St. Brendan students’ global knowledge takes flight

We get to learn about our different neighbors and their cultures.”

Nora, a sixth-grader at St. Brendan School in Mexico

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The world came to St. Brendan School in Mexico, and the students couldn’t get enough of it.

They picked up their International Explorer Passports and set about mingling with Missouri Military Academy cadets from China, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Rwanda, Ukraine and Vietnam.

“We get to learn about our different neighbors and their cultures,” said Nora, a sixth-grader at St. Brendan School.

Second-grader Wren liked learning about other people’s cultures and the different types of food they eat.

The cadets enjoyed visiting with the students and hanging out with each other in the St. Brendan School gym.

It was the Monday of Catholic Schools Week. St. Brendan School’s theme for the day was Mark 16:15: “[Jesus] said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel.”

Students dressed in their comfiest clothes for an airplane voyage.

The window-seat view of a commercial jetliner ascending into a clear sky was projected onto the wall of the gym, where the cadets from each country had their exhibits set up.

St. Brendan students from older grades were paired up with younger grades for the activity.

Each group spent about a half-hour studying the illustrated display boards created by the Missouri Military Academy (MMA) English as a Second Language program students from the various countries.

The cadets in uniform answered questions about their homelands.

“I’m presenting my project about the Dominican Republic. It’s where I’m from, where my parents were born,” said Rfred, a freshman at MMA.

Some of the St. Brendan students he talked to had actually visited his homeland.

He said his favorite thing to share with the students was his homeland’s religious composition.

“Because they go to a Catholic school, and the religion there is mainly Catholic,” he said.

Rfred is Catholic, too. He and his family now live in Audrain County and are members of St. Brendan Parish.

He said he enjoyed the upbeat atmosphere at St. Brendan School.

“Everyone is just so happy,” he stated.

Travel agent

The St. Brendan Festival of Nations has been a dream of Principal Theresa Farnell for several years.

Growing up in Columbia, Missouri, she attended a grade school that had students representing more than 80 countries.

“I wanted to bring a little bit of that to our students here at St. Brendan,” she said. “And with our theme of “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel,” we wanted to bring the world to them.”

Founded in 1889, MMA draws young men from all over the country and from nations around the world to its campus about a mile and a half from St. Brendan School.

The St. Brendan students received for their passport a sticker from each country they “visited” during the festival.

Fourth-grader Graden said his favorite part of each display was the landmarks, especially the Chinese Palace.

Fifth-grader Ember and first-grader Annie were taking notes and shaking hands with the cadets from China.

“It’s cool that we get to learn new things about each country,” said Ember.

She found the food and landmarks to be particularly interesting.

The entire event piqued Annie’s curiosity.

“I’m really excited just to learn about different countries that I haven’t been to,” she said.

Both said they enjoy going to St. Brendan School.

“I like a lot of the teachers here and they’re really nice, and I like that they have a few different sports options for different people for different things they like,” said Ember.

“They give us so many fun things to do like Catholic Schools Week, and I really like the Water Day,” said Annie.

Open arms

Other decorations around the gym included boarding passes and a bulletin board with a map of the world and the Scripture message for the day.

The cadets brought flags from their homelands and placed them along the front wall.

The students started out the day together in church, praying the World Mission Rosary, incorporating prayers for the world missions composed by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

“As he used to say, ‘When you pray the World Mission Rosary, you have given the world a great-big hug,’” said Mrs. Farnell.

Students in the upper grades received a copy of the prayers to take home and pray with their families, while the younger children received coloring sheets depicting highlights of the World Mission Rosary.

After viewing the exhibits and talking to representatives of the eight countries, each student wrote a note to the cadets — “a little thank-you for bringing us the world,” according to Mrs. Farnell.

Many of the students said learning about the foods from each country made them hungry for lunch.

Both the younger students and older students enjoyed getting to view the different exhibits with their class buddy.

The back of the student passport included information about the Catholic population of the world.

With 140 million Catholics, Brazil is about 70.57 percent Catholic, while Mexico, with 101.3 million Catholics, is about 78 percent Catholic.

“Brazil and Mexico are known to be the two countries with the most Catholics in the world,” the passport stated, “whereas, countries like Maldives and Afghanistan have the lowest Catholic population in the world.”

“Who is my neighbor?”

Catholic Schools Week is an annual event held the last week of January in Catholic schools throughout the United States.

It includes opportunities for prayer, fun, service, promotion of the schools and community outreach.

Father David Veit, pastor of St. Brendan Parish, said the whole idea of any Catholic school is to incorporate faith into everything that takes place there, “and this is just another occasion to do that.”

He believes the Festival of Nations had more than educational value.

“It helps us all understand: God created us, and God calls us, and he’s continually calling us,” the priest said. “And that’s all through the world, not just here in Mexico, Missouri.”

He believes the timing for the event was impeccable.

“We weren’t sure whether it was going to happen during Catholic Schools Week,” he noted. “But honestly, I think it’s best that in God’s timing, it worked out this way.

“And, it gives us a chance, especially with the theme being ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel,’ to recognize some of the people who are right here in our community,” he said.

He kidded with some seventh-graders that when he was growing up, he hardly knew anyone from outside Cole County, let alone from other countries.

“So, the kids have been really good about it and learned a lot and experienced a lot, and it’s great for them to have a chance to do that during Catholic Schools Week, because ‘Catholic’ means universal,” he said.

Noting that MMA currently has students from 17 countries, Mrs. Farnell said she hopes this can become an annual event.

“I would love to continue to partner with them, not only in this but also in other activities — like maybe having their color guard come or their band perform for us,” she said.

Many of the cadets are Catholic and come to St. Brendan Church for Mass each weekend.

“We’re trying to make sure they know that they have a home here,” said Mrs. Farnell.