Discipleship Program

Discipleship Program Update 

Our Discipleship Program is gaining traction as students are completing their plans for the year and starting to work on their reflection pages! As we refine the program, we know there will be areas for enhancement. A reminder for clarification: our Discipleship Program replaces our service-hours program. Rather than simply completing and documenting service hours, our goal is to help students more intentionally grow as disciples through Personal Formation and Service to Parish, School, and Community. 

All students in grades 6–12 are asked to complete 15 hours during the year, with at least one hour/project in each of the four dimensions. Students may certainly be heavier in one area than another, but we want them to consider how they can grow as well-rounded disciples. 

A couple important reminders: 

• Discipleship Plans: Every student will complete a Discipleship Plan and have a one-to-one conversation with their Society mentor to develop a strategy for their growth this year. We ask that a parent sign the plan, as we want to intentionally partner with you—the primary faith formators of your children! Plans should be completed by the end of the quarter, with grace through October 19 if needed.  

• Reflection Pages: The former service-hour forms have been replaced by reflection pages. We still ask for the signature of the person served when possible, but we also invite a parent signature as another opportunity for you to be part of the conversation about how your student is serving and growing.  

• You can find all the pages, complete program guide and calendar on our website: 

• Discipleship Program | Aquinas Catholic Schools 

Great new update to tracking hours: 

• Parents and students will soon be able to see recorded Discipleship Program hours in PowerSchool. Simply open your student’s Society class. You will see an “assignment” for each of the four dimensions. These are NOT grades and there will be no percentage—the number shown simply represents the hours recorded so far in that dimension. 

• A little grace, please! This way of recording is a great way for all to see your project status, however, it is a new addition to how we previously recorded hours, so our Society mentors—who are also teachers with many other responsibilities, are just getting this set up. There may be some lag time between turning in a reflection and seeing hours entered. If you aren’t sure who your student’s Society mentor is, the mentor is listed as the “teacher” for Society in PowerSchool. 

Thank you for partnering with us as we help our students move beyond simply “getting service hours” and instead intentionally grow in formation, mission, and service as disciples of Christ. 

Upcoming opportunities: 

Service to Community: Oct 4, Chain for Life, David City. Go to St Mary’s gym by 1:45 pick up signs 2-3 pm (drinks are served after) . 

This is a GREAT way to get the needed hour for service to community! And something you could do as a family! 

Service to Parish: Check with local parish, there are still many parish dinners that are upcoming and students are needed to help! 

Personal Formation: Middle School boys and girls can participate on Mondays during society time with their faith formation groups; High School women have a faith formation sharing group that meets during Monday society time as well. Senior boys have “Leadership Lunch” with Fr Sughroue on most Fridays. A young men’s faith sharing group for High School boys is in planning stages. come to us throughout the year.  

10-26-26

Hello everyone!

We are off to a great start at Aquinas and I want to take the time to update you on the new Discipleship Program. The Discipleship Program is replacing our old service hours program, by incorporating the good it already provided and refocusing on why service is so important. It can be easy to reduce service to something we just check the box with or acknowledge it only as an obligation. While both the discipline and responsibility to give back to our community is something we want to form our students in, as Catholics, acts of service have an even deeper and more profound reality. What we do shapes who we are. For that reason, we wanted to acknowledge this program as a means to become the disciple of Christ we are made to be.

I’m happy to discuss with you the vision and reasons behind this change if you would like to reach out. For the sake of brevity and clarity though, I wanted to highlight a few of the key changes that will be expected of our students.

The biggest content change is we have added a personal formation dimension. This is to acknowledge that each individual is a gift and when we take the time to form ourselves, we are giving back to the community by becoming who we are made to be. Retreats such as TEC (12 hours), Steubenville (8 hrs), SKY Camp (6hrs) and Canoe trip (5 hrs) count towards formation and are great opportunities to get lots of hours! Family holy hours and other examples of formation can be found on the website found below.

Other items of note:

Our students have received an extensive explanation of the program through their theology classes. If they have any more questions, they can direct their questions to their society mentor. If you have any questions about the program or are wondering what hours will be awarded for certain projects, feel free to reach out to Melissa Yindrick, our campus ministry director.  The website is the best place to access more ideas, as well as the Discipleship Plan, Reflection Page, and Discipleship Opportunities Calendar. We will also use daily announcements to let parents and students know of individual requests that come to us throughout the year.  Discipleship Program | Aquinas Catholic Schools (this link might be helpful to save!)

Know of my prayers and gratitude for all of you! Your students make me proud to be a Monarch.