Lawrence Francis, a 2023 Abbey Graduate, and his mom share his journey as a student-athlete at Belmont Abbey College as he looks toward his future!
Crossroads
Dual Enrollment Partnership with Kolbe Academy
Belmont Abbey College Announces Dual Enrollment Partnership with Kolbe Academy
NAPA, California, June 13, 2023 – Belmont Abbey College, a nationally ranked Catholic liberal arts college and Kolbe Academy, a globally acclaimed Catholic homeschooling and online education institution, announce jointly today an exciting expansion of dual enrollment opportunities for high school students. The collaboration provides Kolbe Academy high school students the opportunity to pursue college credits through select courses at Belmont Abbey College at a discounted rate. Dual enrollment benefits include early exposure to college curriculum, cost savings, and the potential to graduate college earlier than most.
Through this partnership with Belmont Abbey College, Kolbe Academy offers its students a more extensive selection of college-level courses, thereby accelerating their academic advancement and enabling them to accrue college credits earlier. “Students attend these classes alongside traditional college attendees, benefiting from instruction provided by exceptional faculty. The college credits earned through this dual enrollment program can be transferred to other colleges or universities based on their transfer policies,” explained Everett Buyarski, Kolbe Academy’s Academic Services Director. This is just one of the ways Kolbe Academy prepares students for the future. Mrs. Megan Lengyel, Chief Academic Officer of Kolbe Academy, shared her enthusiasm for the collaboration, stating, “This partnership with Belmont Abbey College enhances the academic opportunities available for our students and aligns with our dedication to enable students to prepare for college while still in high school.”
Expressing excitement about the partnership, Dr. Travis Feezell, Provost at Belmont Abbey College, said, “We are proud to embark on this educational journey with Kolbe Academy and look forward to welcoming Kolbe students as part of our community. Our shared philosophy of fostering academic excellence and maintaining strong Catholic values make this an ideal partnership and we are honored to come alongside these students as they develop academically, personally, and spiritually.”
Belmont Abbey looks forward to connecting with Kolbe Academy students and families. Martin Aucoin, Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions, remarked, “This partnership allows us to connect earlier with prospective students and their families. We can learn what they’re looking for in a college, and share what Belmont Abbey has to offer.” From dual enrollment opportunities to a variety of Premier Scholarships, Belmont Abbey is committed to making quality education affordable and educating the whole person – mind, body, and spirit.
For more information about this partnership and the dual enrollment program, please visit the Kolbe Academy website at www.kolbe.org.
About Kolbe Academy
Kolbe Academy is a fully accredited, Catholic homeschool program for kindergarten through high school. At the forefront of the Catholic homeschooling movement, Kolbe Academy offers a flexible curriculum designed to help each student reach their God-given potential. This is achieved through their classical curriculum, which roots students in the Catholic faith and fosters a lifelong love of learning.
The Body, Mind, & Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup Award
Belmont Abbey College Receives The Body, Mind, & Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup Award
Belmont, N.C. (June 14, 2023) – For the first time in Belmont Abbey College’s history, the Athletics Department was presented with the prestigious Body, Mind, and Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup. It is the highest honor that the Conference Carolinas awards on an annual basis. The award is named after the former Conference Carolinas Commissioner, who championed that classroom success and sportsmanship should be valued equally with competitive success. In just its fifth year, it is the ultimate comprehensive conference award, recognizing the member with the best average ranking when combining the Hawn Cup (for on-field performance), the Sharp Award (for graduation rates), and the Messick Award (for team sportsmanship).
For Vice President and Director of Athletics Stephen Miss, winning the award carries a special meaning for everyone involved at Belmont Abbey. “Emblematic of both the good work campus-wide of many, many individuals over many, many years and the performance of our students – first and foremost – our coaches, our athletic trainers, and our administrators this past academic year, the Body, Mind, and Soul Dr. Alan Paterson Cup represents the height of accomplishment for a Conference Carolinas member institution,” Miss said. “This award also serves as a proof of concept for all of us in Abbey Athletics, reinforcing our conviction in the efficacy of our intentional approach to Sport and Virtue (‘The Abbey Way’) and the benefits of a holistic, balanced approach to the formation and development of our students as whole persons through the pursuit of competitive greatness, academic excellence, and spiritual fulfillment.”
One of the core tenets of the mission statement of the Belmont Abbey athletic department is to create a positive change in the culture of sports by upholding standards of virtue and excellence in everything that the department does. In short, everyone working within the athletic department at The Abbey works to help develop the student-athletes as a whole person within their body, mind, and soul.
On the field, Belmont Abbey finished third overall in the Hawn Cup standings, registering 159.5 points of a possible 232, a percentage of 68.8. On the men’s side, the Crusaders stood in second place, earning 74.5 points out of a possible 105 (71.0%), while the women garnered 85 of 127 points (66.9 percent) to place third. The points are awarded in each sport based on the order of regular-season finish against the number of participating teams. In addition, bonus points are awarded to the tournament champion and runner-up.
Some of the strongest finishes came in the Messick Awards, which are voted on by student-athletes and coaches from each institution. They then submit those votes to the conference office where the averages are then calculated to decide the winner for each conference-sponsored sport. The Crusaders earned a total of eight individual sport Messick Awards during the year — Women’s Cross Country, Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Indoor Track and Field, Baseball, Women’s Golf, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Outdoor Track & Field, and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field. Overall, Belmont Abbey finished second in the overall Messick standings.
The Allan Sharp Award, in which the department finished in a tie for fifth, is presented annually to the Conference Carolinas member institution having the highest graduation rate of student-athletes as determined by the faculty athletics representatives.
The New York Times and The Abbey
Abbot Placid and recent graduate, Evan Lutz, were quoted in the recent New York Times article, Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries. See the excerpt below or click here to read the full article.
No one understands discipline better than the Benedictines, members of the monastic order who follow the rule written by St. Benedict in the sixth century. Undergraduates at Belmont Abbey College outside of Charlotte, N.C., share their quadrangles, sidewalks — even their chess clubs — with Benedictine monks who live in an abbey in the middle of campus. “For the last 1,500 years, Benedictines have had to deal with technology,” Placid Solari, the abbot there, told me. “For us, the question is, how do you use the tool so it supports and enhances your purpose or mission, and you don’t get owned by it.”
Mental distraction was a struggle even for the ancient ascetics who didn’t have Snapchat. When the mind wanders and a monk wants “to bind it fast with the firmest purpose of heart, as if with chains, while we are making the attempt it slips away from the inmost recesses of the heart swifter than a snake,” John Cassian, a fourth-century monk, wrote. Many monasteries don’t totally reject the latest technology, but they are mindful of how they use it. Abbot Placid told me that for novices at his monastery, “part of the formation is discipline to learn how to control technology use.” After this initial time of limited phone and TV “to wean them away from overdependence on technology and its stimulation,” they get more access and mostly make their own choices.
Evan Lutz graduated this May from Belmont Abbey with a major in theology. He stressed the special Catholic context of Belmont’s resident monks; if you experiment with monastic practices without investigating the whole worldview, it can become a shallow kind of mindfulness tourism. The monks at Belmont Abbey do more than model contemplation and focus. Their presence compels even non-Christians on campus to think seriously about vocation and the meaning of life. “Either what the monks are doing is valuable, and based on something true, or it’s completely ridiculous,” Mr. Lutz said. “In both cases, there’s something striking there, and it asks people a question.”
For A Synodal Church: An Inside Look At the Synod Process
In Episode 12 of the Conversatio podcast, Dr. Alessandro Rovati, Theology Department Chair and professor at Belmont Abbey College, and the Diocese of Charlotte Synod official contact person, shares what he’s learned in the Synod process so far.
