Preston Kendall’s President’s Pen

February 2024 President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

At CRSM, we are celebrating Lent.  How do you celebrate Lent?  How do you celebrate a period of the liturgical year that starts with ashes on your forehead and a reminder that, “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.”? A priest friend of mine describes...

December 2023 President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

Christmas break rushed in quickly this year. Why does it always seem to take us a bit by surprise? With mid-term exams finished, the school’s hallways stand empty and quiet as students spend Christmas and New Year’s with their families.  Our Principal often says,...

September 2023 President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

“How is the start of the school year going?” I have been asked this question (and several variations of it) a lot lately.  My answer is, “It’s going incredibly well!”  I’m not exaggerating either. We have been in classes for about a month now and everything is running...

June President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

Graduation at CRSM is always a highlight of the school year – a reminder of what we are all about… what gets us up each morning.  There is nothing more satisfying for educators than to see students we’ve known for four years walk across the stage to receive their...

February President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

You could have heard a pin drop.  The lights were off with only the gentle light from the north windows saturating the cafeteria.  A guitar strummed its first note and then the choir began singing: The Lord is my light, my light and salvation: in God I trust, in God I...

January President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

“Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,...

December President’s Pen with Preston Kendall

Two days before Christmas and all through the school Not a creature was present, I felt like a fool. The work-study vans were all parked in a row Under our new canopy and out of the snow. I pass empty classrooms as I walk down the hall, Whatever happened to that...

Preston Kendall on thanking, praising and being grateful and graceful

Gratitude… Last Monday, twenty-two CRSM students gave up their evening to be here at school calling nearly 400 donors simply to say, “Thank you.” They reached more than ninety in-person.  What a treat to hear them talking to benefactors on the other end of the line,...

Preston Kendall’s October President’s Pen

Email is both the bane and the salve of my existence as president of CRSM.  I was travelling last week and, despite using most free moments to weed through the growing list, there are still, at this moment, 313 unread messages in my Inbox.  Granted, most are frivolous...