Enrichment Week

Enrichment Week 2025

March 10 – 14

Enrichment Week 2025 planning is well underway!  We are excited to introduce our travel destinations this week during our annual Lunch Fair on Thursday, September 26. Students will have the opportunity to meet the teachers leading our trips that require early registration.  Preliminary itineraries will be posted on the Saint Mary’s website here for your review after the lunch fair. Please see the email sent to all families with more details!

The Enrichment Week program was developed to blend the classes and to allow for the upper-division students to be the role models for the younger students. Because of that, most trips are open to all grade levels. These trips require early enrollment, so we need to secure airline tickets, hotel accommodations, etc. now.  Trips range in prices pending the number of students traveling.  There will be 2-3 faculty/staff traveling with the students pending enrollment numbers. Costs include airfare, transportation, lodging and most meals. 

For students and parents interested in learning more about the Enrichment Week program in general and how it works please join me for a zoom information session on Tuesday, October 1 at 6:00 pm.  This meeting is designed for families new to Saint Mary’s (freshman and transfers) but all are welcome to attend. If you have a question, please attend this meeting.

• Important Dates for Enrichment Week 2025

  Thursday, September 26:  Immersion & Overnight Trip Lunch Fair

  Tuesday, October 1:  Information Night on ZOOM for Immersion & Overnight Trips. 

  Monday, October 7:  Immersion & Overnight Trip Applications due to Ms. Molinelli.
  

  Mid October:  Overnight Trip Rosters published.
  

  Early December:  Catalog and Priority Numbers posted on the website..
  

  Wednesday, December 11:  Enrichment Week Course Fair at lunch for all other courses.

  Wednesday, December 11: Registration portal opens for students to register for courses.

  Monday, December 16:  Enrichment Week Registration Portal CLOSES at 12:00 midnight.

  December 17 & 18:  Registration Forms Due to 2nd period Homeroom Teachers.

  Mid-January:  Enrichment Week Course Rosters Posted.

The Philosophy of the Enrichment Week Program

Saint John Baptist de La Salle believed that Lasallian Educators are with their students from morning to evening; this meant that the education envisioned would be characterized by a fraternal relationship between teacher and students. The Lasallian Educator is totally immersed in the life of his or her students sharing their interests, their worries, and their hopes. Lasallian Educators are not so much schoolmasters pounding truths into their heads, as they an older brother and sister who help them to discern within themselves the call of the Spirit, to come to a better understanding of what is real, to recognize their abilities, and thereby to discover progressively their place in the world.

Adapted from “The Declaration”

A part of Saint Mary’s mission is to educate the whole person by promoting the intellectual, spiritual, physical, and social development of each student while at the same time creating community. The administration, faculty, and staff are committed to living this commitment to educate the whole person through the curriculum, co-curricular programs, and day-to-day contact with students. Enrichment Week provides an additional means to develop and extend the school’s mission. During this week each student will have an opportunity to choose and participate in a course that is of particular interest to them. The curriculum for Enrichment Week is developed by the faculty and contains a mix of academic, travel, career exploration, and recreational classes. 

The Enrichment Week program at Saint Mary's plays a vital role in fostering relationship and cultivating a robust school culture, making it a mandatory and integral experience for all of our students. The choice of specific classes is up to each individual student and their family. Since the program is an addition to, rather than a part of the regular curriculum, courses carry fees, which cover the cost of their materials, equipment, some meals, and/or transportation.

Travel Opportunities & Immersion Program

The overnight travel programs at Saint Mary’s are cultural, educational, and sometimes language immersion experiences. A group of students and faculty members will travel and live together while learning about the people and culture in their respective programs. The travel program includes mandatory preparation sessions allowing students to get to know each other before they travel and will include time together after their return to reflect on their experience and to share pictures and stories. 

Immersion Program

The Lasallian Educational Mission and the purpose of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is to “provide a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor, according to the ministry which the Church has entrusted to it.”

The Lasallian Catholic Immersion Program at Saint Mary’s College High School provides students and faculty with engaging opportunities to experience life from alternative points of view.  So often we are busy living our daily lives in familiar environments that sometimes an immersive experience outside of these norms allow us to see, hear, and experience life anew. 

The aim of each immersion experience program is to provide a transformative, faith-based, service-oriented, cultural, and educational experience for each participant.  Each of these programs offers its participants an opportunity to experience some of the conditions that the marginalized of our world live through day after day.  When we can understand the experience of the ‘other’ we can come to better appreciate our own circumstances.  Participants are challenged to explore a variety of human rights and social justice issues and to understand political, economic, and social realities using Catholic Social Teaching as our lens.