Program trains educators from Catholic schools in leadership skills

Published: 2006-08-04

ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- Catholic school teachers and principals are proving that it's never too late to learn new leadership skills to keep their Catholic schools Catholic. That's why 47 educators from 14 states and the District of Columbia and one from France are taking part in the Catholic School Leadership Program, offered by Marymount University in Arlington. "This program demonstrates Catholicism in its true sense -- universal," said Marie DeLorimier, a program participant and teacher at Marymount School in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. Planned in 1999, the program started in 2001 after it was developed by Marymount's education department and the Office of Catholic Schools in the Arlington Diocese. Students in the program are working toward a master's degree of education in Catholic school leadership. "Students are principals, vice principals, directors of religious education, or in other leadership roles, or are aspiring to be administrators in Catholic schools," said Sister Patricia Helene Earl, a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is director of the leadership program. "This program is preparing future administrators to be cognizant of the uniqueness of Catholic education -- the academic and spiritual development of students," she said in an interview with Catholic News Service.

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