Young Catholic Leaders Initiative
The Collegium Institute’s Young Catholic Leaders Initiative is dedicated to cultivating, through the resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition, student leaders in the greater Philadelphia area who are at the service of the common good. This project aims to enhance Collegium’s ongoing Catholic Humanism sequence for college students by extending it to advanced high school students.
The Young Catholic Leaders Initiative was founded in 2020 through a generous grant from the Connelly Foundation. Through a series of academic conferences hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, the Young Catholic Leaders Initiative seeks principally to impart to Catholic students an awareness of the riches of their own faith’s deep intellectual tradition beyond basic catechesis, as well as an awareness of a vibrant academic community, Catholic and non-Catholic, that take that intellectual tradition seriously, such that they will be inspired to recommit themselves to faith in their college pursuits and incorporate their faith into every aspect of their life and leadership. Secondarily, it aims to expose non-Catholics to the resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition, bringing those resources to bear on universal human questions about the meaning and purpose of life, the nature of love, and the origins of the cosmos.
News & Upcoming Events
Science as a Path to Wonder: From the Darkness of Space to the Light of Christ
Yuri Gagarin, the famous Soviet Cosmonaut and first man in space, infamously observed that he did not see God in space. In the vastness of space with its dying stars, black holes, and poisonous planets inhospitable to human life, one can easily arrive at Gagarin's conclusion. And yet, can scientists look upon space with eyes of faith? Can the practice of astrophysics or science more broadly lead us along a path of wonder to God, rather than doubt and despair?
To answer these questions, the Collegium Institute's Young Catholic Leaders Initiative will be hosting a daylong workshop for high school students and teachers called Science as a Path to Wonder: From the Darkness of Space to the Light of Christ, on Saturday, November 16, at the Penn Newman Center.
This workshop will begin with a Gold Mass for Catholic Scientists at St. Agatha-St. James Church at 9am, celebrated by Penn alumnus Msgr. Michael Magee. The Gold Mass is open to all interested members of the public, and will be followed by a brunch reception. Members of the general public interested in attending the Gold Mass may RSVP here.
After brunch, Br. Cassian Iozzo, O.P., a Dominican friar and PhD in Astrophysics from Cornell will deliver the keynote lecture on Catholicism and Astrophysics with Br. Augustine Buckner, O.P. offering theological commentary and reflections, followed by breakout discussions. After the breakout discussions, Br. Cassian will perform a series of experiments with the help of the students and teachers to illustrate some of his points from the keynote lecture. The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion featuring Prof. Michelle Francl (Bryn Mawr), Prof. Michael Vogeley (Drexel), and Br. Cassian with Br. Augustine moderating, followed by small group discussions.
Young Catholic Leaders Initiative Awarded Major Grant from the Ambassador's Fund for Catholic Education!
Collegium Institute is proud to announce that the Young Catholic Leaders Initiative has been awarded a major grant from the Ambassador's Fund for Catholic Education for $63,125 for the 2023-24 academic year.
The Ambassador’s Fund for Catholic Education, formerly called the Archdiocesan Educational Fund, was created and funded in 1967 by Matthew H. McCloskey, Jr. (1893-1973), building contractor and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland (1962-64), to advance Catholic education and evangelization through the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
With the support of the Ambassador's Fund, Collegium Institute's Young Catholic Leaders Initiative will be able to significantly expand its program offerings for Philadelphia-area high school students. In addition to its biannual high school workshops and three-day summer seminar, the Young Catholic Leaders Initiative will now offer a seven-session monthly series on the cardinal and theological virtues, for a select group of Student Ambassadors, who will grapple with the great questions about the struggle between good and evil in their own lives. This new grant will also enable the Young Catholic Leaders Initiative to offer two workshops and one summer seminar for high school teachers for professional development credit.
Past Events
The Undiscovered Country: On Life after Death
Over the course of three days featuring Prof. Paul Camacho, Prof. Veronica Ogle, Prof. Rosemary Trout, Prof. Joseph Trout and assorted Collegium staff, we dealt with death and the horrors of hell, progress through the purgative process of pilgrimage and purgatory, and advanced towards the deepest desires of the heart in our heavenly homeland. Our guides through this perilous journey through the undiscovered country included Plato and Boethius, Dante and Chaucer, Newman and Hopkins, and many more voices from beyond the grave. Through seminars and breakout discussions, scavenger hunts and cemetery visits, dramatic readings and delicious feasts, the seminar sought to help us live well to die well.
Thinking Well and Teaching Well: On Intellectual Virtues and Vices
The workshop revolved around three panels where discussing pairs of virtues necessary for teaching, but which seem in tension with each other. The first panel, featuring Prof. Amy Richards of Eastern University and Dr. Steve McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, discussed humility and courage. The second panel, featuring Jessica Sweeney, Director of Collegium’s Ars Vivendi Initiative and former high school teacher, and Prof. Terence Sweeney of Villanova University discussed wonder and diligence as virtues or traits necessary for teacher and student alike, but which require balance. Incorporated into the discussion of wonder and diligence was an interactive exercise cultivating ways of seeing with wonder and diligence in a classroom setting. The third panel, featuring Br. Augustine Buckner, O.P. and Br. Cassian Iozzo, O.P. (PhD in Astrophysics from Cornell) discussed contemplation and community. High school teachers can receive professional development credit through Act 48 by attending this workshop.
All Shall Be Well: On Hope
In the sixth session of Seven Secrets to Happiness: Living and Learning the Virtues, we were guided by the philosophical and theological insights of St. Augustine, Josef Pieper, and Gabriel Marcel. We looked to poetic and artistic depictions of the virtue of hope to help us explore questions such as, what distinguishes the theological virtue of hope from faith and love, on the one hand, and from natural hope, on the other? How can hope help us reconcile the unconditional certitude of faith with the unavoidable uncertainty of the status viatoris? For what may I hope? Why ought I hope? How is Christ the fulfillment of our hope?
A Leap of Faith: On Faith
In A Leap of Faith, the fifth of seven seminars on 7 Secrets to Happiness: Living and Learning the Virtues, we explored how artists, philosophers, and theologians have depicted faith, and discussed how we can apply these ideas to our lives. Following our discussion, we took this "leap" ourselves as we attended an indoor trampoline park.
Balance the Tragedies and Comedies in Your Life: On Temperance
For our fourth of seven seminars on 7 Secrets to Happiness: Living and Learning the Virtues, we dove into poetry, theater, art, philosophy, and theology surrounding the cardinal virtue of temperance and discuss the practical application of this virtue. Considering the theme of Balance the Tragedies and Comedies in Your Life: On Temperance, we exercised some balance during an outing to City Hall's ice skating rink.
Courage, Dear Heart: On Fortitude
For Courage, Dear Heart: On Fortitude, the third of seven seminars on 7 Secrets to Happiness: Living and Learning the Virtues, we explored what art, poetry, literature, theology, and philosophy have to say about courage, and discuss how we can apply these ideas to our lives. We also provided students with an opportunity to exercise the virtue of fortitude through a rousing round of paintball.
Choosing Your Path: On Prudence
This second session of our seven-session monthly Student Ambassadors program featured a rock-climbing session and luncheon seminar on the virtue of prudence, guided by Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Plutarch, and Shakespeare.
The Just Man Justices: A Seminar and Service Project
This first session of our new Student Ambassadors program, The Just Man Justices: A Seminar and Service Project, took place on Wednesday, August 23rd at the Penn Newman Center. This event marks the beginning of our seven-session monthly Student Ambassadors program on Living and Learning the Virtues, where students will learn about living the virtues cardinal and theological virtues through museum visits and hikes, service projects and feasts.
How to Be Happy: Leisure, Festivity, Art, and Contemplation
Happiness is the first and foremost question of the classical tradition of philosophy. How have Catholic thinkers engaged with that tradition and developed a robust answer for life? We explored this question through seminars and panel discussions, music and exhibits, communal service and feasting. Our guides in the quest for happiness included Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, Annie Dillard and Josef Pieper. Taking the seminal text Leisure: The Basis of Culture as our starting point, we sought to establish a proper conception of work balanced by leisure as both concept and practice. We then considered how art, the greatest fruit of leisure, moves us from reflection on the things of this world to the next by means of beauty. Lastly, we focused on the final end of human beings, the purpose of life, namely happiness and contemplation in communion with God.
As part of Collegium Institute’s Magi Project, this event was made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant ID 62398 - Integrating Science and Faith at Catholic High Schools Nationwide Phase III) from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in any publications, videos, lectures, etc. associated with this project are those of the author(s) or speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.
St. Albert Initiative: Modern Science & Catholic Faith
The St. Albert Initiative was a half-day program on science and faith for Catholic high school students, teachers, and parents as well as interested members of the general public (high school age and above). It featured short talks by Catholic scientists and the opportunity to meet, eat with, and ask questions of Catholic scientists in many fields and at various stages of their careers.
This initiative was named after St. Albert the Great, bishop, scientist, philosopher, theologian, teacher, and patron saint of natural science and scientists.
The St. Albert Initiative was sponsored by the Science and Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS), and the Collegium Institute, with funding by grants from The John Templeton Foundation.
This event took place at St. Joseph's Preparatory School on Saturday, March 25, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Light breakfast and sign-in at 9 a.m. Events start at 9:45 a.m.)
“Dear young people, let yourselves be taken over by the light of Christ, and spread that light wherever you are.”
— St. Pope John Paul II