Today's Catholic Teacher
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOR TOMORROW
1999 AWARDEEAquinas High School
The busy urban area of the Bronx is criss-crossed with networks of all kinds, but one of the busiest and most powerful is the network which connects the faculty and students of Aquinas High School with each other and the world of learning outside their walls. The network hub for this inner-city school for young women is the school library, one of the few named by the state of New York as an Electronic Doorway. (Electronic libraries provide a two-way flow of technology to obtain information and answer requests rapidly and simply.)
Even with an impressive technology infrastructure, the key to success at Aquinas is the people who use the technology. Principal, Sr. Margaret Ryan recognizes that teachers are at the heart of curriculum change, and has worked to guide, not command, their implementation of technological involvement. A professional consulting group was engaged to work with the faculty, honing skills in areas such as Internet research and use of computer software for classroom presentations. In turn, the faculty invites students to exert more control over their own learning through technology. Every curriculum subject and every area of school life has been affected by technological change.
Technological growth is also reflected in the establishment of an Aquinas chapter of the American Technological Honor Society. The chapter's pioneering members serve as designer of pages for the Aquinas Web site and share a commitment to mentoring others in learning new technologies.
Mindful of the larger community, Aquinas invited students from neighboring public and private junior high schools to use its science and technology resources on Saturdays through the Partnership for Urban Life Science Education. For each of the past three years, this program, which is supported by a foundation grant, has allowed 75 young women access to computer and biology labs unparalleled in their experience.
The network of relationships in which Aquinas is grounded makes it eminently suitable for the larger networking which technology provides. In both senses, Aquinas High School stands as a strong center in a network of empowerment.
