Bellarmine College Preparatory
Journey with the Youth Through the Power of Story
The COVID-19 Pandemic
By Cora Antonio
Bellarmine College Preparatory is a community of men and women gathered together by God for the purpose of educating the student to seek justice and truth throughout his life. We are a Catholic school located in San Jose, California established in 1851 in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the Society of Jesus. As such, our entire school program is dedicated to forming "men for and with others"—persons whose lives will be dedicated to bringing all their God-given talents to fullness and to living according to the pattern of service inaugurated by Jesus Christ.
We are living in an unprecedented time as globally, we are all dealing with the interruptions, disruptions, and changes in our lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter how frustrating, confusing, or draining this crisis gets, fear has no place in our lives when we focus on God, our Heavenly Father, whose love for us is greater than anything we can imagine.
1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
Fear will not have the last word, but love and hope will! The wisdom of God teaches us that we are not powerless. We have the power to choose joy. But how? Through the power of story. As educators, we have the opportunity to “journey with the youth” like never before through an open door created by the very situation that seems to have flipped our world into a tailspin. We decided to grab a hold of this opportunity by empowering our youth in such a way that will connect them globally through the power of their own stories. By sharing their stories as they go through this journey, they are drawn into conversation with each other through the windows of their worlds in their own voices very much in the same way that St. Ignatius travelled with his companions on the “camino."
Imagine this as a historical moment that no history book will ever be able to capture for it will be through the lenses of our own students all over the world that will be the stakeholders and authors of these uncertain times. The stories we have collected are primary sources, firsthand witnesses to the COVID-19 pandemic. By sharing their stories, we help them to be heard, not just now, but for years to come.
It is our hope that these stories are vehicles to:
EMPOWER the voices of our youth.
EDUCATE our youth about what their peers are experiencing around the world from this pandemic.
BREAK DOWN stereotypes or assumptions about the people and cultures of other countries.
BUILD BRIDGES for the youth around the world, bridges that connect and bond them with each other.
FOSTER CONVERSATION in our classrooms around their shared experiences.
HELP OUR YOUTH TO EXERCISE DISCERNMENT by looking through the lenses of their peers around the world.
PROVIDE AN AVENUE OF HEALING through the power of story.
CAPTURE HISTORY like no other history book can through the lived experiences of this generation.
“And the Lord answered me: ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.’”
Habakkuk 2:2