News & Notes

New faces on campus

Brandon Mills is excited to join Cistercian Preparatory School as the Director of Admissions and Communications. With eight years of experience in college admissions at the University of Missouri, he is passionate about helping families find the right fit for their educational journey. Mills takes pride in creating a welcoming atmosphere for prospective visitors, ensuring they feel at ease from the moment they step onto campus. Originally from Missouri and now thriving in Dallas, he balances his professional role with the joyful chaos of family life, including an adorable ten-month-old daughter and a spirited three-yearold son. With his blend of expertise and enthusiasm, Brandon looks forward to connecting with families and guiding them toward a meaningful experience at Cistercian.

Matt Mercy is an assistant varsity and middle school coach for football and track while teaching Form III Health. After earning his finance degree as a student-athlete at Tennessee Tech, he worked in business before playing professional football in Europe. He then earned his M.Ed. at Lipscomb University while working at Ravenwood High School in Nashville, where he coached football and wrestling. He also served as sports information director and taught business management. After his wife’s career brought him to Dallas, he became the head wrestling and assistant football coach at J. J. Pearce High School, where he also taught finance. Before Cistercian, he was an assistant football coach and engineering teacher at Nolan Catholic High School. Coach Mercy’s philosophy when mentoring students and athletes is best summarized by Sir William Francis Butler: “The society that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”

Alumni parent (Sebastian ’19, Oliver ’22, and Xavier-Class of ’25) and native New Yorker Mary Currlin joined the Development Office as the Database Administrator. While Mary was earning a BS in marketing from SUNY Geneseo, she worked part-time for the college’s alumni office and volunteered for their annual alumni phonathon. After years as a Cistercian Parents’ Club volunteer, life has come full circle. “I am blessed to rejoin the Cistercian community and be the caretaker of all records in the database,” said Currlin.

Clare Frank joined the Cistercian art department with a wealth of teaching and art experience. She earned her undergraduate degree in art history and printmaking at the University of Dallas and her MFA in 2D art at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Over the last 24 years she has taught, participated in local arts organizations, and exhibited art professionally. She was an art teacher at Great Hearts Irving for nine years, where she taught fourth through twelfth grade and sponsored students participating in regional competitions. Her previous teaching experience includes drawing, design and printmaking at the collegiate level and workshops through museums and colleges. She is teaching Forms I and II, art electives for Form V, and sponsoring Art Club. She takes great joy in seeing students develop their powers of expression and looks forward to seeing her Cistercian students grow more fully into themselves in art.

Br. Nathaniel May was born in Topeka, Kansas, but grew up all over the United States, eventually settling in the area outside Louisville, Kentucky, where he completed his senior year of high school. Br. Nathaniel graduated from Thomas Aquinas College (CA) with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts, and began working for two years in the Bronx, NY, as a missionary and teacher. In 2023, he entered the novitiate of Our Lady of Dallas and took temporary vows on August 18, 2024. Currently, Br. Nathaniel teaches E-Lab II at Cistercian, delving into the parts of speech and grammar usage.

Br. Kolbe Novey joined the Abbey in August 2023 after spending time as a teacher in the Bronx and later in Irving. After making his first temporary profession of vows, he now enjoys teaching Latin at Cistercian. He grew up somewhere in the cornfields of Illinois, and studied at the University of Dallas as an undergraduate. “I’m grateful to begin playing a small role at the School in continuing the incredible legacy of the Cistercian Fathers, teachers, and community,” said Br. Kolbe.

Jennifer Kerr joined Cistercian as the receptionist, where she manages the front desk and ensures a welcoming environment for students, staff, and visitors. In 2020, Jennifer and her family moved back to the DFW area to ensure their children could attend school in person. Her son, Harrison, is now in Form I at Cistercian, and she has a daughter at Great Hearts in Irving. Jennifer brings valuable experience from her role at O’Dea High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Seattle, where she also worked in front desk administration. After growing up in the DFW area, Jennifer attended both the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington. Kerr said, “I’m so grateful to be part of Cistercian—the students, faculty, and staff create such a warm and welcoming community, and I am excited to be part of the team helping young men grow into their best selves.”

Hungarian exchange students—“András2”— spend time at Cistercian

In August and September, Cistercian hosted two exchange students from the Szent Imre Cistercian Secondary School in Budapest, Hungary, for five weeks. András Izsak (“Andrew”) and András Polony (“Polo”) benefited immensely from the experience of cultural and linguistic immersion. They were hosted by several Cistercian families, treated to Cowboys and Rangers games, rodeos, and great Tex-Mex food, as well as enlightening experiences like shadowing an ER doctor and touring Dallas public schools. In exchange, they presented on a favorite Hungarian poet—Ferenc Kölcsey—to the Form VIII English class, and they gave PowerPoint presentations on Hungary and their Cistercian school in Budapest to several forms and to the novices in the Abbey. Best of all, they were embraced by their new Dallas classmates in Cistercian’s Class of 2025.

Alumni networking

Parallel with the mentoring program for current students and college-aged alumni, the School is also working to connect alumni already out of college within fields and professional interests. Alumni are encouraged to update the “Education” section of their LinkedIn profile to grow the public’s awareness of the Cistercian Preparatory School alumni network and also to join the private Cistercian Preparatory group exclusively for alumni, alumni parents, and faculty of the School (the private group does not appear in search results and is not visible to others on members’ profiles).

CPR saves lives

With half a million cardiac arrests each year, CPR increases the likelihood of surviving such an event. CPR instruction provides the skills and confidence to act in an emergency and save a life. Cistercian fully recognizes the importance of this lifesaving skill, and we are pleased that 100% of our full-time faculty and staff are now fully CPR certified.

Youth Mission to Costa Rica—June 2024

The Diocese of Dallas continued its annual Youth Mission to Costa Rica in 2024. Our students and their fellow missionaries from other area schools spent eight days living and working in the diocese of San Isidro de el General, Costa Rica, attending Mass in Spanish in their cathedral, visiting local schools, and helping rural chapels and their associated communities with minor renovations and building.

Capital Campaign Update

Thanks to the generosity and support of so many in our community, we have secured the whole of the $3.6 million match and have now slightly exceeded our $15 million capital campaign goal! Of course, with an eye toward anticipated cost overruns with the remaining construction, we have a number of additional requests outstanding, including foundation grant requests, estate gifts, additional verbal promises, as well as future year-end gifts that will help give us a cushion above the $15 million mark. We will dedicate the cross-country trail in the spring and will break ground on the new theater in summer 2025. Exciting times for Cistercian!

Mentoring/Internship Initiative

Efforts to support current students and college-aged alumni as part of Cistercian’s mentoring program range from something as little as a onetime Zoom/phone call, to an on-campus presentation/panel, to a shadow day at one’s workplace, to a summer internship. Juan Muldoon ’05 and Mark Roppolo ’88 helped this initiative gain traction last summer with positive feedback from all parties involved. Seven rising seniors participated in alum-sponsored summer internships/research; one performed research for UTSW; and three shadowed professionals in their area of interest. Peter Thompson ’13 also led a group of fellow alumni/alumni parents in hosting 15 rising seniors at Crow Holdings Capital for a tour of Old Parkland and a panel on private equity.

Sharing faith through music

As seniors, William Greene ’23 and Carter Soderberg ’23 were instrumental in the formation of Miracle Melodies, a musical group dedicated to bringing praise-and-worship music to students at the Notre Dame School of Dallas. The Class of 2023 has moved on, but the current Class of 2025 continues to carry on the group’s mission. Seniors practice on their own time and give up their late-start Monday mornings each week (a senior privilege at Cistercian) to bring joy to students with developmental disabilities.

Fall middle school production of Oliver Jr. that had three sold-out shows!

Inspiring athletes

Since Coach Hillary’s time, there was a sign in the locker room, shown below, that inspired generations of athletes as they made their way to the playing fields. The sign was lost during the renovation, but it was replaced with big lettering on the wall between the varsity locker room and weight room. When our athletes compete, they “bring honor to us all.”

New perimeter fence

Work was completed recently on the installation of a perimeter fence around campus. The fence runs along the eastern and western boundaries of Cistercian’s property and along the Hwy 114 access road to further limit access to campus and increase security. Perimeter fence shown in red. Cross country course indicated by dotted lines.

Quiz Bowl news

The Upper School Quiz Bowl team competed in their first tournament of the year in Shreveport. Team A finished second with Andrew Kosel ’28, Bennett Tschoepe ’26, Christian Oh ’26 and Drew Durgin ’26. They were undefeated in the preliminaries but lost a tense and exciting final matchup. Team A qualified for both national tournaments. Byron Duhé ’25, Rishabh Rengarajan ’25, Joe Schulz ’26 and Dhruv Gohel ’28 brought home a fourth-place finish for Cistercian’s Team B. Individual awards went to Duhé (fourth) and Roman Jeffery ’28 (fifth). Four additional team members finished in the top twelve: Durgin (sixth), Gohel (ninth), Oh (ninth), and Kosel (twelfth). At the first Middle School Quiz Bowl Tournament of the year, Cistercian A (Ewan Dilley ’29, Markham Hay ’29, Enrique Mosothoane ’29, Knox Shurley ’29, and Bob West ’29) finished fourth and qualified for the National MS Tournament in Chicago. Dilley was ranked fourth out of 56 competitors.