Month: September 2020

ACCU’s Rome Seminar-Understanding the Catholic Mission

Father Jay Fostner is the Vice President for Mission and Student Affairs at St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI. Outside of his academic and administrative duties at the college, Father Jay Fostner is a member of Association of Catholic College and Universities (ACCU), an organization that serves as the voice of Catholic programs in higher education in the USA, and carries out its mission in several ways through programs such as the annual Rome Seminar.

College presidents, senior administrators, and faculty leaders who belong to ACCU travel to Rome to experience first-hand the spiritual and intellectual heritage of the Catholic Church. The program is coordinated by the staff of the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas, and ACCU staff. It offers participants an in-depth tour of the Eternal City and the Vatican, including conversations with officials from the Holy See and Rome’s pontifical universities.

As a part of the seminar, attendees learn about the different charisms, or spiritual gifts. They visit significant religious sites of the Catholic order, and they hold conversations with the Pontifical Councils of Culture, the Promotion of the New Evangelism, and Promoting Christian Unity, in addition to having discussions with representatives from the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Princeton Review Names St. Norbert on Best in the Midwest List

Father Jay Fostner, Vice President for Mission and Student Affairs at St. Norbert College, has participated in some of the achievements of the small Catholic liberal arts institution located in De Pere, WI. As one of the administrators, Father Jay Fostner has helped increase retention rates of students of color for two consecutive years, and has assisted the university with endowments from organizations such as Carnegie. More recently in Father Fostner’s tenure, St. Norbert College earned the distinction of being named one of the best colleges in the Midwest by higher education service Princeton Review.

The Best Colleges list appears on the Princeton Review website, which currently lists the school in the Best in the Midwest category for 2021. Visitors to the site can see the ranking comprising 655 schools from four regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West) in the US, and internationally. Schools that made the list in the Midwest region spanned 12 states.

Princeton Review chose St. Norbert primarily because of its strong academic program. The company reviewed data compiled from administrators in the region who had been surveyed; from staff visits throughout the year; and opinions from college advisors and counselors. The Princeton Review also used opinions of students. This information was collected from surveys distributed to students which asked them about their educational experiences.