For Anthony Van Asten (right) and his son, Levi, St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mount Calvary feels like home. (Submitted photo)
Everyone knows that the firmest foundation for any meaningful growth in the life of a child — be it academic, social or spiritual — is a feeling of safety and security.
At St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mount Calvary, that’s an even greater priority for staff and faculty because their students are living on campus apart from their parents — sometimes, thousands of miles away from the place they call home.
So, in the same way a watchful parent ensures their child is getting enough time for study, rest, play and prayer, the staff at St. Lawrence emphasizes balance in the lives of its students, and tries to create spaces where all of these things can take place in their turn.
Staff turnover at St. Lawrence is incredibly low — Anthony Van Asten, a 2001 graduate of St. Lawrence, was hired as an English teacher in 2007 and still remains the department’s newest hire. It contributes to the sense of stability, routine and consistency that makes the boarding school model such an ideal environment for any high school student, though it’s a foreign one to many.
“When things are very inconsistent in life, you don’t know what to grab onto and what’s normal,” said Van Asten. “(Our students) wake up at the same time every day, you’ve got the same dorm supervisors getting you out the door to breakfast — just that routine, it really helps ground students who might otherwise feel lost.”
The school day at St. Lawrence is meant to blend seamlessly into the rest of the day, with many of the teachers also serving as athletic coaches, overseeing extracurricular clubs or providing support as a live-in dorm supervisor.
“As a student, if I had a question on homework, there was always a good chance that whatever teacher I had a question for was still on campus after school,” recalled Van Asten.
Also helping foster a sense of belonging is St. Lawrence’s decades-old fraternity system, which groups students from all grade levels into small cohorts, usually of about a dozen young men. They meet several times a day for breakfast, morning prayer and evening prayer, and each incoming freshman has a sponsor within his fraternity who looks out for him throughout the year. Each fraternity also has two faculty members who serve as mentors and meet regularly with their students, going over their academic performance in each class.
Van Asten calls the fraternity system “our strongest asset.”
His son Levi, a sophomore at St. Lawrence, agrees. Because the fraternities include members from all classes, “it kind of breaks down the barriers between classes,” he said. It also helps the younger students know what to expect in their future years at St. Lawrence.
“Another thing I like is the competitions between fraternities, because you’re going against people in your class, and you can kind of joke with them. You’re not going class versus class, you’re going frat versus frat, and the other people in the classes can kind of respect you and learn to know you,” said Levi Van Asten.
“On a personal level, I can say that as a freshman, as a sophomore, looking up to the seniors and having a few of those seniors you really respected in your fraternity was absolutely just very comforting,” said Anthony Van Asten. “When stuff wasn’t going right in my life as a freshman, I had a senior in my frat that I would turn to for guidance and support.”
Many of the older fraternity members will return to St. Lawrence after graduation to see younger members graduate, he added.
It’s not just the members of a student’s fraternity looking out for them, said Levi Van Asten. Teachers and dorm supervisors are always quick to check in with students, especially new freshmen, to see how they are doing. And one of the “cures for homesickness” shared in the mandatory guidance class for all new freshmen is talking about it with others and getting involved in activities.
“Living away from my brothers is hard — not being able to play soccer with them after school — but the big thing that I’ve learned is that you’re always with your friends (here),” said Levi Van Asten. “So, no time is really a sad time, because at no time am I really alone. And if you’re bored, like on a Saturday, you can just ask if one of them wants to play soccer on the soccer field. Or, if you’re lucky, your dorm supervisor will let you page the entire school to see if anybody wants to play a pickup game of basketball in the gym.”
At some point, said Anthony Van Asten, almost every St. Lawrence student will unwittingly refer to the school campus as “home.”
“It just slips out and it’s completely accidental. And although this place definitely doesn’t replace home, when that happens, I think it’s a good strong indication that our students feel comfortable here,” he said.
“It’s basically home,” agreed Levi Van Asten. “And another thing I like about St. Lawrence is you can never forget your homework at home.”
