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News 12 Staff

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Don't you just love this slogan, Benedict's hates a quitter? Yes, it just touches you to the core, and I have 3 people from the school with me here in studio. You all tell me, what does this mean to you? Uh, that, that, that, um, slogan, that motto goes back to when I was a student at the school, at least, uh, from an old, uh, football coach, we had a stencil on everything we did, uh, uh, our jerseys, Benedict hits a quitters, and it just has persisted through, uh, the history of the, of the school, not to, not to give up no matter what. What the challenge is, keep working at it until you conquer it. Do you feel the same way where Rebecca? Yeah, especially it plays into the experiential learning part. We're given so many hard and difficult tasks that you just always have to remember like Benedict hates a quitter, so I can't quit because if I do it's kind of like you're not really yeah mhm. Nigel, you feel the same way? Uh, yes, the motto for me, uh, has been instilled in me since I was young, and I feel as if it really just keeps me pushing forward, uh, as Rebecca said, even through the experiential challenges and even in the classroom as well, just maintaining my grades and etc. because if you give up, you not only give up on yourself but you give up on people around me, my teammates. I love that a team effort. In case you're just tuning in, Father Edwin Leahy is the headmaster. Rebecca Miranda is a senior. Nigel Williams is a senior as well at Saint Benedict's Prep there in Newark. You mentioned the word experiential. What is that about? So we were in the 1970s. This the experiential education outside the classroom experiences was huge in the country, and the challenge was how do you assess it. Teachers will wonder how I assess what the progress that the students made, and it kind of faded, but, uh, we never let go of it, so, uh, we, we have the, the backpack. Experience for our 9th graders, the water challenge for our 10th graders, or wilderness challenge for our 11th graders. We're always trying to create things outside the classroom that that test the kids' resiliency that that's the idea of the whole thing, I think. Do you all love that teach things outside the classroom? Yeah, it's more interesting than just sitting there like taking notes and doing quizzes because you learn to think more outside the box sometimes and you really do learn a lot of skills throughout all these challenges. Uh, being outside the classroom, uh, helps me, uh, instill trust in my brothers and sisters. Uh, as I've grown up in the school, I feel as if just being a part of something bigger outside of the classroom puts confidence in myself and prepares me for things outside of the school. Schools were built on the transmission of facts when we were kids. Uh, but you don't have to transmit as much facts anymore because all you have to do is pick up a device and you get any facts you want. So what does the school need to be about now? And I think what we, what most people are looking for is resiliency, teamwork, oral and written communication skills, virtue, those kind of things are what you have to teach, and experiential education helps to do that.

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My guests are with Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, Father Edwin Leahy, headmaster Rebecca Miranda Senior, Nigel Williams Senior as well. Let's talk about your school's core pillars. We also have a lovely picture that I like. Seeing is believing. Explain what that's about and how it ties into the pillars. So the, the core values of the school are community. Uh, leadership Attending to the heart of the students and then academics in that order, I mean which is a little strange because most people think about academics and probably it should be the number one but it's not um so uh. What you're seeing is believing it because if you can address the issues that kids are facing, uh, you can watch them grow right in front of you. Most of what we see, I believe in the whole country as academic underachievement has nothing to do with intellect. It has to do with a lot of emotional noise that goes on in young people in the country. And if you mitigate the, uh, the emotional noise, you watch your grades go up like a rocket. Like a thermometer in July, so we have a pretty developed, well developed, uh, counseling center with clinical psychologists to deal with these challenges that that a lot of people, a lot of our young people are facing the country right now growing up without one parent present, um, unresolved grief, violence around them, those kind of things, uh. And then we try, we work hard to build community we meet every single day, everybody together face to face we don't do any announcements over a loudspeaker. I did not want to go to counseling at all, mostly because where I came from counseling was like considered like bad, but that stigma isn't present at our school. Like if you say somebody is at counseling, nobody is looked at. For being weird or anything, it's just normal and counseling did end up helping me. I started my sophomore year and I'm a senior now and I never stopped going and I noticed that my attitude has just gone up way more and it's just like I'm, I'm glad I went to counseling. What about you, Nigel? Uh, I definitely believe in counseling and. A big part of that is community as well um seeing other people in group counseling sessions has helped me and uh has helped uh other people in the school feel comfortable with expressing and addressing their problems and that's honestly just definitely impacted them in the classroom positively. The most, the third part of it, one of the pillars that we didn't mention is the, the, the student leadership. The kids run the school day to day, so they're responsible for the day to day ins and outs of what goes on. So the, the another motto is don't do for kids what kids can do for themselves. Wow. Heavy. I love that.

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Fr. Edwin Leahy, student Rebecca Miranda and student Nigel Williams spoke to News 12’s Della Crews about what the school means to them.

Spotlight New Jersey: St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark

Fr. Edwin Leahy, student Rebecca Miranda and student Nigel Williams spoke to News 12’s Della Crews about what the school means to them.

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