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Cor Unum Statement and Resources

Cor Unum Statement

Rooted in the Society of the Religious of the Sacred Heart’s foundational precept of “cor unum et anima una,” and grounded in 200 years of membership in a global network, the school promotes an inclusive culture of conversation and relationship founded on courage, openness and mutual respect. We understand a diverse community provides essential opportunities for personal transformation, intellectual encounter and collective engagement.

Through interaction inspired by deep intellectual sympathy, curiosity and shared humanity, we create an environment where innately human differences are recognized, honored and celebrated. We invite each member of the community to embrace and live into the core belief that there is a world within us and a world outside of us, and we must be able to engage and encounter both.

Our Commitment to Building a Fair and Just Society

In the mission of the Society of Sacred Heart, “Cor Unum” draws all of us to the center of the heart of God. It is at that center that we believe that all people are and must be held as equal, unconditionally loved and valued. Therefore our statement of equity, Cor Unum, defines our conviction that innately human differences should be recognized, honored and celebrated; Cor Unum is rooted in the motto of the Religious of the Sacred Heart: “Cor unum et anima una in Corde Jesu.”

School leadership and our Board of Trustees are committed to sustaining the mission of Sacred Heart education to developing a fair and just society and to forming a community that is diverse in its student population, teaching staff and Board composition.

The Organizational Learning Committee of the Board has oversight over the initiatives included in the school’s strategic plan to support and execute our “Cor Unum.” In particular, we are continuing to amplify our efforts to:

  • Build diversity among our students, faculty, staff, administration and Board 
  • Engage our entire community in ways of living in a culture of Cor Unum
  • Equip an even broader portion of our school in Dialogue Training and gather the empathetic learnings that result from active listening and authentic dialogue
  • Open channels for feedback from all constituencies
  • Engage impactful speakers for our Cor Unum Week 
  • Present diverse voices and aspects of the human condition in developing student summer reading lists
  • Lead discussion groups on summer reading that centers on anti-racism
  • Provide extensive lists of resources on anti-racism to students and families (see below)
  • Support our students' voices in standing for social justice
  • Inspired by the tenets of our International Baccalaureate curriculum to offer an education that is expansive, inclusive and sensitive to the world’s most pressing issues and needs — locally, nationally and globally — we will develop “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.”

We charge all members of our community to be aware of societal structures that need to be reformed as well as to tend to each of our own individual innate biases. We invite you to complete this form to request a passkey and link to view the presentations from Dr. Kang delivered to our community on April 28, 2020.

We charge all members of our community to be aware of societal structures that need to be reformed as well as to tend to each of our own individual innate biases.

Cor Unum Week
During our annual Cor Unum Week, we commit to expanding our understanding of shared and unfamiliar experiences through our Cor Unum Voices speaker series. As a Sacred Heart school, we are committed to learning from those whose stories may not have been told before and to continuing to educate and expand our minds and Hearts.
 
 
2023 Cor Unum Voices: Jennifer De Leon, Juana Martinez-Neal, Luis Alberto Urrea and Arawana Hayashi

Several author and artist-in-residence visits highlighted a busy Cor Unum Week (March 15–22) celebrating Latin American heritage. Jennifer De Leon and Luis Alberto Urrea, two award-winning authors, presented daytime sessions for students and afternoon talks for adults. Author and illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal led students in Grades K–5 in presentations and an illustration workshop. Read more.

In addition to the visiting authors, students, faculty and the school's Leadership Team experienced the connective Social Presencing Theater work of Arawana Hayashi of the Presencing Institute. She engaged groups throughout Cor Unum Week in various embodiment exercises.

 
2023 Key West Literary Seminar

This is the seventh year Convent & Stuart Hall has sent a cohort to the Key West Literary Seminar, a four-day event that explores a unique literary theme each January. Read more.

Photo of president Krejcarek in an office sitting at a desk looking to the right and listening to someone speak.
President Ann Marie Krejcarek
Setting the Course for Cor Unum and Current Strategic Plan Authorship
  • A yearly survey of parents started in 2013
  • Diversity and school culture consultant Ruth Sanchez visited for one week in April 2016. 
  • Faculty, students, trustees and parents had opportunities to share input that informs the strategy and initiatives for 2020 strategic plan; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) emerges as a major strategy in Area of Impact I of the strategic plan.
  • A DEI mission statement was drafted and presented to the Board and Leadership team in March/April 2018.
  • In summer 2020, President Ann Marie Krejcarek announced the formation of a faculty and staff Cor Unum Workgroup to engage ever more deeply the charge to build a fair and just society. The group had its first meeting on September 10, 2020.

Cor Unum Workgroup

Belle Akers
Convent Gr. 1 Faculty

Alyson Barrett
Library Academic Chair and High School Librarian & Archivist

Dennis Estrada
Stuart Hall for Boys Elementary Dean, 6-8, Studies in Literature & English Language, Faculty

Hector Flores
Plant Engineer

Cesar Guerrero
Director of Admissions and Academic Guidance

Alexa Johnson
Head of Convent Elementary

Ann Marie Krejcarek
President of School

Roderick Mobley
Sciences Dept. Chair and Faculty

Sharanya Naik
Interim Studies in Literature & English Language Dept. Chair and Convent Elementary Dean, 6–8

Paul Pryor Lorentz
 Religion, Theology & Spirituality Dept. Chair and Community Life Chair

Rachel Simpson
Chief Academic Officer and Head of Convent High School

Anti-Racism Resources

Society of the Sacred Heart Resources

Three high school students in a class room working on an experiment together.

Curricular and Co-Curricular Work

Group of students, faculty and staff looking at the camera smiling.
A cohort of students and faculty at SDLC in Nashville in 2018.
Professional Development and Student Engagement
  • An annual faculty and staff cohort attends the NAIS People of Color Conference
  • Students selected from a pool of applicants to attend the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (virtual, 2020; Seattle, 2019; Nashville, 2018; Atlanta, 2016)
  • Three Administrators (High School Admissions Director and two Division Heads) attend Wildwood School’s Summer Institute on Multicultural Leadership, June 2018.
Serving the Community and City
  • The school has increased financial assistance to support socio-economic diversity. We now award close to $9 million in annual awards to support a range of  K–12 families and needs.
  • Thirty-seven percent of Convent High School students and 49 percent of Stuart Hall High School students identify as people of color.
  • The Heart to Heart Program brings together Convent & Stuart Hall students and children from surrounding communities and nearby schools with activities and programs designed to promote friendship and understanding. Learn more about our Summer Reading Program, peer tutoring program, Heart to Heart Benefit Concert and holiday toy drive here. 
Photo of young child looking at the camera in a classroom with other children using a glue stick to glue paper.
The Heart to Heart Summer Reading Program is held on our campus.

Publications
  • Convent High School and Stuart Hall High School each won 2021 First Amendment Press Freedom Awards. It is Convent's seventh press freedom award, more than any other private school in the award's 21-year history. Read more.
  • Convent High School, with its award-winning student-run newspaper, The Broadview, won the First Amendment Press Freedom Award for the sixth time in 2020. The prize is handed out to schools that support, teach and honor the First Amendment. 
  • The 2019 President’s Report covers the first Cor Unum Week and includes a story about Plant Engineer Hector Flores and his transformative experience at the 2018 People of Color Conference. Read more on page 12.
  • The 2019 Alumni Bulletin features BIPOC alumni and the story of an alumnus who photographed sites in 12 states where statues and busts of generals and slaveholders had been removed. Read more on page 12.
  • Rachel Simpson, Head of Convent High School, received the 2018 Journalism Education Association’s Administrator of the Year award for her role in actively protecting student expression. Read more on page 36.
  • A story is published in the 2017 President’s Report about how students with differing views about the presidential election engaged in conversations facilitated by faculty. Read more on page 30.
Our Commitment to Free Expression

Convent & Stuart Hall supports the "Chicago Principles," a statement on free expression and academic freedom created at the University of Chicago that conveys a commitment to promote and protect the ideals of free expression in all its forms. You can learn more here.