. I think some of it is, you know, your typical high school boy laziness of just oh man. I got to figure this out.
Speaker 3:And so that's why I really like how Alan has revamped our freshman program, because I think it allows for some of those excuses to go by the wayside. Right, Because now they know a place they can go, so it's not I don't know where to go. They know the type of work they're going to be doing and maybe the populations they're going to be serving. So that helps a little bit too with the intimidation factor. So I think that's kind of the beauty in it. I mean, with anything in life we're always going to have people that buy in and people that don't. But what I will say is I've been fortunate enough with Alan to walk through all areas of the service program here at Rockhurst over my past seven years, and there are some boys that will go on our senior trip to Guatemala that I thought there's no way this is going to go well, because you know we've been pulling their teeth to do this the whole way through.
Speaker 3:And then they go on this trip and it is truly formational and it's kind of when it all clicks finally like, oh, this is why I do it. And, like Alan said, I think it really comes from those stories interacting with the local people, understanding the impact of service directly, hearing it from the voices of the people that are being served. But I think what our boys would say, leaving that experience, is that they come out of that experience seeing how much they get from it. So it's really not about giving as much as it is also about receiving, which is really cool.
Speaker 1:And I think, when I'm hearing both of you respond, what I want other people that are listening to understand is the power of a willingness to put these young men in a situation where they have to experience something different or get involved in something that, oh, I wouldn't normally do this, but now that I've done it, look at what I've been able to, not only give to my community, but now I've learned something that is so deeply impactful and it's changed me for the rest of my life, and that's you know, because you can always expect dealing with young men it's going to be some bumps, but like man, do they really take off like a rocket once?
Speaker 1:they've had that experience a lot of times.
Speaker 2:So yeah, for our families that are considering Rockhurst as an option for their student. When we were looking at that freshman program, we made an intentional decision that if this is something we value, we're going to put it into the curriculum for our freshmen and our goal is to get a similar commitment sophomore junior and we already have senior year. But the school decided if this is going to be as important as we say it is and we believe it is we want to be transporting the boys to and from their project. We want them to be undergoing that experience with our faculty. We've made a significant investment in terms of transportation and our faculty's time and energy to say that this is so important that we want your boys to have the best experience possible with some great organizations around Kansas City. And they are so grateful and that's a relationship.
Speaker 2:That's a back and forth. We receive so much from the agencies that partner with us. I always remind them that they are helping us do our job of forming these young men. Like, thank, thank you. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing in forming our young men.
Speaker 1:So I didn't loop you back in, so you talked about what our sophomores and juniors do, and then from there, where do they go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Our senior year is is incredibly special. It's a tradition that has been around since the 1970s. We've been doing the senior service project for over 50 years and this service project is really incredible. Every senior class is donating their class time for three weeks to probably 40 to 50 different agencies in early January and so the students.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they choose one organization in around September, right about this time, and they make a commitment that they're going to go to that agency for about eight hours a day seven to eight hours a day and volunteer their time and over the course of those three weeks they're going to experience what it's like to be on the front lines of that organization. They're going to learn intimately what it means to help fill the gap that that organization serves. And so they're going to meet a lot of people. They're going to see how an organization runs. They're going to feel that immediate need of how valuable they are being there. It's going to matter when they stop showing up, you know. And so that senior service project is really pivotal in terms of wrapping up this whole Ignatian service experience and really their whole Rockhurst experience. It's building, culminating to this point. This is a certain kind of a capstone for us, and so, yeah, I'm super excited every year as senior service project starts coming around because our boys are going to get to really live it.
Speaker 1:So when you you say either one of you, I don't care which one, but like they all pick one organization, or is it like they split up and how does that part work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we'll have about 40 to 50 organizations and the students get to choose from that list.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so I coordinate with all these different nonprofits. How many students would you like in January, gotcha? And they say we can take three, this year we can take five, we can take seven. In January, and they say we can take three, this year we can take five, we can take seven. And so the students then get to sign up for which organization they're interested in, or maybe, yeah, that they want to volunteer to serve with.
Speaker 2:So there's, that student choice is a very big part of that, and in that process they can choose to participate in the international trip to Guatemala, and so that's one of their options.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and one thing I will say is what kind of got me interested in Rockhurst service component has nothing to do with my time at Rockhurst when I was first teaching at Christ the King.
Speaker 3:You know, very long time ago it was the last year the school was open and we had a young man from Rockhurst that was doing a senior service project with us and at the time I was teaching technology and art to kindergarten through eighth graders. So you can imagine getting kindergartners logged into a computer as a task. And so this young man was kind of tasked to follow our kindergarten class to every special. So he was there with MNPE just to kind of help with their own transitional experience Right, you know, learning to wait in line, being patient, all those good things. So this kid, it was his first time working with little kids, he didn't have younger siblings and he really had such a great attitude about it and could laugh about it and enjoyed it and enjoyed it so much that he ended up actually volunteer coaching for us and then continued that and so that was into the spring. So now we're into the spring he's coaching track and helping out at which we desperately needed.
Speaker 3:But when the school closed this is kind of, I think, what was so reflective of that that experience and how much it affected him. When the school announced that they were closing, he came on that last day of school, was hugging the kids who were really nervous about moving to a new school the next year and all that, and it was just such an amazing experience because I saw how much he got out of it, as much as he gave to our students. So it was like a really neat experience before I would even set foot in the door. Even Rockers was a twinkle in my own eye. And so when I got here I mean Alan will probably tell you I think I was like the fastest lightning speed person to sign up to be involved in this as a faculty member, because I really saw the results in that formational experience.
Speaker 1:Do you, Alan, have a favorite experience in your 10 years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, there are so many I was thinking about this before the recording today so many I was thinking about this before the recording today and I mean there's countless stories of immersion trips, of local Kansas City work. One that does stand out and it's a branch of the Ignatian Service Office. We have a student group called the St Joseph of Arimathea Society, named after the figure in the gospel. St Joseph of Arimathea offers Jesus the resting place where they can take his body after his crucifixion, and so we study a little bit as a group about the gospel figure of who is St Joseph of Arimathea and why is he important.
Speaker 2:But the work that we do, the service, is so impactful for our students. We are able to coordinate with the funeral home in Kansas City that has a contract with Jackson County to care for all of those who pass away in Jackson County without a next of kin, so they don't have a next step and so, without anyone to lay their remains to rest, the funeral home takes those remains and cares for them and as a way of our participation, we're able to accompany that funeral home as they lay those remains to rest. And so we have our students, you know, dress up in their sport coats and ties and they come and they are pallbearers essentially for these individuals who have, who have passed away without anyone to formally recognize their or even publicly recognize their passing and lay them to rest in a formal way, and some of the best stories have been students who have participated in those days where they're able to be that witness to this individual's life.
Speaker 2:You know there's incredible power in reading someone's name, even if you've never met them, but knowing that you're there in this final moment for them is very, very powerful, and our students speak so deeply about the impact that that has on them. And that's again kind of a program of the Ignatian Service Office. It's a collaboration with the funeral home and with a few different adults in the building that helped me with that. But it's a ministry more than a club or a program. It's a ministry that we operate when it's necessary. It's kind of hard because there's not a set schedule. We don't get to dictate that. We're very much not in control, and so that's also very humbling right that we are of service when we're needed and to be ready to respond whenever that invitation is given is a great lesson for our students as well.
Speaker 1:It's deep work man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, whenever that invitation is given is a great lesson for our students as well.
Speaker 3:It's deep work, man. Yeah for sure it's incredible. You mentioned a little bit about the service immersion trips, which I think is something very unique in the sense that we take the students out of Kansas City as well. We do do one immersion trip in Kansas City, but can you talk a little bit about that experience and what those those trips look like?
Speaker 2:Yes, so we have our TIE trips, and that stands for our Total Ignatian Experience. These TIE trips operate mostly over the summer, and we invite our students to sign up in advance and to apply to go on these trips. And so they're giving up a week of their summer. They're giving up a week of maybe their summer job or spending time with their friends, or sports practices or camps that they might be participating in. It's a significant sacrifice, and they are contributing financially to cover the cost of their attendance, and so this is a sacrifice that our students are ready to make, and it's a real one. And so we coordinate trips to Appalachia to work with Habitat for Humanity. We partner with Esperanza International in Tijuana, and then, locally here in Kansas City, we have our Thai Kansas City trip, which is hosted at Jerusalem Farm in the historic Northeast, and so those are all full immersion trips where the students are staying overnight all week, even here in Kansas City, and they're really challenged to live differently for that week.
Speaker 2:We build the week around four cornerstones that we share with Jerusalem Farm. That are prayer service, simplicity and community. So everything that we do all week long needs to go back to one of those cornerstones, and there's a great lesson in the simplicity of even those cornerstones, and simplicity being one of them is significant. The students are definitely asked to live more simply, to live lives of prayer. We start and end every day with prayer and reflection. They live in community, which is not easy for them, not easy for anyone on the trip, but we often, as Jesuits, often talk about that. Community is both the best and the most challenging part of their life, and so for that week, living in community is definitely a positive. They have a wonderful time together. The students turn in their phones at the beginning of the week and they get them back at the end.
Speaker 3:My favorite part, let me tell you.
Speaker 2:They're living together Like they are. Yeah, they're cooking together. They are playing games together. They're working throughout the day together on difficult projects, and so it's a great immersive experience. Yeah, and of course, their being of service is that last cornerstone there.
Speaker 3:That's one of my other favorite things. I've gone now to Thai Appalachia twice and it was in. Both times have been great. But one of my favorite kind of traditions there is because they don't have their phones. You know, we know we got to keep busy at some point and most of the time they're a little bit worn out from the day, but they're not completely worn out, and so one of our stops is Walmart on our way in to get our groceries and things like that.
Speaker 3:But we always pick up a wiffle ball, bat and ball and I don't know how many of you hang out with high school boys, but the sheer joy that that wiffle ball, bat ball bring to those boys in that week is something to marvel at. I mean to see them not on a phone, not disengaged, to see them out playing for two, sometimes three hours just playing a simple game of wiffle ball and participating in that is fun and being out there and just like, like Alan said, being in community. I always, uh, I kind of commandeer the kitchen when I'm there and I love it, because how many boys volunteer to want to cook with me? And it's even in the kitchen. We have a good time, you know, cooking and serving their, their fellow students. So I think that simplicity I would agree with Alan is is this underlying value, but it's such an important value as part of that experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and through all those cornerstones it really helps us reveal that human dignity that we talked about at the beginning. Oh my gosh, I didn't know this guy at all on the trip going in and now, after playing a few games of wiffle ball, I really feel like I know him and after having to make a meal together, I understand him now, and that is priceless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:This past year I was down there with Mr Lawson and Father Esparza and there they were getting into it with the wiffle ball.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the boys were loving every minute of it. And so you get to experience your teachers and your classmates in a way that you wouldn't. You just wouldn't have that opportunity to.
Speaker 1:Right, Let me circle back to our, because this is a wonderful question and we've kind of alluded to it, I think. But I think it would be great for our listeners is you're a gentleman, that is, you know, committed your life to this in some way?
Speaker 2:And when I'm looking like why is service such an important formation experience for our young men? Yes, service, I think in some ways it causes, it interrupts our life, that we might be getting into the routine of me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I have to do my homework, I have to make sure I'm there for practice, I got to make sure that I have all the things I need throughout the day and then when we're given this chance to be of service, it really interrupts that, that self-focus and that, that kind of ego nature that we sometimes fall into and we're at.
Speaker 2:We're inviting our boys to say set that aside for a moment and focus on the needs of others and be present. And you're going to, you're going to get so much out of that experience. You're going to love how that makes you feel, how you're able to make the person across from you feel that's going to be an incredibly powerful human experience. And so how we build that into our formation curriculum, you know, again, it compliments the freshman retreat and it complements their theology classes and all of these other things. That goes so well together, but it does. It gives us that opportunity to pause, much like the examine, to pause and say this isn't all about me, I need to pay attention to others. And again that goes back to the heart of Jesuit education, that this is an education for others, this is an education that allows me to better participate and meet the needs of my community and meet the needs of finding Christ in others. And where is Christ suffering and where can I be of service?
Speaker 3:That's great. So this is a question we ask all of our people that we interview. So if you were a prospective family, in your opinion, when you're talking to them, what would you say is the number one reason they should send their son to Rockhurst?
Speaker 2:Yes, Well, in four years, the kind of spring semester of their senior year all the seniors will give a senior service project presentation and I wish that I could record all of them and I wish I could invite their families, because that moment right there, where they're sharing with their classmates and underclassmen about their senior service projects, those stories that they share and how they capture the experience they went through, that's the gold standard. That's why we do what we do. That's one of my favorite days of the year, every year getting to hear the seniors talk about their senior service projects and to encourage and to inspire the younger students. Again, I wish I could bottle that up, because that's what makes everything worthwhile.
Speaker 2:And so if I could tell a prospective family I would say that being able to know that you're going to get to that point, that there's going to come a time where your son's going to stand up in front of a classroom of other people and talk about why they dedicated three weeks of their life to helping others, and to be able to reflect on that and have a powerful message to share. Oh, that's worth it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to do a quick plug for Ignatian Service here. Each year.
Speaker 3:I don't think a lot of people know this, but each year our boys at the school donate about 40,000 hours of service which is to me just an insane number, but also thinking of the impact of that to these local community partners, not only giving them the support they need to run their nonprofits, but also I think what's great about it is it creates these kind of lifelong connections to those organizations. I know a couple of boys that have gone to Lead to Read, for example, that still stay active, you know, when they're in college and things like that. Or like we talked a couple of weeks ago about going to the Police Athletic League and I've seen boys come back and give in different ways to that organization.
Speaker 3:I think it's just such a great reflection of what we want the boys to go out into the world and do and to continue, and I think it's definitely a testament to the program that they're still active in that.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much for visiting with us today, For sure man and I'll say this like thank you for all you do, because you know, over the years and as we talked, you know, whatever that was the freshman tailgate, we talked a little bit there and you know again, there's a lot of places that they just make this like a check box thing. Oh yeah, I did the nice thing and I serve. And, like Beth, when you're telling that story about Christ the King and when you're talking about, like, how these young men now identify a part of their life, like think about, like okay, I'm a generational service because my uncle did it, you know, five decades ago and we just never stopped, like that's powerful for the kingdom and that's powerful for our lives, obviously. So thank you so much for what you do and because it is, it's cool to see that it's just not something. Oh yeah, I used to serve and I did this, but I'm still involved after I leave Rockhurst and I'm still involved. That means a lot. Yeah, that's the goal. Yeah, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, next week we've got Rich Sullivan who will be joining us. Rich has been at Rockers for many years as a teacher. I call him a designated spiritual guide, but I don't know if he takes that title on.
Speaker 2:And he is recently famous on the Kansas City News as he was sharing the story of how Rockers students helped get a bunch of tires out of the creek over by Blue Banks Park, I believe Blue River Park, and so yeah, he's recently TV famous.
Speaker 3:TV famous Rich Sullivan, so you heard it here first. But Rich is going to join us to talk a little bit about the adult faith formation on campus. That's kind of what he is overseeing now and I think what you've heard today Steve gives you a good little window into that that both Alan and I have been enriched as members of faculty and staff here through these spiritual opportunities. So he's going to talk to us a little bit about what formation looks like for faculty and staff, but also all the different offerings we have for our parent population and other adults that interact on campus. For example, my mom still attends the Women's Day of Reflection, which is a women's retreat so she's an alumni parent but she still comes back for that. So some really great adult faith formation that happens here on campus. So we're going to hear a little bit about that next week from Rich Sullivan, so stay tuned.
Speaker 1:Well, alan, we appreciate you being here. Beth, it's always a pleasure, and for all of you listeners, this is Rock Talk. We appreciate you tuning in and we'll talk soon.