Each year around this time, our Art Club does a ceramic project open to all students. This year the project took place a week ago. Students painted dinner plates anyway they wanted.
A funny thing about ceramics. The plates to be painted have a rough finish like sandpaper and the paints students use are very muted, pastel colors like pink, light blue, beige, and grey. Once the plates are painted, they are sent to a kiln for firing. That’s when something incredibly dramatic happens.
When you peruse their un-fired designs, you can somewhat appreciate the extensive artistic talent of our students – highly detailed drawings that include anime mutant slayers, sunflowers, stars and moons, geometric abstracts, fish, animals, etc. However, nothing quite prepares you for the wonderous results when the plates come back from the kiln. They return all shiny and smooth and the painted areas are extraordinarily vibrant. Pink becomes cherry red; grey becomes jet black; light blue turns to a deep, rich indigo.
The change is amazing. Unless you have previously witnessed the whole process, you greatly underestimate the extent of the transformation. It’s a terrific metaphor for what our students go through at CRSM.
“Carbon under pressure turns into diamonds.”
Our principal uses this phrase with students when they express feeling stressed about their classes – usually as midterms or finals are approaching. Well, here we are just 3 ½ weeks until semester exams and it’s not a matter of if, but when I will hear him invoke his tried-and-true maxim again. What I find gratifying is how often CRSM alumni come back and repeat that saying back to him. They take it to heart and I really think it helps them persevere. Buried in his statement is an unwavering expression of confidence. Essentially, he is saying, “Yes, times are tough right now and can even seem a bit overwhelming, but I know you’ve got this!” And that is the whole point.
A 2024 study out of the University of Pakistan entitled, “Impact of Eustress on Academic Achievement of University Students,” examined the difference between eustress (a positive form of stress) and distress (negative stress) on academic performance at the college level. What was interesting about this new study is that the sources of eustress and distress actually overlap. The cause of the stressors did not define the type of stress; the students’ perception of the stress did. When students perceive stressors as opportunities rather than threats, they experience boosts in motivation, focus, academic performance, and personal growth. The study concluded that eustress contributes to a positive academic climate when properly supported by instructors and institutions, and that institutions can harness this positive stress by cultivating environments that encourage challenge, provide structured support, and teach students to reframe stress productively.
Recommendations on how to do this include:
- reframing stress as challenge rather than threat.
- designing challenging but achievable coursework.
- offering support services (tutoring, counseling, academic advising).
- giving regular, constructive feedback to reduce uncertainty.
This is precisely what we do at CRSM. Our culture is one of high expectations but also of high support when needed. Our goal is to raise the bar for our students because we believe in them and we have confidence in their abilities to learn and grow and succeed – even when, at times, they don’t see that potential in themselves. Our faculty and counselors talk about “scaffolding” that supports students in need but with the clear expectation that, like actual construction scaffolding, the extra support will eventually be taken away so that the structure (or in this case, the student) can stand on her/his own.
Key findings from another 2024 study out of China, “Exploring the Interplay of Academic Stress, Motivation, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindfulness in Higher Education,” underscore the importance of psychological well-being in educational policy and practice.
The results of their research suggest that educational institutions should integrate practices that promote positive emotions, such as mindfulness programs or positive reinforcement strategies, into educational policies to bolster students’ life satisfaction and academic resilience. Educational institutions play a pivotal role in creating supportive environments that prioritize students’ psychological well-being, enabling them to thrive academically.
Again, CRSM is intentionally structured to create a supportive environment for learning. Being faith-based, our students are called to a spiritual mindfulness. Regardless of their families’ faith traditions, we consistently ask students to think about what they believe and how they live out those beliefs on a daily basis. We also have a robust counseling department including social/emotional support with a licensed therapist and nurse to bolster well-being and positive stress management. Our Academic Assistance program is another example of promoting academic resilience.
Ultimately, our school culture and the attitudes and perceptions of our students toward stress and life in general are most significantly shaped by our faculty. Sometimes we forget that the terms “faculty” and “facilitator” share common linguistic roots. Facultas is the concept of knowledge, ability, or capacity but facultas traces its roots to facilis the act of guiding a group process that makes something possible, a process that creates possibilities – the same root as facilitator. The growth mindset embraced by our Principal and faculty sets the tone for the entire school. As a group of life-long learners committed to their own continuous improvement, they set the stage for how we perceive students’ abilities and how students conceive their own abilities. They facilitate self-awareness and a belief in one’s own abilities to do more than previously imagined.
In the final analysis, our school culture is about finding a kind of “sweet spot” of stress within a communal environment that includes a variety of supports and attitudes that positively influence student academic achievement and emotional flourishment. That’s a mouthful but it’s all true.
A Safe Place is a local non-profit supporting victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. As part of a county-wide survey they recently conducted, over 60 CRSM students were asked open-ended questions about where in the greater Waukegan community they feel safe. Here is what they shared:
“While acknowledging the challenges they encounter in their community, the students unanimously recognized Cristo Rey as a place where they feel safe, supported, heard, and understood. They expressed deep appreciation for the opportunities the school provides and the skills that prepare them for the future. Many shared that they feel fortunate to be part of a school where teachers are so passionate about their success that they feel as an extended family.”
Moderate stress is essential for growth and development. It can be energizing and motivating in the right amount and in the right environment. The strongest steel is tempered in a furnace. The finest ceramics blossom in the kiln.
It’s good to be challenged. It’s good to be pushed. That is how our God-given talents are developed. Going beyond of our comfort zone makes us stronger, better, and more resilient. The results I see in our students are nothing short of miraculous.
“Yes, times are tough right now and can even seem a bit overwhelming, but I know you’ve got this!” ¡Viva, Cristo Rey!