Charism Highlights Magazine

CHARISM

SUMMER 2017

SUMMER

SPRING 2018

The Frances Xavier Warde School is an independent, Catholic elementary school in downtown Chicago that provides an academically excellent, values-oriented education to students of all ethnic, religious, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds in a child-centered urban environment.

At FXW, we are guided by our four Charisms. We partner with our families to nurture faith development for our Catholic students and engage all of our students to learn about and respect other faith traditions. FXW focuses on educating the whole child, including social-emotional development, a comprehensive arts program, and a rigorous curriculum aimed at developing critical thinkers who are prepared to live as global citizens in the world. As a keystone of our diverse community, we provide need-based scholarships to children throughout the Chicago area.

Our Charisms serve as a roadmap for shaping and teaching our children. We create an individualized educational experience that recognizes each child as unique. Our Charisms are the gifts that FXW gives to its families and to its students.

Charism Defined:

Any

good gift that flows from God’s love to humans.

The FXW Charisms

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

A Community that is purposefully diverse and intentionally inclusive

FAITH

A Community of faith that welcomes and embraces all faith traditions

ACADEMICS

A Community that is preparing thinkers and leaders in an academically enriched environment

SERVICE

A Community that is motivated by faith to serve others

Letter from the Head of School

Dear FXW Community,

Six years ago, The Frances Xavier Warde School published its first Charism magazine with an intent to communicate the School’s value propositions, promote the accolades of the faculty and staff, and tout the achievements of our alumni.

Prior to the pandemic, Charism was published on an annual basis, and since then, we went electronic one year before taking a pause. In 2024, we will rekindle this practice of providing this magazine as we have so much good news to share. Charism will highlight our people, our program, and our progress. By proudly sharing all that is good about our School, we are reminded of why we chose to be a part of the FXW community and the compelling stories that provide a perspective of the journey from Preschool through Grade 8 and beyond. This edition “highlights” the highlights of Charism and serves as a primer for our next publication later this year.

Please enjoy the annotated stories about the founding of FXW; one featured family—the Franklins; a great synopsis of finding success in high school; and one of my favorite pieces which is an important part of identity—our faith.

Enjoy,

Michael Kennedy

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Maggie Daley Opens a School that Welcomes Everyone

How the Quest for Diversity Shaped FXW

Maggie Daley envisioned a school that embraced diversity. Then, she made it happen with the founding of FXW in 1989.

“Maggie wanted to create a school of excellence that would also be faith-based But most important, it would reflect Chicago’s diversity,” recalls Father Jack Wall, then pastor of Old St. Pat's Church on Chicago's near west side “We started a conversation about an urban-based, mission driven school that could bring together families from across the city and from across the economic spectrum. While Catholic, it would also promote ecumenical values by including a plurality of faith traditions,” he adds. “In other words, it would be a school that would welcome everyone.”

FXW was founded from those conversations. The goal was to tackle one of Chicago’s thorniest and most pressing issues: the need for diversity in education. Mrs. Daley provided the fundraising acumen, Father Wall provided the spiritual foundation and the third leg came from Mary Ellen Caron, the School’s first principal, who provided the educational vision. “We asked the Archdiocese to direct us to the best educator in Chicago and Mary Ellen Caron had everything we were looking for in education leadership. So she became our first head of school and was crucial to our immediate success,” Father Wall explains.

As Mrs. Daley was launching FXW, she was also working in her new job as Chicago’s First Lady; both were tied to her passion for children and her desire to attract people to the city. She saw the new school as an opportunity to teach diversity to Chicago’s youngest residents—its children.

“My mother understood that by bringing together a group of children from all different backgrounds and teaching them the same

things, their educational experience would be positively influenced by learning about each other’s differences,” says Lally Daley Hotchkiss, Mrs. Daley’s youngest child and a member of FXW’s first graduating class. “From the beginning this was a unique mission. My mother had the foresight and she also had the drive to get the school built.”

Starting with the first class, the Founders—Mrs. Daley, Father Wall and Ms. Caron —honed in on creating a classroom of intentional diversity, where all the children would feel that they belonged. Students would come from an assortment of neighborhoods, practice different religions, and represent a variety of ethnicities, non-traditional family structures and socioeconomic levels.

“We wanted significant diversity at our school—not just 10 or 15 percent—but we decided to aim for diversity of 30 percent because that way everyone would feel included," says Father Wall. “The founding class had 30 kids and was located in a storefront at Presidential Towers. And on that first day in 1989, it was magic. Our 30 threeyear-olds were a human rainbow and it was a profound experience.”

Despite the newness of the School, Mrs. Daley inspired confidence in FXW, for prospective families, because, after all, her own daughter was part of this experiment.

“Knowing that Maggie’s daughter was at FXW, a cross-section of Chicago’s neighborhoods, helped attract me to the School,” says CATC and FXW Board member and alumni parent Debbie Marchese, who was also a long-time friend of Mrs. Daley’s. “I moved my daughter to FXW and it was the best decision I made. I cared about diversity and we sought out other families who believed that diversity was as important as the education they would be receiving.”

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

“My mother understood that by bringing together a group of children from all different backgrounds and teaching them the same things, their educational experience would be positively influenced by learning about each other’s differences.”

—LALLY DALEY HOTCHKISS ’98

For Lally Daley Hotchkiss, FXW has had a lasting impact on her life choices. In high school, she gave up her sports so she would have more time for volunteer work. Diversity, meanwhile, continued to play an important role in her view of the world.

“The first thing to remember about FXW is that we were diverse in every way, not just by skin color. We learned to discuss our differences, to recognize them and respect them, rather than pretend they didn’t exist,” she says. “Disappointingly, after FXW, my classrooms were mostly filled with people who looked like me and who had similar backgrounds to mine. That was so discouraging because I knew I wouldn’t get as much out of that educational experience as I had hoped.”

Mrs. Daley died in 2011 after a nine-year battle with breast cancer. She lived long enough to see the School flourish. What would she say about FXW today?

“She would be so incredibly proud; she would credit the faculty and the students who continue to make the School successful,” says Lally. “And she would be so happy that FXW’s driving message of diversity—that kids from all over and from every background can come and learn together—is thriving.”

Mrs. Daley's dream for FXW is a reality today. With representation from 14 different faith traditions, 10 cultural and ethnic groups and 60 zip codes, diversity is flourishing at The Frances Xavier Warde School. n

CHILDREN AT THE CROSSROADS FOUNDATION CHANGING LIVES

all different income levels. But one piece was missing. In order for FXW to succeed as a socioeconomically diverse school, it would need funds for scholarships. That was the genesis of Children at the Crossroads (CATC) a separate 501(c)(3) organization.

“CATC provided a way to raise money for scholarships. It opened up our funding sources so families could achieve their educational dreams for their children,” says CATC and FXW Board member Debbie Marchese. “Our CATC scholars have gone on to attend fabulous schools and have done wonderful things.”

Jessica Smart, a member of FXW’s first graduating class and currently a Chicago Police Officer, recently encouraged the School's supporters to think of their donations as "an investment that will flourish in the young minds who are fortunate to attend FXW."

Twenty-eight years later, as part of its ongoing mission to provide financial support to 30 percent of its population, CATC has awarded FXW over $13 million to 580 scholars, with an average annual gift of $8,300. Together, CATC and FXW are changing lives. n

Maggie Daley, Father Jack Wall and Mary Ellen Caron (above) started a school based on diversity, including attracting children from

ACADEMICS

WHAT FXW MEANS TO THE FRANKLIN FAMILY

by Terri Franklin

Terri Franklin and her husband John are the parents of three FXW alumni: John (“Johnny”), a member of the Class of 2010, Gregory ‘12, and Ashley ‘16. Here she reflects on their experiences at FXW and the ways in which those experiences laid the foundation for their future successes.

"The School does such a great job of meeting students where they are, and then helping each of them to get to the next level."

My husband John and I are quite often humbled and astonished by what our three children have accomplished. We are very proud that Johnny will be coming back to FXW in the spring to speak with students and parents [see sidebar on page 25 ]. But the thing is, his successes are not unprecedented. Our son Gregory, a junior at Amherst College, and our daughter Ashley, a junior at Jones College Prep, have also done very well academically, athletically, and artistically. And so have so many of their classmates and friends from FXW, each following their own path. How does this happen?

I do not claim to be a parenting authority, and I certainly do not have any magic formulas or secret potions that will ensure success for our children. But I am happy to look back at our family’s experiences at FXW and, with the benefit of hindsight, identify those aspects and characteristics that were so important for so many families.

Academics

The first thing I will note is the academic approach at FXW. When I am around parents of younger children today, so much of the talk seems to be about test scores and which schools are the most prestigious. But FXW never fostered that sort of pressure. The School does such a great job of meeting students where they are, and then helping each of them to get to the next level. Johnny’s teachers recognized his academic abilities early on and they worked hard to make sure that he was always challenged and never bored. The teachers also made sure that students did not share their test grades or their grades on various assignments. They emphasized that testing and scores are just a small part of your life and that no one should be valued or measured based on those numbers.

I also felt that the FXW teachers did a great job highlighting the fact that everyone is good at something—math or poetry or art, or whatever it happens to be. They then celebrated those talents and gave each child the opportunity to shine in his or her own unique way. That was very important and it helped the kids to gain so much self-confidence.

There was a real partnership with the teachers. That was probably most evident in the extraordinary lines of communication between us. I always felt that I could pick up the phone at any time and call any of my kids’ teachers to ask a question or express a concern, and they often sent me an email or talked to me about something that they noticed. The back-to-school nights and conferences were also very helpful, as well as the workshops that they had to explain things like the math curriculum. We always felt like we were working together on the same team to do what was best for the children.

The arts have always been such a big part of the FXW curriculum, and that is something that I appreciated very much. Gregory was very involved in theater inside and outside of school, and Ashley is very musical and now sings with the Chicago Children’s Choir. But, once again, it was not about how talented you were, but rather that every child had the opportunity to express creativity. I was involved in a project at school where we visited the Art Institute and studied a famous work of art, and then we went back into the classroom and each child offered his or her own interpretation of that piece. It was such a tangible statement that, especially in art, there is no right or wrong, and that each person’s voice matters

ACADEMICS

Life Skills

My children’s experiences with Li’l Buds Theatre, and all of the other opportunities they had to be on stage or in front of an audience, were crucial as well. That ability to speak with confidence in front of a group— that is just so important, and it began and was fostered through all those experiences at FXW. They also learned time management and other executive functioning skills that have served them so well in high school and now, for my boys, in college and beyond.

I also felt like the teachers did a great job fostering a sense of independence in the kids. There was always the expectation that if you had a problem with homework or did not understand something, it was the student’s responsibility to let the teacher know. That required a certain level of trust among all parties concerned, and it also forced the students to problem solve. As a result, FXW kids as a whole are such great selfadvocates. So when they get to high school, there might be a little difficulty while they adjust to a new environment, but with their academic background and all of the other skills they have learned, they are fully prepared to thrive.

Johnny is, I think, a real testament to that. He always did well academically and by now has great STEM experience and skills. But he also has a lot of compassion. He is just so positive, he is understanding, he listens, and he is a good teammate. He credits FXW for all of those things—the School really started him along the right path. There was an article in the Washington Post recently [see sidebar on page 25 ] about what Google has learned about successful teams in the workplace. They realize now that all of those “soft skills” are so much more important than the technical abilities, and that is why Johnny has thrived there.

Community

Another important piece of the puzzle is the amazing community that is so central to the FXW experience. My kids were exposed to different cultures and learned about people of all sorts of different backgrounds and faiths, and not just through a history book or in some isolated unit in the classroom. They lived it and experienced it every day. Those were their friends, the people they grew up with; they became their extended family.

All of those differences were honored and celebrated; there was no effort to make everyone “the same.” For several years, we had an International Festival which was wonderful, and of course every year at the Holiday Program, students sang songs from different traditions from all over the world. There were lots and lots of things like that. Everyone was unique; no one was “less than” because they were somehow different. That was their normal, and I know that growing up in that diverse community has served my kids so well. There was also always so much group work at FXW, and that led to a spirit of collaboration that became ingrained in the kids’ way of doing things; it is now so natural for them. And being part of such a diverse community, you learn how to work well with people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. That is a key part of the FXW experience and it is such an important skill to have later in life.

That tight-knit community extended to the parents too. We were encouraged to get involved and to really get to know the teachers and other parents. The parent socials were always wonderful, as were things like the Gala; that really built that sense of community. Even things like the pick-up line became a place for social interaction with other parents. We would get in each other’s cars while we waited for dismissal and just talk and talk—that was one of the real joys of my time at FXW. And of course we knew that we had each other’s backs and could always turn to someone for advice or for a favor, and help was always there when things were challenging. We were family

Balance

My final piece of advice is to try to find a good balance for your children. We all want the best for our kids and want them to be successful, and this unfortunately sometimes leads to socialengineering or helicopter parenting. We always tried to emphasize finding a good academic/ social balance. It is just as important to me that my children have a healthy social environment as it is for them to get all A’s and B’s. If they get a B, maybe a C, and they have a healthy social environment, I am fine with that, because that to me is what life is about, that balance.

Johnny, Gregory, and Ashley all were involved in activities outside the classroom—athletics, the arts, Student Council. We have to let our kids explore their own interests, and we also have to remember that those will be different for each child. And, as hard as it sometimes is, we have to let them make mistakes. That’s where being in this amazing school community is so helpful, because FXW makes each child feel like success is possible. They are happy and have a great experience while they are at FXW, and they are fully prepared for the next steps after graduation. That is all a parent could ever want. n

"My kids were exposed to different cultures and learned about people of all sorts of different backgrounds and faiths, and not just through a history book or in some isolated unit in the classroom."

FINDING SUCCESS IN HIGH SCHOOL

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” —Arthur Ashe

There are many variations of the quote from tennis great Arthur Ashe, all offering the same general advice: we should focus our efforts more on the process than the product, making the most of each moment rather than simply pointing toward a desired outcome. This guidance applies to many aspects of our lives—including the FXW journey which, ultimately, culminates in graduation and then high school.

The FXW High School Guidance Team, led by Brigid Cashman and including Meagan Dimit, Kendall Mallette, and Andrew Miller, begins the high school selection process with a parent meeting near the end of the 6th grade school year. During 7th grade, students are asked to reflect on the characteristics they would like in their “dream” high school, and the Team holds separate grade-wide discussions for students and for parents to explore and refine the “best fit” options. The School also hosts both fall and spring Open Houses that allow parents and students to meet with representatives from high schools throughout Chicagoland and from across the country. During the spring of the 7th grade year and continuing into the summer, members of the High School Team meet individually with families to discuss application choices and logistics, and these conversations continue into the 8th grade year. The Team also sends monthly newsletters with important information regarding the application process and deadlines, scholarship opportunities, test prep options, and schedules for open houses, shadow days, and other events.

“The FXW team does an extraordinary job coaching students towards the best fit high school, and in turn serves as an invaluable resource for high schools as we work to capture a full and complete picture of each applicant.”

—Beth Carney, Former Director of Admissions at Saint Ignatius College Prep

The goal of this extraordinarily comprehensive approach is to ensure not only that each student is admitted to the best schools—however that is defined—but much more importantly, that each graduate enrolls at the school that is the best fit for her or him. In other words, the focus is on the journey—to and through high school—in addition to admission to a particular school.

To learn more about the high school admission process, we spoke to representatives from DePaul College Prep, Jones College Prep, the Latin School of Chicago, and Saint Ignatius College Prep. These schools are a representative sample of Chicago’s Catholic, public, and independent/private options and they, along with several others, are popular choices with our students. All discussed the types of students who thrive in their environments, as well as the characteristics of the FXW graduates who attend their schools.

“I entered Jones academically prepared, but I also had the wherewithal to communicate and interact with all different types of people and I had the ability to advocate for myself.’ —Jaye Thomas FXW '14, Jones College Prep '18, Georgetown University '22

Because it is a Chicago Public School (CPS) selective enrollment high school, the admissions criteria and process for Jones College Prep is quite different than it is for Catholic, independent, and boarding schools. While all agree that grades (particularly in 7th and 8th grade) and test scores are important factors, the latter schools look at many other factors in deciding whether to admit a student. These include:

n Kindness, strong moral character, positive contributor to the community

n Genuine understanding of and interest in the school and a commitment to its values and uniqueness

n Desire to become immersed in a variety of opportunities and a willingness to take risks and try new things

n Love of learning

FINDING SUCCESS IN HIGH SCHOOL

"One thing that FXW prepared me for in high school and beyond was asking for help. As a current Engineering Undergraduate student at Purdue University, not a day goes by without me asking friends and professors questions. It always establishes growth and allows for building a better network within a community. Also, you never know what opportunities it may bring." —Jocelyn

Silva FXW '18, DePaul College Prep '22

Private and independent schools and a few Catholic schools typically also ask for statements from the student, the parents, and two or more recommenders. The schools that our students apply to have no shortage of studious, academically capable applicants; what they ultimately seek, according to Sara Salzman, the Associate Director of Enrollment Management at the Latin School, is “someone you would want sitting next to you in class.”

Although each student is different, the schools that we talked with notice certain characteristics of FXW alumni. As Tom Kleinschmidt, the Director of Admissions at DePaul College Prep, says, “We know what we’re getting when we get an FXW kid.” Those traits include academic success; kindness and a commitment to service; a desire to become quickly involved in a variety of activities; leadership and confidence; and a comfort in a diverse, urban environment. “They are the type of students,” Mr. Kleinschmidt says, “who will shake your hand and look you in the eye. They always behave well—even when no one is watching.”

Just like the FXW experience, success in high school is much more about the journey than the final destination. “Success here is not solely measured by a GPA,” says Beth Carney, Director of Admissions at Saint Ignatius College Prep. “Academic fit is important, but the bigger question is, Has it been a happy four years? What happens in the classroom is important, but the ‘everything else’ is what makes St. Ignatius so special. Year after year, we see FXW alums engaging fully in the life of our school and developing as well-rounded women and men for others."

Academic success plus “everything else” is a winning formula, regardless of the school, and FXW alumni are poised and ready to enjoy the journey and take full advantage of all that their high school has to offer.

“FXW graduates exemplify the type of Renaissance student that thrives at Latin.” —Sara Salzman, Former Associate Director of Enrollment Management at the Latin School

High School Choices…

By the Numbers

Over the last three years…

n FXW graduates have been admitted to 45 different high schools and have chosen to enroll at 37 of those schools

n Approximately 60% of FXW graduates attend a Catholic high school; frequent choices include Saint Ignatius College Prep, De La Salle, DePaul College Prep, Loyola Academy, Mount Carmel, and Trinity High School

n About 22% of our alumni matriculate into CPS schools and the vast majority of those students enter one of the city’s 11 selective enrollment schools, including Walter Payton College Prep, Whitney Young Magnet High School, and Jones College Prep

n Approximately 13% of FXW graduates select private or independent schools, with The Latin School being a frequent choice along with the British International School, Francis W. Parker, Morgan Park Academy, and the University of Chicago Lab School, among others

n 5% of FXW graduates attended suburban public or boarding schools including the following: Cate School (CA), Choate Rosemary Hall (CT), Lake Forest Academy (IL), La Lumiere School (IN), and Western Reserve Academy (OH)

FAITH

Standing at the Intersection of Inheritance and Discovery

By Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith America. Named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council and is the author of Acts of Faith, Sacred Ground, and Interfaith Leadership: A Primer. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

For over fifteen years, Interfaith America has operated on the belief that religion should be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Eboo is inspired to build this bridge by his identity as an American Muslim navigating a religiously diverse social landscape.

Eboo spoke to The Frances Xavier Warde School faculty and staff at our annual Mission Day. The purpose of the Mission Day is to set the tone and focus for the year, and Eboo spoke eloquently to us about our identity as “a community of faith that welcomes and embraces all faith traditions.” Later in the year, Eboo returned to FXW to speak with our parents.

The following is from Eboo’s inspirational messages to the FXW community.

For The Frances Xavier Warde School, being a community of faith has everything to do with history and identity. FXW was started as a Catholic school, as an expression of the Catholic faith tradition that gets its founding with Jesus of Nazareth, and so staying true to that history and identity is extremely important.

Coupled with that, this fidelity has to intersect with the facts of the culture as it unfolds. And the fact of American culture and public life is that it is religiously diverse. An interesting and important question for a range of institutions, including FXW, is: How do we stand at the intersection of inheritance and discovery and look both ways at once? The Catholic tradition offers wonderful resources for this, with one such resource being the very definition of the term “catholic.” Small-c “catholic” of course means “universal” in the original Greek. I remember Father Hesburgh, the President of Notre Dame, once noting to me that the challenge of Notre Dame, and indeed any Catholic educational institution, is to connect

its large-C Catholic tradition, the particularness of that large-C tradition, with the universal-ness of the small-c catholic tradition. The fact that The Frances Xavier Warde School says that we are going to be true to our history, and then goes on to say that this not only allows but also inspires—indeed requires—us to be welcoming to people from a range of identities—that is a powerful articulation of what it means to be a Catholic school today.

The first step is welcoming and fostering diversity, which The Frances Xavier Warde School does so well. Of course, to some extent it is a self-selected diversity because by definition everybody needs to take a step forward into the FXW circle, but the School is nonetheless diverse. Then you try to create a community out of that diversity by saying to young people, “Listen, you have some responsibility in the forming of this community. You have a responsibility in the classrooms and on the athletic fields and through co-curricular activities. We are all community builders. We hope that you not only do that here at FXW, but that you will also learn a set of skills, so that wherever you go to high school or to college and beyond, you are able to look at a diverse set of people and help to form them into a community.”

"So you reflect on your own identity, you realize that you are not isolated in that identity but that identity has to be relational in nature with other people who are different, and then you decide how to be proactive about making your identity a bridge rather than a barrier."

One of our primary goals at the Interfaith Youth Core is to inspire young people to think of themselves as interfaith leaders. A lot of our work is with college-aged students because that is the age when a lot of people begin to think about their identity and vocation. But younger people can also be ready to begin to think seriously about this, and it is clear to me that FXW proactively raises such questions with its students —Who do you want to be in the world, what difference do you want to make, what’s your vocation going to be?

The goal is to lift up faith and interfaith issues in a way that creates a wider sense of “we,” instead of asking or forcing people to take sides in a kind of a polarized tribalism. That’s challenging in today’s environment, which makes it even more critical for us to try. In order to do that, there are three interesting questions to ask and answer. Number one: Who am I? Number two: How do I relate

positively to you? Number three: What can we do together? So you reflect on your own identity, you realize that you are not isolated in that identity but that identity has to be relational in nature with other people who are different, and then you decide how to be proactive about making your identity a bridge rather than a barrier. Finally, you ask the question: What kind of community do we want to be? What will we do together?

That may all seem sort of abstract, but it is both encouraging and useful to look at history with an appreciative and positive lens, to seek examples of where interfaith engagement has made a constructive difference, and ask the question, “What does it mean for us to do similar work in our own era?” It goes back to St. Francis of Assisi, who travelled to Egypt in the middle of the Fifth Crusade to try to nurture a positive relationship with Sultan Malik al-Kamil; they talked about prayer in a time

of war. It’s also worth noting that Chicago has played a special role in interfaith dialogue in American history. This is the city where the first Parliament of the World’s Religions was held in 1893. It is also the city in which Martin Luther King, Jr. first met Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, at the Chicago Conference on Religion and Race in 1963, which was convened by Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders. Cardinal Bernardin was of course also a very important figure in interfaith dialogue in the latter part of the 20th century. So Chicago, and the Catholic Church, have played a special role in inter-religious engagement.

I view The Frances Xavier Warde School as being not only a part of that tradition, but really a leader in interfaith activities. That is a very important part of the School’s history and identity. FXW is a Catholic school that leads in interfaith engagement, and that is something that should and must continue. n

My dad went to the University of Notre Dame in the 1970s; that’s how we came to this country from India. When we were kids, he would take us to campus on football Saturdays. Now my dad is not an especially ritualistic Muslim, but he would always stop at the Grotto when we were on campus, and I would watch him cup his hands and whisper Muslim prayers. That seemed incongruous to me, so one time I asked him, Why is it that this Catholic shrine is one of the only spaces that inspires you to return to Muslim prayers? He pointed to the light in the cove that is the Grotto, with all of those flickering candles, and he said, “The Quran describes God as light upon light.” I thought that was a really beautiful moment of resonance between two different religious traditions, and it is something that has always stuck with me. Islam and Catholicism are very different in many ways, but they share this very deep spiritual resonance of light as a central expression of spirituality. The commonalities among faiths are there, if we are open to seeing them.

—Eboo Patel

Did You Know...

n Students in Grades 3-8 have a designated capstone experience; ranging from Chicago River boat cruise to a three-day trip to Washington, D.C.

n Preschool through Grade 8 students participate in service to the community with various citywide organizations throughout the school year. The Class of 2023 completed 1,266 service hours as eighth graders alone.

n FXW uses a co-teaching model in Preschool through Grade 2. We have two certified teachers in each classroom for these grades.

n Over 78 % of FXW students compete on at least one of our athletics teams.

n We offer robust on-site after school programming for all grade levels.

n 94% of FXW graduates were accepted into their first-choice Catholic high school in 2022–23.

n Compared to the citywide average, FXW graduates were twice as likely to gain admission to a Chicago Public Schools Selective Enrollment High School.

n All students in Grade 8 at FXW take a high school level Algebra 1 course.

n Our Preschool team of educators has an average of 20 years of teaching experience.

n FXW averages a 93% student retention rate with more than 75% who start in preschool or kindergarten and remain at FXW through graduation.

Portrait of an FXW Learner

Curious Tenacious Inclusive Engaged

Creative Inquisitive Reflective

• I create, question and reflect on my learning.

Determined

Courageous Resourceful

• I work through problems and stick with challenges.

Respectful Empathetic Kind

• I embrace all people and experiences.

Collaborative Motivated Intentional I am...

• I actively participate in learning, service, my relationships, and my faith.

developing my own talents and skills as a learner.