Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School’s Chinese Program— An Interview with Principal VanSlambrook and Ms. Chui

Chinese Report by Henry Fu, Indy Asian American Times Reporter

Translated by Shihlng Chui, Mandarin Chinese Teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School

Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School is a private high school founded by Catholic Jesuits over fifty years ago in Indianapolis. It has started offering Chinese since last semester. In order to better understand the school and its new Chinese program, our reporter interviewed Brebeuf’s Principal, Mr. VanSlambrook and the Mandarin Chinese teacher, Ms. Chui.

Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School is a Catholic school that was founded in 1962. It currently has over eight hundred students and an average class size of eighteen students per class.

The morning activity starts with a daily prayer, and religious Studies is a required course for all Brebeuf students, but according to Mr. VanSlambrook, Brebeuf students come from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and atheists. Religious Studies class provides these diverse students with opportunities to have in-depth discussions with classmates from different perspectives and to learn respect for each other’s opinions. While the whole world is concerned about religious confrontations caused by ISIS, Brebeuf’s Religious Studies class seems to provide a possible solution to these touchy issues by teaching the importance of mutual understanding and respect between people of different religions.

As a Jesuit school, Brebeuf’s core value is to provide the education of the whole person. Students are challenged and inspired to become better people in different areas by striving for academic excellence, engaging in extracurricular activities, developing confidence in leadership abilities and discovering God’s presence in everyday life. Brebeuf Jesuit also encourages a life-time of service and helps students to become men and women for others.

Unlike most high school students, Brebeuf students have more free time than their public school peers. Their free periods are called PRTs (PRTs: Personal Responsible Time). But it doesn’t mean students are allowed to fool around during their free periods. On the contrary, PRTs are created to help students learn better time management skills for their future college life. During PRTs, students can study, do their homework or even just relax. In short, students are responsible for decisions or choices they make. Many students use their PRTs to meet with their teachers. Brebeuf students are lucky to have easy access to approachable and caring teachers. As a result, students have close bonds with their teachers and the whole Brebeuf community feels like a big family.

Jesuits in Chinese History

As mentioned before, Brebeuf Jesuit was founded by Jesuits. Do you know the importance of Jesuits in Chinese history? The famous Italian missionary, Matteo Ricci, S.J, who introduced the findings of math, geography and astronomy in Europe to China, was one of the founding figures of the Jesuits China missions. Ricci arrived in China during the Ming Dynasty. Because Ricci could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese, he became close to many important Chinese officials in the Ming Dynasty. In order to approach Chinese people, Ricci appreciated Chinese culture and decided to use existing Chinese concepts to explain Christianity. But his support of the Chinese tradition to worship ancestors was disapproved by Dominican and Franciscan missionaries and aroused Chinese Rites controversy among Roman Catholic missionaries. If the Vatican had accepted Ricci’s missionary approach, many Chinese people in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia might have been converted to Christianity.

 

Chinese Program at Brebeuf

Due to the growing importance of the Chinese language, and after years of consideration and preparation, Brebeuf decided to add Mandarin Chinese to its curriculum. Ms. Chui, who has a major in foreign language teaching, said that her teaching focuses on the importance of communication. She believes it is crucial to create an immersion language learning environment for foreign languages. In order to encourage students to speak Chinese, any student in Ms. Chui’s class that accidentally speaks English has to donate a quarter to the class fund which will be used for year-end celebration activities. This works well to motivate students to speak Chinese as much as possible.

After class, students also have to involve their family members in different assignments from their Chinese class. Sometimes students even have to videotape themselves speaking Chinese in order to complete their assignments.

At Brebeuf, students are learning both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. For Chinese heritage students, Ms. Chui encourages them to help other classmates so that they will feel proud of themselves without feeling bored when they have finished their work.

Athletic Activities and College Advising at Brebeuf

Being a school with only eight hundred students, Brebeuf has performed pretty well and won numerous trophies and medals in different athletic competitions. Eighty percent of Brebeuf students are involved in different kinds of sports activities. According to Mr. VanSlambrook, participation in sports helps students not only to develop good sportsmanship but also to improve their interpersonal skills while working with their teammates.

In addition to academic excellence and active participation in extracurricular activities, a good college advising support is the key to successful college applications. Brebeuf Jesuit College Advising provides a comprehensive and personalized approach to the college search and selection process with four full-time advisors. Mr. VanSlambrook said every Brebeuf student will have the same college advisor for four years. That is why Brebeuf college advisors can take academic, social, and financial aspects of each student into consideration when helping students and families throughout the application process.

Education has always been highly valued in the Chinese culture. After talking with Mr. VanSlambrook and Ms. Chui, we can feel their enthusiasm for teaching students to become better people. We also have a better idea about Brebeuf Jesuit’s mission and core values. We feel Brebeuf students are lucky to be educated and grow in such a wonderful environment.