St. Louis Catholic Classical Education Symposium presents
Includes: Mass, Keynote, Breakout Sessions & Immersion Sessions
Cost: $40 Early Bird Registration until December 31st, 2025; $50 Registration starting January 1st, 2026
Location: Held on the campus of Chesterton Academy of St. Louis, 12934 Marine Avenue, St. Louis, MO 6314
Light breakfast & boxed lunch provided.
REGISTER HERE
On January 17th Chesterton Academy of St. Louis will host its 2nd annual St. Louis Catholic Classical Education Symposium. This year's theme is Ad Fontes: The Sources of Living Authority, and we are honored to welcome our keynote speaker, Zena Hitz. Dr. Hitz is a philosopher, tutor at St. John's College in Annapolis, and author of the bestselling book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.
Often, the Latin phrase ad fontes or "to the sources" is a rallying cry to focus on giving priority and authority to primary texts in teaching, but Zena Hitz will help us to explore the sources of authority in general: God and the Church, as well as our intellectual and cultural tradition. Further, she will explore the necessary connection between authority and the intellectual and spiritual growth of the person. In fact, the Latin word for authority, auctoritas, comes from the word augere, "to grow."
Our two breakout talks led by Austin Hatch from The Heights School and Brian Niebrugge, Executive Director of Stewardship and the Annual Catholic Appeal for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, will help to vivify these sources by looking at their lived manifestations and practical implications in our homes and classrooms.
After an inspiring morning of Holy Mass, the keynote address, breakout talks, and lunch, we will end the symposium with immersion sessions led by educators from Chesterton Academy of St. Louis, St. John Paul II Preparatory School, The Saint Austin School, The Augustine Institute, and others. These sessions will allow participants to experience firsthand the beauty and wisdom of a Catholic classical education within a classroom setting.
Keynote Speaker
Zena Hitz
Breakout Sessions
Our keynote will be followed by breakout talks focused on two kinds of authority at work in our roles as parents and teachers: the authority that is granted by the office, classically known as “potestas,” and that which is gained through others’ respect and esteem of our characters and judgments, or “auctoritas.”
Parents and teachers alike must possess and exercise both kinds of authority, but we believe it would be especially helpful to emphasize them separately for this symposium. Each registrant will choose and attend one breakout.
Teaching with Auctoritas
AUSTIN HATCH
In our breakout for teachers, “Teaching with Auctoritas,” Austin Hatch from The Heights School will provide his boots-on-the-ground insights into gaining the deeper respect and trust of students and their parents. Though rules and clear disciplinary procedures are necessary in the classroom, they are only the outer contours of the teacher’s authority which must be filled in by his or her character, professionalism, and enthusiasm and respect for the subject and each student.
Educators also need to properly understand their authority within the great tradition of our faith and civilization, placing themselves under the authority of God, the Church, and of the great minds and ideas with whom they draw the students into relation through study.
Austin Hatch began teaching at The Heights in 2004. He teaches 9th Grade Core and The History of Western Thought, and he directs The Jackson Scholars senior thesis program. He returned to the school in 2012 after two years in Houston, Texas as assistant headmaster, athletic director, basketball coach, and homeroom teacher at Western Academy.
He has taught natural history, logic, English, and writing. He began his teaching and coaching career at St. John’s College High School in Washington, DC in 1996. He holds a B.A. in English from the Catholic University of America and a Master’s in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Austin’s wife, Elizabeth, is a family physical therapist and a home-schooling mother. The Hatches have seven children: Kiley, John Austin, Samuel, Beatrice, Flannery, Ezekiel, and Nathaniel.
Parenting with Potestas
BRIAN NIEBRUGGE
Recent research has called attention to the lack of confidence parents have in their own God-given authority to make choices and set boundaries for their children. Their discomfort with their own parental power is also matched with a deep skepticism of institutions and an inability to entrust their children to the influence of other adults.
Thus, in our breakout for parents, “Parenting with Potestas,” Brian Niebrugge will give practical advice for how to balance your God-given authority as parent with proper respect for children’s freedom, and how to entrust children to the authority of schools, teachers, and mentors while still being their primary educator and advocate.
Brian Niebrugge has worked for the Archdiocese of St. Louis since 2001. He has served as Executive Director of Stewardship and the Annual Catholic Appeal since 2010. Prior to his current position, Brian served as the Director of the Annual Catholic Appeal from 2004 to 2010 and as Business Manager for the Office of Youth Ministry from 2001 to 2004. Before his work for the Church, Brian was an Operations Officer at several banks.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Business from Fontbonne University. He recently completed service as Chair of the Board of the International Stewardship Council and serves on the boards of the Archbishop Carlson Adoption Fund, the Tilles Foundation, and the #iGiveCatholic National Advisory Board.
Brian, his wife Kathleen, and his six children (ages 22-8) belong to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish in Oakville, Missouri, where he serves as a basketball coach, leads a men’s small group, and has other activities. He and his wife homeschool their children and enjoy hunting, fishing, card-playing, and reading together. In addition to his diocesan stewardship efforts, Brian speaks to groups of all kinds on matters of family, fatherhood, and holiness in ordinary life.
Co-Hosts
This symposium is made possible by the support of the following local Catholic classical institutions: Chesterton Academy of St. Louis, St. John Paul II Preparatory School, The Saint Austin School, and The Augustine Institute
Please enjoy the videos from our 2025 Symposium, Cor ad Cor: Teaching from the Heart, with keynote speaker, Bishop James Conley, and breakout session speakers, Fr. Ambrose Criste (On the Grounds of the Lyceum) and Anna Haine & Elizabeth Schlueter (Preparing the Soil of the Heart).