The Rose Project Re-Imagined

Like many Academy traditions, The Rose Project changed to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions. Instead of the usual mission trips and week of service, the Mission and Ministry team organized a robust week of programming in March. Students from all high school grade levels participated in local service projects, listened to guest speakers and learned more about the Sisters of the Holy Names’ dedication to service.

Seniors in Ms. Filocco’s AP government and politics class led one of the larger projects of the week as part of an annual Cast Fire project. Cast Fire inspires seniors to connect with the underclasswomen while exploring modalities for seeking systemic changes that support the overall mission of the Sisters. The students created peer-led presentations on several areas of inequality — educational inequality, food insecurity, housing insecurity, environmental justice, health care inequality and immigration inequality — to present to the freshmen during the week. “The presentations were so important because they allowed the High School to set aside time to specifically discuss issues of inequality. It was so beneficial that the information was delivered by students, for students. We were able to frame our information in a way that was relatable and understandable, and we were also able to have those deeper conversations that students might not feel comfortable participating in if we were not of similar ages. These presentations also taught me about how much knowledge there is to gain about any given issue. You can never really know everything, and that was an important lesson my classmates and I learned because it challenged us to continue our research even outside of the projects,” said Asha Sneed A’21, who led a Cast Fire presentation on immigration inequality.

Because traveling off campus was limited to freshmen, an introduction to service through the Cast Fire project acquainted them with how their individual acts of service contribute to addressing larger social inequities. The class visited sites around Tampa Bay, including Metropolitan Ministries, Feeding Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Harvest and The Oasis.

In addition to utilizing the Encounter Journal created by Sister Lisa Perkowski, IHM, students also listened to recorded Zoom interviews led by five Achona Online staffers featuring the SNJM Sisters whose reflections appeared in the journal. The staffers were able to dive deeper into the calling of each Sister, the importance of the SNJM mission, and how to begin an individual social justice journey.

The sophomores, juniors and seniors also listened to several education and advocacy presentations led by alumnae: “Housing and Homelessness” by Lindsay Calka A’17, “Women’s Health: Inequities & Injustice” by Allie Reichert A’13, “Girls’ Education” by Caitlin Vaka A’11, “Integral Ecology & Environmental Advocacy” by Jeanine Ramirez A’16 and “Intersection of Labor, Environment & Trafficking Issues” by Lizzie Dolan A’17. These women are excellent examples of living out the SNJM mission. They also participated in The Rose Project’s student-led contributions on campus, ranging from creating blessing bags to making blankets for cancer patients. Other projects included sorting donations for children, hosting virtual cooking lessons for homeless women and creating goodie bags for health care workers.

“No matter what activity somebody did, I think they all had an impact. When it comes to making monumental social change, it’s difficult to put that pressure on teenagers and even more pressure to condense it into a week. But the first step in doing anything good is care, thoughtfulness and effort. Whether you look toward the students who spent months and months planning as leaders or the students who passionately participated during the week, I think each person planted their seeds of change in pursuit of a better future,” said Amelia Cuttle A’21, who led a Rose Project session focused on addressing the water crisis, a corporate stand of the Sisters.

Overall, even though The Rose Project was different this year, the same faithfilled atmosphere engulfed the Academy community. As a result, certain aspects of The Rose Project will continue in next year’s programming, and students will again serve on mission trips.