“Mission Focused and Flourishing: Delivering Evangelization Excellence in Catholic Schools”

11th Annual DIA Schools Summit Agenda at St. James Academy in Lenexa, Kansas

Tentative Agenda – Details will be added as plans are solidified

Monday, October 20, 2025

3:30 pm Conference check in opens 

4:30 pm Opening Mass

5:30 pm Reception with Strategic Partners

6:30 pm Dinner, Opening General Session

7:45 pm “Draw Near” – Eucharistic Adoration, Praise and Worship

9:00 pm Transfer to conference hotel

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

7:30 am Reconciliation 

7:30 am Breakfast with Strategic Partners

8:45 am Keynote –

10:00 am Mass

11:15 am Concurrent Workshops for Leadership, Teachers and Campus Ministers:

  1. Understanding how underserved communities prioritize Catholicity
  2. Getting Parents Fully Engaged in the Mission
  3. Teaching Kids and Teens About Human Sexuality, Grades K-8
  4. Beyond Conflict: Teaching Theology in the Light of Modern Science
  5. Boosting student confidence in being a faith-focused leader
  6. Prayer & faith integration in school culture

12:15 pm Lunch: working group conversations and visit Strategic Partners displays

1:30 pm Campus Tours

2:15 pm Strategic Partner Workshops

2:45 pm Snack break

3:15 pm Concurrent Workshops for Leadership, Teachers and Campus Ministers:

  1. Finding A+ Mission-Fit Faculty and Staff
  2. Transform the culture of a Catholic school by transforming the athletic department
  3. Teaching Kids and Teens About Human Sexuality, Grades 9-12
  4. Faith integration in K-8
  5. Virtues Curriculum in grades K-8
  6. Chaplains panel

4:30 pm General Session – Dr. Greg Bottaro

5:30 pm Reception & Dinner Off Site

8:30 pm Transfer to conference hotel

Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Feast of St. John Paul II

8:00 am Mass

9:30 am Keynote – Dr. Shane Rapp

10:45 am Concurrent Workshops for Leadership, Teachers and Campus Ministers:

  1. Ongoing Faith Formation for Faculty and Staff
  2. Marketing: Don’t Hide Your Catholicity
  3. The Discipleship Quad
  4. AI – does it undermine or embolden educators’ mission?
  5. Catholicism Simplified: Kerygma & Response
  6. How Beauty Influences the Faith Focus

11:45 pm Lunch with Strategic Partners

1:00 pm Closing General Session

2:00 pm Summit Closing Remarks and Blessing

2:30-4:00 pm DIA Founders Forum – how St. James Academy integrates the Community System and infuses the Faith throughout the community