Welcome to Our New Faculty & Staff Members!
Welcome to our new Faculty and Staff members for the SY21-22 school year! As we expand to include grades 9-11 this year, we are excited to add five full-time teachers and one full-time administrator to our team. Not only are these individuals dedicated to Jesus Christ and His Church, but they are individuals who know their subjects well and are eager to share their knowledge and Love for Christ with others.
If you would like to read about our new faculty and staff members, visit our Faculty & Staff Directory on our website: https://chestertonjpii.org/faculty-staff-directory.
Getting Involved with the Gala!
There are several ways you can get involved with the JPIIHS Fall Gala!
1. Donate Auction Items: you or someone you is interested in donating auction items for our Fall Gala
2. Become a Sponsor: you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring our Fall Gala
3. Gala Planning Committee: you or someone you know is interested in joining our gala planning team
If you are interested in helping make our Fall Gala a success in any of the above ways, please email Liz Yeh at LYeh@chestertonjpii.org
Our First Sophomore Theses
At the end of May, we had our first-ever sophomore theses presentations! Each sophomore is required to complete a sophomore thesis to show they are ready to become an upperclassman.
Students are able to choose the topic of their sophomore thesis, the only requirement being that it spans across two or more subject areas (e.g., philosophy and literature). This way, students are challenged to make connections throughout the school year.
In addition to writing an essay for their sophomore thesis, students create an artifact: an object that demonstrates something about human exploration, culture, or history and is the materialization of the idea/argument that the student explores in their thesis. Students then present their thesis and artifact to a panel of teachers, administrators, and board members to show what they have learned!
This year, topics included the development of Gregorian Chant, a comparison of a Just Soul to the civilizations of Rome and Greece, a discussion on the Difficulty of Capturing Beauty, and an exploration Egyptian Medicine.
We were so pleased and impressed with this year’s sophomore theses, and we congratulate the students on a job well-done
JPIIHS Service Organization
During the month of May, we had a meeting introducing our parent-student run service organization! Our first official meeting isn’t until next school year, but it was exciting to see how many of our parents and students want to serve the charities in our community next year.
For our introductory meeting, parents brought in materials for Blessing Bags for the Homeless so each student could make a few bags to keep in their cars. Loads of materials were brought in: toiletries, food, water, socks, etc.
It was beautiful to see how the students were able to come together and put together the bags so quickly without any help! Our parents were pretty impressed as well.
Last Day of School!
Our last day of school was on May 21st. We ended the year with Mass and then a day at the park with our students, families, teachers, and Fr.CJ to celebrate our first full year completed.
We wish all our families a Happy Summer Vacation!
See you in August!
Last Chance to Enroll in Summer Courses for Adults
Parents in our school and community members have suggested that we begin to offer courses for interested adults and tenacious high school students centered on the teachings of the Church and tailored to the educational experience of our students. In response, we have determined to begin the St. Thomas More Institute at St. John Paul II High School.
Each initial course is $30 for supplies, and spaces are limited! High school students that wish to take the courses are welcome, and each course they take awards additional credit for their graduation requirements. Please email the headmaster, Blaise Hockel at Bhockel@chestertonjpii.org if you would like to participate.
COURSE CATALOGUE, SUMMER SEMESTER 2021
Ancient Philosophy: How We Came to Think
Instructor: Thomas K. Hockel, Esq.
Location: Our Lady of the Valley, Room 201
Dates and Time: Wednesday June 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd, 6:00-7:30pm
Course Description:
In a four-week course, Mr. Thomas Hockel leads a balance of lecture and seminar covering the development of Western thought from realism to idealism and the cultural effects of that transition. The course will outline the underpinnings of the philosophical traditions in the West and their influences on culture, from the Pre-Socratics and Aristotelian philosophy through the Cartesian revolution and Hegelian idealism. The course will explore the consequences of metaphysical and epistemological assumptions about reality on language and ethics, and will be tailored for a future courses on epistemology, medieval philosophy, and modern philosophy.
Modern Catholic Fiction
Instructor: Blaise A. Hockel, M.Ed.
Location: Our Lady of the Valley, Room 201
Dates and Time: Wednesday July 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th, 6:00-7:30pm
Course Description:
In a four week course, Mr. Blaise Hockel leads a discussion of Catholic Fiction, a conversation about the development of the interior life, and teaches a means of reading literature and pairing it with tools that allow participants to analyze literature from a Catholic lens for the better development of their own internal life. With a mid-ranged reading load, participants will work through a few smaller texts together, rather than reading an entire novel over the four-week period.
The course will be tailored for a continuation into interior freedom, poetry and short story analysis, and a study of the humanities and classical education.
From the Headmaster’s Desk
My dearest friends,
As this is the final reflection of the school year and I am quite fond of stories, I think I shall tell one:
Once upon a time there was a small boy that had a pear tree in his backyard. No, the boy was not Augustine. The boy, who was rather young, conceived a notion (born out of desire, of course) that he should like to eat a large number of pears, as he loved the fruit. Many of the wise persons in his life—parents, grandparents, and other various relations—warned him that he must not eat the fruit directly from the tree, for it would not be good for him. And the rules were set out, and the boy did not like them because he had little understanding. And so, one dreary afternoon while the house was mostly empty and the clouds covered even the watchful gaze of the sun, the boy gathered a ladder and began to pick the pears. Of course, the pears were hard as stone, and he could barely eat them. So intent was he to consume the fruit, he bashed them upon the earth to make chunks of the pear break off. This worked, but filled the firm flesh of the fruit with flecks of rock. The boy ate anyway, ripping off dozens of pears trying to get even a scanty treat from the yielding tree.
This, of course, made him very sick. And he, of course, was me.
This is the conclusion of our inaugural year of St. John Paul II High School—it was a maiden voyage in which a great many courageous people embarked—and so I could use a great deal of sailing imagery or adventurous language, but I should rather spend the time in reflection upon the story of growing things—both the pear tree and the growing youth, as that is what we’re really doing here. This story, I think, is the way that I should like to wrap up our first year: a reminder that even the cleverest person goes astray when they ignore good council, and that’s why I tell it.
The real understanding that I would like to convey is that this year we have set down roots, nourished well by some truly great people. The soil had been prepared for generations, many tender hands having tended to it, and so when we sprouted in the happy home of Our Lady of the Valley, we began to sprout quickly—more quickly than anyone could have anticipated. We flourished, blossomed, and bolted upright, incredibly wonderful to behold in its many beautiful branches and the flowering fruits beginning to spring from the branches. Each student a perfect bloom beginning to bud—with time, each anticipated to become a wonderful fruit to bow the boughs of this place that rises with limbs stretched up to Heaven.
In our first year, we brought together some of the finest persons I have had the pleasure of working beside, and we set out to a single purpose. That purpose was certainly akin to some Tolkienesque journey or some predestined adventure written among the stars, but not in the fashion of some distant epic. Our purpose was to nurture the young minds that found themselves in our little garden. Perhaps that is why I call it a journey akin to something Tolkien wrote—adventures in pruning, shaping, gardening, caring for the grounds in the manner of Niggle or Master Samwise. Yes, this is a fitting comparison; what greater adventure is there than caring for those that we love?
In our first year, we were welcomed, aided, and cared for by incredible friends in the parish, the Knights of Columbus, and a few great individuals for whom I pray frequently. I offer my great thanks to those who have helped us in this early cultivation. Please help us to continue, so that our students will be quite unlike the young boy in our tale—that they might see the merit of those words of wisdom and better cling to the words of life that Christ has entrusted to us in the mission He has entrusted to us. Again, I offer my deepest gratitude to those of you who have helped in these seedling days.
Godspeed and Ferociter bis amate,
Blaise Hockel, Headmaster