Frassati Catholic Academy Keeping Catholic Education Alive in Lake County

According to Reverend Ronald J. Nuzzi, Ph.D. Director of ACE RISE at the University of Notre Dame, there are ten reasons why Catholic education still matters today. While attendance at Catholic parishes and schools decline, there are still valid reasons to choose Catholic education for your children. In a world and time when stereotypes, racism, bullying and hate still exist; and evil is rearing its head in different ways that it has in the past; teachers, parents, caregivers and role models for our youth must stand to make a difference. Reverend Nuzzi states by choosing to enroll your child in Catholic education your children will learn, grow and experience the following:

• Gain an incarnational view of the world

• Immersion in the Paschal Mystery

• The value of relationships

• A nuanced view of scripture

• Civic engagement

• Service for the common good

• Discipline as a faith expectation

• The centrality of arts, ritual, drama and music to the life of faith

• The fullness of Catholic and/or Christian identity

• Personal excellence as a spiritual goal

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) RISE is a program lead at the University of Notre Dame whose mission is to spread the Light of Christ in a new era through Catholic Schools. In its literal meaning, RISE stands for

• Renewing

• Identity

• Strengthening

• Evangelization

At Frassati Catholic Academy - Elementary and Middle School in Wauconda and Mundelein, teachers, faculty and pastoral staff have spent a full week working hard to prepare for the start of school, Monday, August 21st, 2017.

The dedicated Frassati Catholic Academy staff welcomes back several staff, faculty and pastoral leaders for the 2017-2018 school year as well as a handful of new faces with invigorated energy, new ideas and excitement about Catholic faith and education.

This year kicks off a celebratory time for Lake County's most modernized regional model of Catholic education. Frassati Catholic Academy serves youth preschool through 8th Grade in the Wauconda, Mundelein and surrounding communities at two campus locations, with support from three local parishes: Santa Maria del Popolo - Mundelein, St. Mary of the Annunciation-Mundelein and Transfiguration - Wauconda.

In an effort to keep Catholic education alive and thriving, these parishes and school leaders, under the guidance of the Archdiocese of Chicago launched the unification of Frassati Catholic Academy to open its doors as one school on Monday, August 21st, 2017.

With its unification and diversity, Frassati Catholic Academy offers the opportunity to provide faith-based education to students and families from the parishes it directly affiliates, as well as those surrounding parishes and communities that are seeking a Catholic education for their families in Lake County.

This year, the Frassati Catholic Academy school community will gather at a School Mass to welcome families and ask them to join in a spiritual and educational journey together as a Frassati family on Sunday, August 20th at St. Mary of the Annunciation church in Mundelein. Students will be asked to remember to reach for the heights or "Verso l'alto" as the school's namesake - Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati had and often challenged others around him to do, inspired by his own Catholic faith.