Student Spotlight: Maureen
Maureen Barrett, an incoming Chesterton student, will be Chesterton Academy’s only senior this year, a position she considers a “really unique leadership opportunity.” In addition, she recognizes that the chance to “attend a school the first year it opens is a pretty rare opportunity” and she hopes that “my classmates and I will leave a good legacy for Chesterton Academy students to come.”
Aside from the leadership opportunities, Maureen was inspired to choose to attend Chesterton Academy based on her desire for a classical education. Prior to choosing Chesterton Academy, Maureen attended University Liggett School in Grosse Point Woods since sixth grade and “as someone who has never gone to a classical school in the past, I can tell you how important classical education is.” According to Maureen, “classical education allows students to see how everything fits together, which makes everything a lot more interesting and easier to understand. Students are taught to think, not just to retain information,” which will lead students to be some of the “best prepared” for academic life after high school.
Maureen’s mother, Jeanne, shares her daughter’s excitement for the rigorous academic life of a classical education. Jeanne also knows the importance of the moral formation offered by a classical education in a world where “the scourge of moral relativism has taken over, and the world is focused on things that will pass away.” For Jeanne, students need to be taught the truth as well as how to “think critically and defend the truth.” A classical education will allow students to focus on “what is good and beautiful and true.” Maureen agrees: “I’m excited to learn about the true, the good and the beautiful” and “to go to a school that I can trust has proper values.”
Finding such a school was a providential gift for the Barrett family. They had heard about Chesterton Academy both through Maureen’s older brother, who “has a connection with some of the staff through Young Catholic Professionals,” and through meeting the Ohotnicky family at St. Joseph Shrine. The “warmth and example of living faith” displayed by the Ohotnickys drew the Barretts in, and after talking with Mr. Ohotnicky, they realized that Chesterton Academy “would be a wonderful place for our daughter.” The Barretts are especially excited that Maureen will have the opportunity to attend Chesterton Academy because “this is the school we dreamed about” for their four older children but was, sadly, “not available at the time.” Having their daughter learn through “the lens of Christ” the idea that “faith and reason are not opposed but complement each other” is indeed a dream come true. What’s more, the Barretts are very enthusiastic about the opportunity that Chesterton Academy students will have to attend daily Mass.
The saintly patrons of the school excite both Maureen and her parents. For Maureen, she got “pretty excited when I found out the school was Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” As a lover of art and a student of the Spanish language, Maureen has a special affection for Our Lady of Guadalupe. The artwork of the tilma is especially meaningful to Maureen after “learning more about the Natives in the area at the time,” which helped her understand “how intentional every little detail on the tilma was.” She carries this special image with her on a holy card in her phone case. For Jeanne, it is Saint John Paul II who is especially close to her heart. She recalls how his writings “helped us fill in the gaps of our formation that occurred in the 1970s,” and his example of “suffer[ing] with dignity and grace” from Parkinson’s disease which witnessed to the “culture of life” opposed to our world’s “culture of death.” She recalls watching his funeral on TV with Maureen in her arms: “A Bible sat on top of the plain wooden coffin. A gust of wind blew the book open and the pages ruffled in the breeze. It was a very powerful moment that I will never forget. The Holy Spirit blew through the funeral and the presence was palpable. A saint had just gone home to be with God.”
Sending their daughter to a new school for her senior year is indeed a “leap of faith” for the Barretts but they are excited that Maureen has “decided she wants more than her secular high school had to offer.” They know that watching Maureen grow in faith, “encouraged and strengthened by people who love God and will teach the truth,” is well worth it.
