The Students Become the Teachers

While St. Mark’s students have disbanded for the summer break, the learning doesn’t stop at 10600 Preston Road. For a few weeks in June, a small team of Upper Schoolers and recent St. Mark’s graduates returned to campus, this time standing on the other side of the desk. They are volunteering as teachers for the Brendan Court ’06 Summer Enrichment Program, which invites more than 50 DISD students to St. Mark’s for a tuition-free tutorial program. Marksmen gain classroom experience teaching classes of seventh and eighth graders in science, math, English, and social studies.

 

“I have a whole new respect for teachers, middle school teachers especially, because I’m exhausted when I go home,” said Duncan Kirstein ’19, one of the Program’s teachers. “Whenever there’s a good score I have pride that I was able to help my students.”

 

Under Co-Directors Jorge Correa, St. Mark’s Director of Community Service, and Isabel Toledo, St. Mark’s Spanish teacher, the Brendan Court Program has grown to address additional areas of need to elevate the experience.

 

“We noticed that many of our students brought unhealthy snacks or sparse lunches to school, so this year we entered a partnership with Central Market to provide healthy lunches,” said Mr. Correa. “Not only does it provide the families with a free lunch, it also connects health to education.”

 

Outside of the classroom, students are taken on field trips to the Jumpstreet indoor trampoline park, The Perot Museum of Nature and Science, and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Wax Museum.

 

“Over the years, the Brendan Court Program has provided hundreds of DISD students an opportunity to learn the values of a Marksman,” Correa said. “People from all different backgrounds get to experience what it’s like to have an education on this campus.”

 

The Program honors the memory of Brendan Court, a beloved member of St. Mark’s Class of 2006.