Dr. Kristiansen serves as our beloved school leader. We sure are glad he's our school principal! Everyday he shows us what virtuous leadership is all about. 

Today he spoke candidly to us about his favorite things about St. Peter School, his past experience in higher education, and how to balance life as a disciple of Christ serving the St. Peter School Community and his family at home too.

How did you find out about SPS?

"I found out about St. Peter School when I was searching for jobs, and SPS knew that they were looking for a principal; so the position was open, and I decided to apply at St. Peter School."

What drew you to the job? Why?

"When I interviewed at St. Peter School, I  had the chance to speak to several different people who worked here, and they all told me how nice of a place it was to work. And how much opportunity the school has for improvement. And I was excited about both of those two things."

What do you like best about being the principal of SPS?

 "I like getting to interact with the students at the school; that's my favorite thing. I especially like being in the classroom when students have interesting questions for me that I might know something about."

What was your favorite subject in primary school?

 "My favorite subject in primary school was math."

What was your favorite subject in middle school and high school?

"My favorite subject in middle school and high school was science- I was especially interested in biology. I also had a very good chemistry teacher, so I thought I was interested in both chemistry and biology, but when I got to college, I found that chemistry was very, very difficult to understand."

What was your college experience like?

"I went to college to study to be a pharmacist, that's what I started doing. Then I discovered that I really liked studying biology, and so I started studying biology, instead of pharmacology altogether. My college was very competitive, so it was a difficult academic environment, but I had a good time and learned lots of different things."

What was your previous job before coming to St. Peter’s?

"Before I was at St, Peter's I was a lecturer at Boston University, and I was focused on - I'll give you a couple of big words here - pedagogical efficacy. Do you know what either of those words mean? Pedagogy is teaching and efficacy is just a conjugation of effective, so I was interested in helping other teachers be more effective teachers."

What was your favorite class you took in undergraduate college?

"During my undergraduate, I had two classes that I thought were very cool. The first one was a class about evolutionary biology, which is what  I eventually got my Ph.D. in, and the other was a history class, called "A Global History of Food."

How do you think teachers best keep the motto of SPS, “to teach the heart, mind and soul of every student”?

"I think that St. Peter School teachers care a lot about their individual students. I think you probably experience that as students here, that your teachers know you, know about you, maybe sometimes come to your sports games and things like that, because they want to support you.  I think that is something that is pretty unique at St. Peter's School."

Have you always wanted to work at a catholic school? 

"I have always wanted to have an impact in the Catholic world, and being the principal at a Catholic school is something that presented itself to me as an opportunity that I'm really happy to have done. It's a long way of saying that ten years ago, I don't think I would have said yes to being a school principal, but I'm really glad to be doing it now; it's a lot of fun."

How do you practice your faith?

"I go to church every Sunday, and I pray; my wife and I pray the Rosary; and I like read theology books. I like to learn about the faith. When I was a little bit younger, when I was getting my PH.D, I used to go to daily Mass most days, and then I really enjoyed going to adoration once a week."

What is your favorite sport to play?

"I like playing water polo. I played it in high school, and it's always been a favorite."

What is your favorite sport to watch?

"I don't watch a lot of professional sports on television. But I watch things like the Super Bowl, and the World's Cup, 'the big sports events'; I like the Olympics."

What are some of the things you treasure most about SPS?

"I kind of already said it, I guess, but it's when I get to help individual students at school; when I can make a difference for a specific student. I really treasure those moments. And also, a number of times I've gotten thank you cards from students, or a Christmas card from a student, and I really treasure those; those are cute. This is not maybe in your area, but I got one last year from a 1st grader, that said on the front of it, "Happy Bistiansen," and I think what happened is that they started writing happy birthday, forgot what they were doing, and then wrote the back half of my name, Kristiansen, and so it just said, "Happy Bistiansen" on the front of it; and that, I though was very cute. Another one I got from the same class said, "Happy Birthday Miss Kris," and so they understood that they were doing a happy birthday assignment, but didn't quite know who they were doing it for."

Did they write a note to you?

"No, but they drew me a very nice picture though; so that was nice. So those things are very cute; I enjoy that."

What are your two favorite books you’ve ever read?

"My two favorite books...there is a C.S. Lewis book that is called "The Great Divorce," which is very good. It is not about people getting divorced; it's about the distance between Purgatory and Heaven. It's a very beautiful book. I suppose the Harry Potter series maybe? I still really love those books. It's hard to pick your favorites, though, isn't it? I'll probably think of something much smarter to say to that question on my drive home today. My favorite literary genres are science fiction or fantasy books, so I read a lot of that."

What books are you reading right now?

"I am reading a book called Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I am also reading a book by Evelyn Waugh called, Brideshead Revisited; and a book called Humble Leadership by Ed Schein and his son Peter."

Are you listening to any interesting podcasts right now? 

 "I listen to a number of podcasts. I think that the most interesting ones that are relevant to school that I am listening to are, Catholic School Matters, which is a pun, when you think about it, it's both that, "Catholic schools matter," and also Catholic school "matters" as like things about Catholic schools. So I like that one; and then I sometimes listen to the Ezra Klein podcast, it's sort of a politics/current events podcast."

What is one of your favorite podcasts you’ve ever heard?

"The one I've been listening to the longest is called the Vergecast podcast, which is a technology podcast. I've been listening to those same people since 2008; so before you were born."

What virtues influence you the most?

"I think that I find that I am most influenced by the virtues of humility, discipline and determination.”

Do you have any favorite saints?

"Yes, my favorite saints are St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas."

What are your favorite hobbies?

"I like to ride motorcycles. I also and I like to take pictures, I'm a photographer, I sometimes photograph people's weddings. I like to build computers, and I like to ride a bike." 

How fast is your motorcycle?

"It can go very fast; but I've never taken it on a track, so the speed limit is how fast it goes."

Where do you like to ride your bicycle?

"When I lived in Brighton, I liked to bike to Walden Pond quite a lot; but really anywhere. Now that I live in New Hampshire, I'm trying to find some bike trails up there."

Do you like living in New Hampshire?

"I do :) But I wish the commute was a little bit shorter, it's a little long of a drive. But it's nice to be in a quieter area. We bought a house up there, so it's a little more different than renting an apartment."

Thank you so much for taking the time to let us interview you Dr. Kristiansen!

"Very good! Thank you for an excellent interview everybody; thank you for your great questions. I look forward to reading your article."

As mentioned in Enzo's article, Catholic Schools Week is a fun way to celebrate our Catholic school. For career day on Wednesday, January 31, two inspiring speakers visited the 4th-grade classroom. First, Dr. Guillermo García-Cardeña came to talk about his job or, as the name of the day suggests, his career.

  Dr.Guillermo is a Harvard professor who specializes in heart and heart disease. I spoke with him, and this is what he had to say about his experience: “I enjoyed very much talking with the 4th-grade class about the importance of asking questions about our surroundings, especially about subjects that are interesting to us.” 

My dad talked to us for about fifteen minutes, but my class and I learned a lot. This is what my classmates had to say about his talk: 

Ian:“It was very interesting and he explained everything very well.”

Andreas: “It was very informative, and I learned a lot.” 

Isla: “It was very interesting; it had a lot of interesting science information."

Our second great speaker of the day was my classmate Andreas' mom, Eirene Kontopoulos, one of the nations most powerful women in the business world, who manages Fidelity Federal's multi- billion dollar biotech fund. Like my dad, she too was a scientist at Harvard, earning her PHD there before using her scientific expertise in the business world. She spoke to our class about how scientific research in the biotech industry can dramatically help improve the lives of those suffering from disease. She showed us before and after videos about how some of the medicines she helps raise funds for have been a gigantic help to those suffering from life altering illness. It was amazing to see how these scientific advances helped children be able to enjoy fundamental things for the first time in their lives, like walking and seeing.

Both speakers' phenomenal presentations showed us how its important to use our God given talents to help  others, and how important careers in science are to helping those in need.

Well there you have it; Catholic schools week is in my opinion the best school event of the year.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Ms. Burns about her role as St. Peter School's Director of Admission. Here are some interesting things I learned:

How did you find St. Peter’s School?

"I did some research to find SPS."

How long have you been at St. Peter’s?

8 years(parent) 2 years (working)

What drew you to your current position as Director of Admissions?

St Peter school has been a wonderful place for my daughters as well as my entire family. I absolutely love everything about St Peter's school and I want to share that with other families.

What is your favorite part of the job?

"Talking about all the wonderful things that St Peter school is doing."

Is there anything new in the St. Peter’s Admissions Department? 

 "We've been trying to focus our efforts on new marketing initiatives as well as formalize our admissions process to help us attract new families to St. Peter's."

How do you think that St. Peter’s best keeps with its motto, to teach to the heart, mind and soul of every student?

Thank you, Ms. Burns, for taking the time to do this interview and for helping to lead families to enroll in our school!

For over three decades, two time Loeb Award winner, David Warsh has been serving as a business journalist, covering economics for The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. Warsh's insightful bi-weekly column in Forbes Magazine and The Boston Globe moved from print media to his own website Economic Principals, which he manages and writes. 

 David Warsh also happens to be my grandpa! I look up to him a lot; what an honor it was to have him as the subject of my first interview as a journalist:

_______________________________________________________________

What are your three favorite articles you ever wrote?

 #1 - An article for the Wall Street Journal about a local Pittsburg, three quarterbacks, in a very poor steel town, the background details

 #2 - Forbes, about 500 years ago, there was huge inflation, prices went, prices went like a penny to a dollar, and people wondered, why is this happening, and then the answer various economists came up with was said, well it's because their  9 ( almost a penny to a dollar) 

#3 - “It was for the Globe” -  I was a columnist at that time, I said, “I live in Somerville, I love Somerville, it’s a great place to live, and I can’t wait to vote for Mike Capuano next Tuesday, It kind of tipped the election, partly because what I have written.”

Have you ever traveled abroad to write a newspaper article? Yes, many times. I have gone to Sweden, England, Belgium, Vietnam, and India.

What is your favorite part of writing?  “When you find out something that you didn’t know before, often not an important big thing, other people didn’t know about it, and you didn’t either, often it's not a big important thing.”

What do you like best about the Wall Street Journal?  When I worked for newsweek, people used to say, I Love Newsweek; I’ve always loved it. And then, I learned that Newsweek didn’t know what it was talking about. The Wall Street Journal was the opposite. 

What if situation - If you had only one more article to write, what would you write about? Why? “My granddaughters,”  about my other grandchildren,  about family. 

What was your job in the Wall Street  Journal?  “I was a reporter, staff reporter.”  

Tell me about a mentor that helped you as a writer - Maynard Parker at Newsweek, he taught how to write a magazine article. Jack Morris at the Wall Street Journal. He was my bureau chief. Bob Felps at the Boston Globe, who was the guy who hired me and basically put me to work writing a column, all are very important people”

Why is writing important to you?  Not my life, but my job; in high school, I wanted to be a teacher, not a writer; then I took a seminar called How to Read a Newspaper, which changed it for me."

 Last but not least, do you have any advice for someone starting a newspaper club?  Keep it up! Really smart! Adding a newspaper club is good because you’ll learn how to read a newspaper, write a good story, and know how to draw people in.”

  I’ve been influenced by newspapers (not online) in many ways. When I interviewed my grandpa, I learned that writing isn’t just about interviewing people and writing about things. Writing is learning; so far, I have learned so much more about my grandfather. My grandfather! These are simple things I didn’t know about someone who has been in my entire life. When I pick up a newspaper, I usually go to the Boston Globe and go straight to the sports section. Well, I used to do that before I joined the newspaper club and before I taked/interviewed my grandfather. The sports section is still very interesting to me. However, now I am interested in what’s happening in politics and other things in our world today. My grandfather said one of his classes in high school was “how to read a newspaper.” Look at him now! He is a writer! Just to pick up a hard copy newspaper and read 1 article could make a difference in your life. If you ever come around a hard copy newspaper, pick it up! You can even go straight to the sports section.