A School Transformed by the Language of Virtue
By Sr. John Dominic Rasmussen, O.P.
The interview portion has been edited for length and clarity.
Attending conferences offers us the opportunity to meet fellow educators and gain knowledge from their own personal experiences. At the fall 2024 Duc in Altum conference in Houston, Nick Salinas shared with us the fruit of infusing the language of virtue into his school. In fact, it brought the understanding of virtue from a box to be checked to a lived experience in middle school. Nick Salinas is the director at a Duc in Altum school, Aquinas Academy of Pittsburgh. Aquinas has an advisory program, meeting regularly with students to foster growth and community. But according to Salinas, something was missing.
“For years now we’ve had an advisory program just like any other school, and in the advisory program it always felt like we were just checking a box where we were meeting with students and never extending it to a personal and meaningful encounter. The meeting would end and the student would leave, and it just felt like it never had something concrete to discuss or follow up with.”
It was at a Duc in Altum conference that Salinas discovered what was missing: the language of virtue.
“So, over the years we started trying to find ways to change the program, to try to make it better; and little by little we were zoning in on the right language to use. And we were speaking to our kids and our students with the language…almost the language of virtue, but not quite. We were like dancing around the language. And then I went to one of these DIA conferences and heard Dr. Ed Sri speak. And the moment he started speaking with the language of virtue, it was like the language I had been looking for the entire time.”
Shortly after Dr. Sri’s talk, Salinas discovered the Virtue Field Guide, designed specifically for teens and young adults. As he perused the small book published by Openlight Media, it became evident that it was written by educators attuned to the needs of their students. In fact, it almost seemed like the pages came alive with their instruction in the theological and cardinal virtues, offering concrete ways to live them as well as discussion questions. These questions were essential to the advisory program and provided a framework for personal and spiritual growth for the students.
“Our experience with the Virtue Field Guide has been absolutely fantastic…These tools [virtues] that were left here on earth by Christ to pave the path to heaven, to show everyone the way. Tools that can actually be practiced. So I took these different virtue resources and began to consume every single one of them. And in the process of doing that, we put it out to the kids after we came up with a plan and it completely transformed our advisory, like I said. It went from that very mundane check-in, to this is the virtue we’re going to talk about this week. These are the challenges you’re actually going to try to perform. These are the discussion questions that we’re going to use to help you understand the virtue for yourself personally, but also about what the virtue was really used for.”
More than just giving structure and direction to the advisory program, Salinas found that the language of virtue changed the culture of the middle school at Aquinas.
“And so now our kids, after two years of doing this, use this language. They actually— if you were to ever come to one of our middle school assemblies, you would hear the students speak in the terms of affability and magnanimity, and they know what these terms are. And when we have parents come or visitors come and they hear our middle schoolers speak this way, they’re wildly impressed. And it’s all thanks to the Virtue Field Guide, and our advisory program embracing this and it’s just changed the formation.”
Now the language of virtue has brought direction and precision to every aspect of character formation in the middle school, including some of Salinas’ own innovations.
“We used to have these little slips that we would give kids when they did good deeds. And over the summer, we redesigned the slips so that now when they are praised for good deeds, it’s not just saying, hey, you know, ‘you helped someone out,’ but it says instead, you know, ‘justice’ or ‘courtesy’ on the slips. And that was all, again, thanks to the Virtue Field Guide book.”
The Virtue Field Guide is not just practical. It is also beautiful. Designed for adolescents, it presents the life of virtue as an adventure, featuring a compass on the cover. Inside, each of the theological and cardinal virtues is associated with one of the seven continents. Students are invited to explore the globe as they learn about each virtue, even finding connections between exotic animals and virtuous habits, something Salinas’ students particularly enjoy.
“Our kids really love the animal inspirations inside the Field Guide too!”
As stated earlier, one of the things that makes the Virtue Field Guide so effective is that it was developed on the ground, by high school teachers working with real students. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist teach at JSerra Catholic High School, a Duc in Altum member school. The Sisters developed the content of the Virtue Field Guild in real time, while drawing their students closer to Christ through the practice of virtue. This content was then crafted into the Virtue Field Guide by Openlight Media, the Sisters’ multi-media apostolate. The Sisters’ work with the students of JSerra has been incredibly fruitful, drawing many students into a relationship with Christ, and even into the Catholic Church. The Virtue Field Guide enables other schools to share in this exciting work of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to the Virtue Field Guide, Openlight Media offers a plethora of online resources for elementary and secondary schools on their online platform, Openlight Media Plus. Duc in Altum members get 10% off an annual subscription to Openlight Media Plus (one use per member). Access this discount using the code: DIA10.