Pastoral Director and Teacher at Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver
Olivia Britt always knew she wanted to be a teacher, but she never imagined how her gifts and experiences would fit together into a calling as an Ignatian educator. A lifelong Catholic passionate about her faith and a teacher zealous about guiding students to achieve their potential, Britt now serves as pastoral director at Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver.
“It’s definitely been a consolation, just to witness how the Lord can bring together so many seemingly separate parts of my life and fuse them together, like puzzle pieces that fit together in a way that I hadn’t really envisioned,” she says.
As an education major at The Ohio State University, Britt worked as a math aide at Cristo Rey Columbus High School, where she fell in love with the model and mission of Cristo Rey Network schools. The Cristo Rey model integrates rigorous, Catholic college preparatory academics with professional work experience.
The innovative approach was a good fit for the kind of Catholic educator she hoped to become.
“Cura personalis led me to want to be a teacher and campus minister, even though I didn’t have words for it at the time,” she says. “I really wanted to care for the whole person, and I think Cristo Rey schools especially do that in a really unique way.”
Arrupe Jesuit High School of Denver, a Cristo Rey school sponsored by the Jesuits USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province, provides a college preparatory education to more than 400 students who, due to financial constraints, would otherwise not have the opportunity to receive it. One hundred percent of Arrupe Jesuit’s graduating students have been accepted by at least one college or university of their choosing; 90% matriculate immediately after graduation.
Britt describes Arrupe Jesuit as a tight-knit school that draws on the resources of its majority Hispanic community of students and families. A large portion of its graduates are the first in their families to graduate from high school, and many of the staff are themselves alumni.
After six years at Arrupe, teaching math and serving in campus ministry, Britt describes her work as a calling. As pastoral director, she coordinates student religious life, including retreats, liturgies and community prayer, collaborating with recently ordained Fr. Daniel Everson, SJ, the school’s assistant principal for mission.
But she still teaches two sections of Algebra 2. She says the time in the classroom helps her to get to know her students. Shifting between teaching quadratic equations and leading retreats is challenging, she says, but she offers an example for her students of adaptability and active contemplation.
“I think it’s a really cool witness, especially to the female part of our student body, that you can be in math, and you can also be in theology, and women deserve to be in both spaces,” she says of her dual roles.
Combining math and theology is just one way Britt says she brings her own “whole self” to her work. She also deeply invests in caring for her students as people and finds herself “reaping the graces” in return.
“I don’t know who’s going to walk into my office and what needs they’re going to have throughout the day, so I need to be prepared for everything,” she says. “It’s an act of surrender and trust in the Lord that God is going to help me serve these students.”
She has found that the surrender God asks of her includes vulnerability to the needs of her students. “I’m more of a logic-based, black-and-white person, so to even step into a role that’s as ‘gray’ as pastoral ministry, that has been a real stretch for me. I’ve had to lean on the Lord a lot in prayer,” she says. Breaks for prayer throughout the day and participating in the daily school-wide Examen help anchor her days.
The cornerstone of the pastoral formation Arrupe Jesuit offers to students is through retreat opportunities that focus on both community-building and growth in faith, including Kairos, experienced during junior year with student leadership from the senior class.
“If you want to see faith grow tangibly, sit in on one of those nights, because it’s really beautiful,” she says of witnessing students’ support for one another during an evening of reconciliation and Eucharistic adoration at Kairos.
“Moments like that are really moments that I hold and, like Mary, and ‘ponder in my heart,’” she says.
Britt says that her growth as an educator in a Jesuit school has been supported by formation opportunities through the UCS Province, including at this year’s Women’s Retreat, led by Karen Wuertz, head of the Boys Division at Regis Jesuit High School in Denver. She appreciated the opportunity to connect with other colleagues and Jesuits and found herself surprisingly moved by the depth of the experience. “To be led by women in Ignatian spirituality was a really new perspective and really good for me to be able to witness,” she says.
By bringing her whole self to the care of her students, Britt has found joy and purpose in her work.
“Each day I feel like I’m enriched by the interactions with students and staff, and that renews a call in me. It feels like this fits like a puzzle piece for me, the work that I’m doing and then who I am,” she says.
“So many parts of my heart are being touched by this work.”
