The start of a new school year is “always exciting,” said Gina Ashley, principal of Divine Mercy Catholic School in Faribault, which offers preschool through grade 5. “I always am so grateful to have the students back in the building.”
Ashley is starting her 35th year as an educator. She called the daily interaction with students “so life-giving.” “It’s how I fill up my tank; (it’s) those interactions with the kids, and I miss them during the summer months.”
Ashley sees a few students over the summer but it’s nothing compared to having all the students in the building when a new school year begins, she said, “and you get to see how much they’ve grown. It’s a wonderful, joyous time of year for me.”
Ashley recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to discuss the start of a school year for an upcoming episode.
The school’s primary goal is bringing souls to Christ, Ashley said, enabling students to have “a good relationship, … a growing relationship with Jesus, a good grounding in our faith and understanding of what that means.”
“But also, we want to know that they’re going to be productive members of society,” she said, which she described as “seeing the world through a lens of ‘it’s not all about me; it’s about everyone.’ And that we’re all children of God that have been created uniquely and on purpose, with a purpose.”
Ashley also hopes fourth and fifth graders begin to question their purpose in the world and start to investigate how they live their faith and share it with others. “That’s really our goal,” Ashley said. “And of course, in that we have high expectations of our students in behavior and academics and all of those things, as well.”
During the interview, Ashley also said a new school is being built. The “the back half” of the current building “has been here since 1900,” she said. “I keep telling people this is more than a 100-year project, so you have to think with that lens,” she said. It is a big project “for a community our size,” but people are very supportive, Ashley said.
More than half of the funds needed have been raised, but $15 million is “the ultimate goal,” she said. “(W)e’re hoping to be in the building by next fall,” Ashley said.
To learn more about the school and status of the new facility being built, visit divinemercy.cc. To hear the full interview with Ashley, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 8 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 9 and 2 p.m. Sept. 10.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Emily Dahdah, director of educational quality and excellence in the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, who describes a partnership with The Catholic University of America to offer Lumen accreditation to archdiocesan schools; and Josiah Klas, a chapter leader for St. Paul’s Outreach at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, who discusses how SPO is bringing Christ to college campuses this school year.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
