Impact Report 2023-2024

Our Common Home

Thank You for Being

“For Others”

 

Fairfield Prep, you have once again shown us the power of community. United by a shared purpose and a collective desire to make a difference, your support allows us to create transformational experiences. And transformed men of Prep go forth and transform the world. Your gift made an impact. Together, we live our mission of being For Others.

Giving for Fairfield Prep 2023-2024

Every donor makes a difference.

1989

Donors

$ 414815

From Gifts of $1,000 or Less

$ 5069661

Total Dollars Raised

44.6 %

of Donors in the Hearthstone Society

123

Households are part of the McAuliffe Society

46

New members in Loyola Circle
"

Thank you to our Prep community and all that they do to support our great mission. Let us always live our lives with a generous heart for others. Hail Fairfield Prep. "

— President Christian Cashman, P ’15, ’23

Build the Brotherhood - Creating a Culture of Excellence

This fall James Callaghan ’25 is taking on an important new role in the Prep brotherhood: president of Prep’s senior class. But that’s not the only way James will make his mark at Prep this year. In the spring, the summa cum laude student will be among the first cohort of Magis Scholars to graduate from Prep. Designed to build the Prep brotherhood by enhancing the culture of excellence on campus, the Magis scholarship program has increased enrollment of accepted students with a GPA of 3.75 or higher by 50% since its inception with the Class of 2025.

As a freshman, leading a club— let alone the entire student body— wasn’t something James thinks would have crossed his mind. Today, with encouragement and support from his teachers, he’s responsible for the existence of two clubs that feed his passion for writing: the school newspaper Prep Pages and the Creative Writing Club.

The moderator of both clubs, English teacher Brian Hoover, is one of several teachers James considers an invaluable mentor and played an instrumental role in helping James put together his writing portfolio for the University of Michigan—his top college choice where he hopes to study English in preparation for law school.

“At Prep, there’s a really big emphasis on growing true relationships as a mentor and a student with the teachers,” James explains. “I feel like the connections you can make with the teachers here are like no other. Every adult at Prep cares about the kids here and wants to make their experience the best possible.”

While creative writing is certainly one of James’ passions, his interests aren’t limited to the arts; he is also captain of the rugby team in addition to participating in the National Honor Society. The way Prep’s faculty and staff cultivate well-rounded individuals and encourage students to get involved in a variety of opportunities is one of the things James loves about the school.

“You might see Prep as a place where sports are big, but the arts are equally as big with equally as many people,” James explains. “There’s amazing people to meet from each type of group. I have plenty of friends who are in the band and play hockey.”

James and his friends are also deeply involved in the service opportunities Prep offers. “Prep makes it easy to be a man for others,” James observes. He sees the faculty as an important part of that equation. “Having a lot of alumni being part of the faculty, they really know what it means to be a man for others and what the brotherhood is. It’s impressive that after they leave Prep, they are open and want to come back.”

When James took that first tour of Prep that sold him on the school, he says, “It felt new and innovative, but also based in its own history.” With your support, Prep’s current students and faculty are writing the school’s next new chapter for the history books.

I feel like the connections you can make with the teachers here is like no other. Every adult at Prep cares about the kids here and wants to make their experience the best possible.

— James Callaghan ’25

Invest in Intellect - Forming Ignatian Educators for the Future

Like many Prep graduates, Dr. Bob Russo ’65, P ’92, ’03 left town after graduation to further his education—first at Fordham University, then at Tulane Medical School. But soon he found himself back in Fairfield, once again immersed in the community where he’d formed stronger bonds with his friends and brothers than at any other institution. By the late 1980s, he was chairman of Prep’s Board of Trustees, an office he held several times during his Board tenure until he stepped down in 2019.

Russo, a retired radiologist, has played an integral role in Prep’s evolution as a Jesuit institution over the years. Russo and his wife Kathy’s most recent gift to Prep is an investment in the next innovation of a visionary program Russo once helped bring to life—the Jesuit Educators Academy (JEA).

Since the early 2000s, JEA has formed Fairfield Prep’s newest faculty members as Ignatian educators during their first five years, enabling them to translate Ignatian principles to their own lives, their classroom instruction, and their relationships with students and families—ultimately shaping young men who embody the qualities of a Jesuit, Catholic school graduate at graduation.

“When Prep was founded, the Jesuits were the teachers. There was always this idea that the Ignatian culture of a Jesuit school would come from having Jesuits in the classroom,” explains Elaine Clark, dean of academics, who currently runs the JEA program. “As the ranks of the Jesuits shrink, JEA is an insurance policy that those of us who carry on at Prep carry on that Jesuit nature of the school that makes Prep so special.”

In the 1990s, Russo was one of several board members involved in helping Prep prepare for a future with fewer Jesuits, work that ultimately birthed JEA. “We saw it coming,” Russo recalls, “But nobody wanted to give up the Jesuit ideals. The only way to carry forward was JEA. And it works—when you walk onto the campus, you see it.”

“I spent years going to Jesuit conventions around the country, and there really wasn’t a Jesuit school ahead of Prep in teaching and living the Jesuit ideals,” Russo observes. “We were always light years ahead of other schools because of the quality of people at Prep.”

Recognizing the needs of the times and today’s teachers, staff, and students, Prep is again taking another step forward in forming Ignatian leaders. The JEA for new hires is being adapted to include coaches, staff, and moderators to put everyone on campus on the same footing. The school has also begun developing JEA 2.0—a program of ongoing Ignatian formation for veteran faculty members.

“When our boys walk into this building, we want them wrapped in our Ignatian values and principles so that when they graduate, we are sending the most well-formed boys out to this weary world to make a difference. This is why Dr. and Mrs. Russo’s gift is so very important,” says Clark, “It allows us to take a teacher or a staff member and help them be the very best that they can be for our boys.”

The Russos, who are also proud parents of Prep alumni, have donated to Prep regularly even when $25 was all they could afford. “When I first got a decent job, I said I was going to pay back all the good things Prep did for me,” Russo says. “The education at Prep sets people up on a road that will make the world better. I think that’s what we’re ultimately looking for—a society that we can all be proud of.”

The education at Prep sets people up on a road that will make the world better. I think that’s what we’re ultimately looking for—a society that we can all be proud of.

— Dr. Bob Russo ’65, P ’92, ’03

Commit to Care - Completing the Dean Team

Principal Timothy Dee had a vision for an initiative that would take cura personalis on Prep’s campus to new heights, a plan that would ensure that no boys’ needs would fall through the cracks: a team of four assistant deans of students—one per class.

This past summer, that vision was fully realized with the addition of Elijah Langston to the staff, thanks to the generous support of donors like you. As assistant dean of students for the incoming class of 2028, Langston joins the three assistant deans who helped launch the new approach in the 2023-2024 academic year: Somadina Iworisha (Class of 2027), Nick Debarbrie (Class of 2026), and Jessica Lombardi (Class of 2025).

The assistant deans’ role is to walk with each class on their journey to graduation, making themselves present to the students in as many ways as possible—from greeting them in their class parking lots in the morning to acting as a trusted source of advice. Each assistant dean serves in additional roles that connect them with the wider school community, such as coordinating the student activities program, teaching a course, coaching a team, riding the train with students to away games, or thoughtfully discerning the leaders for the next Kairos retreat.

In his new role, Langston will assume management of the advisory program in addition to serving as an assistant coach for varsity football as well as track.

“The overall theme of support with this team of deans is exceptional. The level of support that Fairfield is able to provide students at a one-to-one level is not done in many places,” says Langston, who taught in two other schools and earned a master’s degree in educational leadership before joining Prep. “From a professional perspective, I’m not only ready and willing to take on the challenge, but I know I have help—other peers and colleagues with exceptional backgrounds in their fields whom I can lean on to inform the decisions I make and the relationships I build as a leader here.”

Debarbrie, who previously served as dean of students at the Jesuit-sponsored Cristo Rey New York High School, emphasizes meeting the students where they are and sums up the role this way: “It’s all about relationships. The high school experience is a time of growth. There’s going to be moments of growth that are great and moments of growth that are challenging. The exciting piece is that we get to be with them on that journey and help them encounter the experience.”

Prior to joining the team, Iworisha most recently served as assistant principal for a charter school in Cleveland, Ohio. She elaborates on the concept of the whole child at the heart of the dean team approach, “We understand that these are not just students. They’re someone’s friend, child, or grandchild. They’re athletes. They are complex and there’s a lot going on. It’s important to get to know them, for them to know us, and to build on that.”

Perhaps the best measure of the impact of the assistant deans is their reception by the students. Lombardi, who was responsible for both the junior and senior classes in 2023-2024, stepped into the role after teaching English at Prep for several years. She observes how her students started coming to her when they’d made a poor choice before she’d even heard about it. The Class of 2024, her first class to graduate, chose to dedicate the yearbook to her, whom they described as “a student body favorite” and acknowledged as “a faculty member who has shown exemplary care for the students of our school, as well as someone who fully commits themselves to what it means to be a Jesuit teacher and mentor.”

Lombardi concludes, “Our completed team of deans allows us to care for the whole boy—mind, body, and spirit—within our common home with the utmost love, compassion, and commitment.”

Our completed team of deans allows us to care for the whole boy—mind, body, and spirit—within our common home with the utmost love, compassion, and commitment.

— Jessica Lombardi, Assistant Dean of Students for the Class of 2025

At a Glance

Academics

25

AP courses offered

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Faculty

88%

Faculty holding an advanced degree

19%

Faculty (29% of male faculty) are Prep Alumni

2

New faculty added in 2023-2024 academic year

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Students

38

Magis Scholars in Class of 2027

24%

Students of color

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Athletics

78%

Student participation in athletics

222

Multi-sport athletes

100

Head and assistant coaches

598

Athletic games and competitions

25

Students committed to play in college

12

Team captains served as Kairos leaders

2

State Championships in Golf and Lacrosse

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Visual and Performing Arts

9

Performing ensembles

12

HALO Award nominations (by Seven Angels Theatre)

38%

of students participate in the Visual and Performing Arts

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Mission and Ministry

37

Student leaders

45

Adult leaders

16

Student-facing programs

344

Student participants in all programs

22

leaders on Kairos Retreats

130

Participants in Kairos Retreats

23

Participants on Immersion Trips

42

Participants on Urban Plunge Immersions

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Clubs and Activities

41

Co-curricular clubs offered

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Innovation

43

students (24%) who were admitted to Prep attended an innovation camp or esports camp

2

new innovation clubs created

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Enrollment

$3.6m+

Need-based financial aid provided

32%

Students received need-based financial aid

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Annual Financial Summary