On the Road Again

by Susan Woolever, D.A., Director of Campus Ministry

The fall and winter seasons have been busy for the Campus Ministry Department. We are an entirely new team with a deep passion for serving the students of Prep. While we each have a different story for what brought us to Grand and Warren this year, our commitment to nurture Ignatian spirituality in the Prep community is united. Most weekends have been filled with freshman days of service, sophomore Koinonia retreats, junior Kairos retreats, and the revived senior Emmaus retreat! As all have experienced, the pandemic took a toll on our whole beings. Specifically, the shifted schedule interfered with our Class of 2023’s Prep retreat experience. It has been really important to help as many of our graduating seniors encounter the Ignatian values of reflection and discernment and Prep magic through retreats as possible. Eighteen seniors attended Kairos (which is ordinarily offered to juniors) and nearly 70 have attended or will be attending Emmaus.

Emmaus is such a special retreat and thank God it has been revived! Alums of all ages hold their Emmaus experience as one of their most prized Prep memories. It offers graduating seniors the opportunity to be together–away from the daily grind and with peers from different clubs and athletic teams. It would be an understatement to say that it is an honor to witness young men get to know someone they have passed in the hall for four years but never spoken to, or get to know a childhood friend in a deeper way. Journeying with the Class of 2023 and creating a space where they can honestly reflect about who they are, who is on their journey with them, and who will be beside them into the future is a profound experience.

The Emmaus retreats are held on the Delbarton campus at St. Mary’s Abbey. So, freetime on the Delbarton field is also pretty fun!! There are a lot of things at Prep for our community to be proud of, but helping the seniors claim and reclaim the values of cura personalis, finding God in all things, being open to growth, being loving, and seeking justice in the retreat setting ignites a great deal of pride for these gentlemen.

AMDG.

by Trish Fitzpatrick, P’07,’16

With the brief exception of her birth in Jersey City, Grace Gualario has lived her entire life in the mile-square city of Hoboken. She and her two sisters attended Our Lady of Grace elementary school, and then she went on to Hoboken High, where she was an enthusiastic cheerleader for both PAL and Hoboken Redwings football. It was during this time that Grace met the love of her life, Joe Gualario. They soon discovered that their grandparents had known each other in their hometown of Molfetta, Italy. “I was really hoping we weren’t going to find out we were related!” joked Grace. Fortunately, they were not, and a very happy marriage of 42 years followed, as did daughters Lea and Christina, and now four grandchildren. Following high school and secretarial school, Grace began her professional career with a paper company. After about a year, she sought something “more interesting,” and found it at Eastern Air Lines, joining the financial planning division at the company’s 10 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters. When Eastern’s new management moved the corporate office moved to Miami—just six weeks before Grace and Joe’s wedding!—the couple chose not to relocate. Grace was able to transfer to Eastern’s aircraft maintenance division at Newark Airport, where she would spend the next ten years. She took a leave of absence at home with her two young daughters in the latter half of the ’80s. When she was ready to return, the once-thriving airline was in turmoil amidst the bankruptcy that would ultimately lead to its closure.

It was a casual conversation between Grace’s sister and Prep guidance counselor Jim Dondero, ’66, P’00 that set Grace on a path that, in her words, “saved my sanity and brought me to the kindest and most compassionate place,” at Grand & Warren. Jim mentioned that Helen Argyelan, P’68,’71,’76, was preparing to retire after 19 years as the assistant to five Prep principals, and Prep was seeking her successor. A journey of 33 years and counting was about to begin—and as of this year, Grace, too, has been the assistant to five different principals.

After a few years working with then-principal Tom Denny, S.J., a long tenure with Jack Raslowsky, ’79 began. It was a time characterized by a great deal of fun and a steep learning curve, as technology was modernizing at Prep and the principal’s office was no exception. The team, including Vice Principal Pat Reidy, was a hard-working one, and Grace solidified and deepened her relationships with her colleagues, and especially with the Jesuit community. During this time, her longtime counterpart in the president’s office, Maryphyllis Locricchio, P’95,’96, joined Prep. Grace joked that the two assistants kept track of their bosses’ movements, for instance with a quick phone call to state, “The eagle is on the move,” when Fr. Jim Keenan, S.J. would shuttle between Shalloe and Mulry Halls. Recalling Prep’s most consequential day of that era, she noted: “Jack and Fr. Keenan never faltered on 9/11 or in the days after. They kept the school together.”

Kevin Cuddihy followed Jack Raslowsky as principal, and while his tenure was relatively brief, his enthusiasm for life at Prep was unmistakable. “Kevin’s heart was with the students. He loved them and he loved Jesuit education.”

Another long stint with Prep’s next principal, Jim DeAngelo, ’85 followed. Jim says of Grace: “She maintained the utmost professional standards in how she operated the principal’s office. She has the gift of the long view—often working weeks or months in advance of deadlines—as well as the ability to respond to needs and requests in the moment. She understands deeply the mission of the school and how her work, which is often unseen, allows so much of what makes Prep tick to happen.”

The last 33 years have brought many innovations, but the overarching goal—care of the students—has never wavered. Grace particularly sees this in Prep’s newest principal, Chris Caulfield, ’03: “He and I share the same values and want the best for the students.”

As Joe’s illness worsened in the summer of 2018, he often told Grace: “Stay at Prep; they will take care of you.” The woman who many call “the glue that holds Prep together” is an example of the care that makes Prep feel like home. She is particularly grateful for Prep students, who “make the world a better place with their hope and love.” Fittingly, so many who have walked the halls of Prep can say the same about Grace Gualario.

As a follow-up to February’s Career Day (see page 22), a panel of seven alumni serving as judges in Hudson County met with freshmen and seniors in the gym for a panel discussion. Topics included their paths from Prep to the legal profession and ultimately to the bench, as well as significant influences and lessons from their Prep years. Some common themes emerged from the judges’ stories: an interest in public service and commitment to good citizenship that took shape in the Prep classroom; a desire to act as a man for others seeking justice and the common good; and the Prep brotherhood that has shaped their relationships with mentors and colleagues throughout their careers. Special thanks to and in particular to Judge Jablonski along with Eli Jablonski, ’23 for their assistance in planning the assembly.

It might not be as prominent as the Saint Peter statue (see page 12), but another recent addition to the scenery of the Warren Street Plaza is another celebration of Prep’s legacy and mission. Above the entrance to the Moriarty Science Center, the large letters AMDG (ad majorem Dei gloriam) have been installed as a reminder that everything that everything we do at Grand & Warren, we do for the greater glory of God.

It might not be as prominent as the Saint Peter statue (see page 12), but another recent addition to the scenery of the Warren Street Plaza is another celebration of Prep’s legacy and mission. Above the entrance to the Moriarty Science Center, the large letters AMDG (ad majorem Dei gloriam) have been installed as a reminder that everything that everything we do at Grand & Warren, we do for the greater glory of God.

This simple motto, attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, adopted by the Society of Jesus, and echoed in Jesuit education through the centuries and around the world, is also acknowledged at the iconic corner of Grand & Warren, where it is inscribed on the cornerstone of Mulry Hall.

This simple motto, attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, adopted by the Society of Jesus, and echoed in Jesuit education through the centuries and around the world, is also acknowledged at the iconic corner of Grand & Warren, where it is inscribed on the cornerstone of Mulry Hall.

In an effort organized by Jack Nilsen, ’23, as part of an Eagle Scout Project, eighteen Prep students were among more than 60 volunteers who spent a cold January Saturday cleaning up Hoboken’s Gateway Park. The team collected more than 100 bags of garbage from the small park alongside the Hoboken Terminal viaduct, while installing a picnic table and two benches.

“AMDG is a familiar statement in a Jesuit school, but it’s also an invitation and a challenge,” said Prep president Michael Gomez, Ed.D., ’91. “Whatever we set out to do, it reminds us that our efforts are a form of prayer, and that by striving for our best we give glory to God.”

“AMDG is a familiar statement in a Jesuit school, but it’s also an invitation and a challenge,” said Prep president Michael Gomez, Ed.D., ’91. “Whatever we set out to do, it reminds us that our efforts are a form of prayer, and that by striving for our best we give glory to God.”

The cleanup was conducted as part of NJ Transit’s new Adpot a Station program, and Jack was responsible for coordinating with NJ Transit, fundraising, assembling volunteers, and managing the project.

In the decades since the Warren Street Plaza opened, and particularly since the old Burke Hall became the Moriarty Science Center in 2011, foot traffic on Prep’s campus has shifted toward mid-block and away from the Mulry entrance, so the new installation ensures it remains highly visible to students in their daily travels

In the decades since the Warren Street Plaza opened, and particularly since the old Burke Hall became the Moriarty Science Center in 2011, foot traffic on Prep’s campus has shifted toward mid-block and away from the Mulry entrance, so the new installation ensures it remains highly visible to students in their daily travels

“I have always been so proud that this cornerstone of our Jesuit identity is literally engraved at the iconic corner of Grand & Warren,” Dr. Gomez added, “and I am so proud to display it at what is now the main entrance to our campus for all to see and know the work we do here, together, makes this space sacred.”

“I have always been so proud that this cornerstone of our Jesuit identity is literally engraved at the iconic corner of Grand & Warren,” Dr. Gomez added, “and I am so proud to display it at what is now the main entrance to our campus for all to see and know the work we do here, together, makes this space sacred.”