Chaminade Julienne puts connection and leadership at the center of the high school experience
Post-COVID, the traditional school experience has come under scrutiny. The social isolation from those initial lockdowns in 2020 has had severe effects on school-age Americans, with Gallup reporting that 45% of parents say the pandemic negatively affected their child’s social skills.
At Chaminade Julienne, a Catholic private high school in Dayton, administrators are cognizant of this trend. Moreover, they view community building as a crucial aspect of education.
“We had students who were kind of looking for a sense of belonging within the school,” says Greg Mueller, principal at Chaminade Julienne. As such, the school unveiled a new model last year in hopes of boosting this sense of community: CJ United.
CJ United is an initiative to reorganize the school day, granting students greater access to academic support, leadership roles and enrichment activities. Flagship elements include small-group advisories, a four-year Soar program focused on social-emotional learning, cross-grade Neighborhoods that build community and more.
Some of these programs, such as the Soar groups, mix grade levels, creating opportunities for mentoring relationships. Similarly, the Neighborhoods are cross-grade groups that consist of three to five Soar groups. Within these groups, Mueller sees another important opportunity for relationship building. “Our goal is to continue to be more intentional about building community,” he says.
Perhaps one of the more notable changes at Chaminade Julienne with the new CJ United program is the LEAD framework that expands leadership and co-curricular opportunities. Along with enrichment time, students are given a designated time throughout the week to attend a club meeting. This allows students to engage with their schoolmates without needing to sacrifice after school hours.
“A lot of our students couldn’t stay after for clubs that were offered,” Mueller says. “Because of a program like [enrichment], there are opportunities for that student to go to a club that they’re interested in.”
The mission of CJ United, according to Mueller, is not just to foster community to make high school a more enriching experience, but it is also to create students who are able to become leaders. Specifically, the LEAD framework hopes to achieve this.
“What we changed to is a different way of choosing and selecting leadership,” Mueller says, while noting that in prior years the school had a traditional student council where the top vote-getters were the leaders.
Instead, the school now has groups like Bridges, which allows a handful of students to help communicate between the student body and Mueller.
“I think the number of leadership opportunities that we’ve offered is wider and is reaching more and different students that may not have been attracted to the previous student council,” he says.
Through CJ United, Mueller and his colleagues hope to give students not only an education but the leadership and community-building skills to shape the future.
“I feel like for the first time, at least in my years, we’ve got the curriculum behind [us] to say that we also [build community], too,” he says.
“We’re trying to develop wonderful young men and women who have great moral character, who love the school they go to and want to give back to their community.”
