BRAINTREE -- Five aspiring Catholic school leaders in the Archdiocese of Boston are currently enrolled in the inaugural year of Merrimack College's Catholic School Leadership Graduate Certificate Program. The Catholic Schools Office, through the generosity of the Catholic Schools Foundation, is providing a scholarship to the five teachers to attend the program.

Merrimack's 12-credit graduate program is largely conducted online and is taught in three eight-week modules. Students begin by examining the philosophy and history of Catholic education in a module called Fundamentals of a Faith-Based Education. The second module in the program is Technology, Communication, and School Improvement. The program concludes with a module in financial leadership. At the end of the program, students will have learned how to operationalize the Catholic school mission, plan strategically, and maintain a budget to ensure operational vitality.

The participants are completing this course while working full time in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Patrick Moran is the English language arts and history teacher for grades 5-8 and director of Special Initiatives at St. Paul Choir School in Cambridge.

"I have enjoyed the certificate program tremendously. The most engaging part has been seeing my school from new, invigorating vantage points," he said.

Moran said, "Being a part of the Merrimack College classes that focus on operationalizing the mission of the school, examining the media landscape that our students are enmeshed in, and constructing financial models for Catholic schools have provided new and thought-provoking ways of being a part of a school that has become so familiar to me. I would absolutely recommend the program to anyone who may be interested in it."

If you are interested in exploring leadership development for yourself or your staff at a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Boston, contact Associate Superintendent of Leadership and Mission Effectiveness Dan Roy at roy_d@rcab.org.