Campus Ministry
Campus Ministry
Spirit, Service, Leadership
At Holy Trinity, we are committed to helping our students realize that a Holy Cross education is not simply measured by a grade, but by the quality of one’s character and one’s commitment to justice. The Campus Ministry department fulfills this commitment by offering an array of opportunities for spiritual growth, Christian service, and leadership. Annual class-level retreats seek to strengthen class unity through team building exercises, group activities, and prayer. Monthly all school masses deepen our school spirit while commemorating significant cultural and religious holidays. Additionally, our student chapel hosts weekly mass, prayer services, and other small group events to help students enrich their hearts as well as their minds.
Building upon the Holy Cross Values of integrity and family, Campus Ministry also coordinates service and social outreach projects both within our school as well as the wider Chicagoland area. Blood drives, food drives, and charity fundraisers enable students to serve within the school. Volunteering in local outreach programs allows students and staff to extend our spirit of service beyond the classroom and into the community. The Campus Ministry department strives to promote the growth of Holy Cross Values in all of our students, empowering them to become mature, well rounded, and socially responsible people of faith.
Integrity in Action: Christian Service Learning Program
“If at times you have a marked preference for certain people, it should be for the poor, the abandoned, the most in need of education, those who have less than everyone else. It is a matter of justice to give more to those who have received less.”
— Fr. Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross
Program Overview
We strive to instill in our students a deep concern for the well-being of others, and a desire to make God “known, loved, and served in the world” as well as in the diverse communities in which they live.
The Christian Service Learning program provides our students the opportunity to do meaningful service work and reflect on that experience in the light of their faith. Through service learning, our students are challenged to become agents of change extending their education beyond the classroom as they develop both “the competence to see and the courage to act.” Through service, reflection, dialogue, and prayer, HT students learn the value of servant leadership and develop a strong sense of social responsibility rooted in the values of the Brothers and the Gospel vision of Jesus Christ.
Program Requirements
The Christian Service Learning program is a pass/fail requirement that each student must complete in order to graduate to their next year in high school. Each academic year, students must meet the following requirements in order to receive a passing grade:
- Complete the minimum number of 15 hours of community service. 7.5 hours must be completed by the first-semester deadline and the other 7.5 hours must be completed by the second-semester deadline (see below).
- Record all service hours and activity through Google Classroom.
- Actively participate in all monthly small group discussions.
- Complete one reflection assignment per semester, for a total of two reflections per year.
Small Group
Once a month, students attend a small group session, where they have the opportunity to share, discuss, and reflect on their service experience and relate that experience to their faith. In small groups, students use their experience as a springboard for deeper dialogue and reflection relating their work to their faith and Holy Cross values.