St. Louis Catholic Classical Education Symposium presents
Includes: Mass, Keynote, Breakout Sessions & Immersion Sessions
Cost: $30 Early Bird Registration until December 31st, 2024; $40 Registration starting January 1st, 2025
Location: Held on the campus of Chesterton Academy of St. Louis, 12934 Marine Avenue, St. Louis, MO 6314
Sponsored by Chesterton Academy of St. Louis
Keynote Speaker
Most Rev. James D. Conley, D.D., S.T.L.
We are honored to have Bishop Conley as our keynote speaker. Currently the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, he brings a unique personal perspective to Catholic classical education. As a college student, he studied in the well-known and groundbreaking Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas during the 1970's. Although the program itself was non-religious and secular, Conley and many other students converted to Catholicism through reading the great books under the guidance of their Catholic professor and mentor, John Senior.
Truly, this experience of education had formed the young Conley's heart as well as his mind. It is fitting, then, that for his episcopal motto, Bishop Conley chose the motto of the great 19th-century English convert John Henry Cardinal Newman: "cor ad cor loquitur," which means "heart speaks to heart."
In his keynote address, Bishop Conley will delve into the application of this motto in Catholic classical education and how we can teach to the hearts of students in practical ways.
To read more about Bishop Conley, see his diocesan website. Also please read Bishop Conley's recent pastoral letter on Catholic education, The Joy and Wonder of Catholic Education: Developing Authentically Catholic Schools
Breakout Sessions
Preparing the Soil of the Heart
In this session, we will explore how parents can cultivate a family culture and atmosphere that prepares their children's hearts for the seeds of truth sown in a classical education.
Anna Haine, mother of 7 children and grandmother of 45, will present with her daughter, Elizabeth Schlueter, mother of 9 and grandmother to 1. They will share their personal experiences of and insights into nurturing a rich Catholic family life, demonstrating how the intentional "pre-suasion" and informal teaching in the home nurtures the habits of mind, will, and body needed to educate the whole person. They will provide practical advice for shaping an atmosphere that fosters the moral and intellectual development of children, ensuring that the lessons of formal schooling take root for a lifetime.
On the Grounds of the Lyceum
The ancient lyceum housed many functions, including worship, study, philosophical debate, physical exercise and contest. How can our modern classical schools aspire to be not merely centers of study, but of liturgy, civics, and leisure in teaching to the whole person? And how would this broader role draw our students into a deeper relationship with Our Lord first and foremost, and then with teachers, fellow students, and their own families and communities?
Fr. Ambrose Criste, a Nobertine father of the Corpus Christi Priory and Evermode Institute of Springfield, IL, will guide educators in how to transform the hearts of their students through a greater attention to education's environment, activities, and relationships. He will discuss how we can direct our students' affections to what is good and true through some of these tangible and intangible aspects of their learning experience.
Immersion Sessions
These sessions will allow participants to experience firsthand the beauty and wisdom of a Catholic classical education within a classroom setting. Led by educators from local Catholic Classical institutions—including Chesterton Academy of St. Louis, St. John Paul II Preparatory School, The Saint Austin School, The Augustine Institute, and others—these immersive experiences will offer both inspiration and practical application of the principles and methods discussed in our symposium.
Breakout Session Speakers
Fr. Ambrose Criste
Father Ambrose Criste is a Norbertine canon regular from St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County, California. He grew up in Colorado and graduated from Colorado College with a degree in Classics/History/Politics. He won the Rhodes Scholarship and began a graduate degree at Oxford University before answering God's call to religious life and the priesthood. He entered the monastery in 2000, made solemn profession in 2006, and was ordained a priest in 2008. He finished his priestly studies in Rome with pontifical degrees from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has served in various roles for his abbey community, including vocations director, novice master, and director of seminary formation. He currently resides at Corpus Christi Priory in Springfield, Illinois, and is the director of the Evermode Institute, a new program of catechetical formation.
Mrs. Anna Haine
Anna Haine was born in 1948 and has lived in Alton since the early 1970s. She met her late husband Bill at St. Louis University where she earned her BA. She grew up on a little farm in Ohio and is the oldest of eleven children. Her father was an artist and designer and her mother was his helpmate and co-creator of her faith-filled and rich home culture. Her parents put a high priority on family celebrations of the liturgical year, good books, education in culture and the arts, as well as philosophy and theology.
She and Bill worked very hard to do the same for their own family in Alton, where Bill grew up. They were married for 50 years and one week before he died in 2021. They are the proud parents of seven grown children, 45 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. She is pleased that all of them have worked to create a loving rich home life in their own families.
She continues to live in Alton in the same home in which she and Bill raised their children. It is within a couple blocks of their three youngest children and their families. She thoroughly enjoys having them so near!
Mrs. Elizabeth Schlueter
Elizabeth Schlueter earned her Bachelors in Politics and Master in Theological Studies from the University of Dallas in 1996 and 2000. She is a homemaker and former part-time teacher and homeschooler. She is also the Assistant Academic Director of CanaVox, an organization dedicated to supporting the truth about marriage and sexuality from the perspective of natural law, social science, and personal story.
She lives in Hillsdale, where her husband Nathan is a professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College. Together, they have nine wonderful children ranging in age from twenty-five to five. Last fall they welcomed an incredible daughter in law to the family, and their first granddaughter was born a few months ago.
Elizabeth has written on marriage and sexuality for the online journal “Public Discourse,” presented talks on these and related topics for CanaVox and Hillsdale College Student Life, and assisted Nathan in developing the popular course “Philosophy of Love, Sex and Marriage” at Hillsdale. Elizabeth is passionate about her primary work as wife, mother and CEO of Schlueter home culture, though she always wants more time to sing and play music with her family, argue about politics and theology with her husband, and sit with a good cup of coffee and the Wall Street Journal.
Immersion Session Leaders
Dr. Jeffrey Lehman
Jeffrey Lehman earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Biblical Literature from Taylor University, an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Dallas.
In addition to serving on the teaching faculty of Biola University, Thomas Aquinas College, Hillsdale College, and the University of Dallas, he also developed curriculum for the undergraduate Classical Education Program at Hillsdale College and for the graduate Classical Education Program at the University of Dallas, both of which programs grew substantially under his guidance and influence.
He has published essays and books on a wide array of authors and texts, including Augustine: Rejoicing in the Truth and Socratic Conversation: Bringing the Dialogues of Plato and the Socratic Tradition into Today’s Classroom.
Mr. Sebastian Garren
Sebastian Garren is the founding director of St. John Paul II Preparatory School South. The product of a classical education in boarding school, in college he chose to major in classical languages, minor in both philosophy and medieval studies, and fight on behalf of The Great Books tradition. After college, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to study education in Finland, and soon thereafter started investigating the hybrid model at St. John Paul II Preparatory. He has contributed to the St. Andrew's Encyclopedia of Theology and a forthcoming Catholic University of America Press volume on hybrid Catholic schools.
Mrs. Michele Chronister
Michele Chronister has a passion for Catholic and classical education. She said, “The classical style of instruction invites our students to enter into contemplation of what is true, good, and beautiful, and our faith helps them to seek Christ in everything, and to allow Him to be the lens through which they view everything else.” Mrs. Chronister’s favorite liturgical season is the Triduum and her favorite quote is “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire” by St. Catherine of Siena. In her free time, Mrs. Chronister enjoys kayaking, painting, good coffee, and good conversation. She has a deep devotion to our Lord in the Eucharist and loves to visit Him in the tabernacle throughout the day.
Education:
MA Theology, University of Notre Dame
BA Theology and BA Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Alexander Schimpf
A native of Waterloo, IL, Alexander Schimpf received his B.A. in Religious Studies from Indiana University in 2001. After spending several years in formation with the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago, he undertook graduate studies at The Catholic University of America, where he eventually received his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2015.
He taught at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, and St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, OK. After the latter’s closure in 2017, he accepted a position as the Director of Marriage and Family Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, where he also served as a faculty member of the Blessed Stanley Rother Institute.
A prolific speaker and writer, his work has appeared in publications such as the National Catholic Register, Crisis, Aleteia, the Imaginative Conservative, and Latin Mass Magazine. He is in his second year as founding headmaster of Chesterton Academy of St. Louis.