DePaul Cristo Rey’s new principal discusses Catholic education and the DPCR experience

When DePaul Cristo Rey High School (DPCR) students arrive on campus on their first day of school this fall, they’ll find a new face welcoming them—James Schurrer, the school’s new principal. Schurrer, a veteran of Catholic education of 17 years, was previously the dean of faculty, an English teacher and a cross country coach at St. Xavier High School. He’s planning to use his experience in and passion for Catholic education to assist DPCR as it moves into its second decade of operation.

DPCR is more than a co-educational, college-preparatory Catholic high school. A part of the Cristo Rey Network of schools, DPCR educates students with potential but limited financial means so they can successfully apply to and attend college. This is made possible through the school’s Corporate Work Study Program. Through the program, students work for a DPCR business partner five times a month. In turn, the business partner pays a fee for service that covers a significant part of the student’s tuition.

Cincy Magazine sat down with Schurrer to discuss his experience, his passion for Catholic education and what he hopes to bring to the DPCR experience.

Cincy Magazine: What about Catholic education inspired you to pursue a career in it?

James Schurrer: As a person of faith myself, I find Catholic schools to be the place where we get to live out our faith and we get to work with students every day. We get to love them for who they are for everything about them, not just their academics, but for everything they [are]. We get to help them grow and develop and walk with them on the journey. And hopefully, by the time they leave us and move on to the next thing, we’ve created in them this vision of who they are and who they want to be in the world.

CM: What drew you to DPCR and the principal position?

JS: When I first heard about the job, I kind of wanted to put it to the side and ignore it. God has a way of being really persistent because I heard about it months before it was officially posted and it just kept coming back to the top of my mind. When it was posted, I felt this strong desire to apply. And I think one of the things that really draws me about DPCR is that this is a mission unlike no other. This is really where you see the Catholic church and faith in action.

We talk about a faith that works for justice and does amazing things in the world. I see that at DPCR and the work that we do to provide these opportunities for the students. It just kept speaking to me as something that I felt that I could bring my own gifts and talents and help move the school really into that next stage of being.

CM: How do you think your experience has prepared you to help DPCR as it looks to the future?

JS: DPCR, from my understanding for the last decade, really hustled in that kind of entrepreneurial startup mode. You have a school that for 10 years just needs to get stuff going and moving. And now they’re at the point where they really want to focus on what does it mean to be a really good school and refining the academic program, creating courses and opportunities for students, and ensuring that the courses are providing the level of rigor that they need to succeed in college.

In my time at St X, I’ve worked strongly with curriculum development. I’ve worked strongly with instructional coaching and training of faculty and instructional practices and good pedagogical skills. I can bring that knowledge and that ability to work with faculty and teachers and writing curriculum and developing good instructional strategies. [This way] we can sit down and really start planning. Here are the strengths that we have at DePaul Cristo Rey, here are the academic parts of our program that are just rocking and rolling, and here are the things that need some love and attention.

CM: What you hoping to accomplish with DPCR in the next couple years?

JS: I think the greatest marker of success for us will be when a student comes back after their freshman year of college and says, “Man, Mr. Schurrer, that freshman year was easier than my last couple of years at DePaul. I was ready to go.”

So as we look at our students, we have this goal of a 100% of students accepted to college and we want them to enroll in college and complete college. Success for me is that these students are successful and that they go to college and have no barriers and are ready to do amazing things in the world. As I plan for the future of DePaul and I plan for our vision, I keep that kind of at the forefront of my mind of what are we doing so that when they graduate from us, they’re primed for success.

CM: What’s the culture like at DPCR? What are you looking to bring to it?

JS: The thing I’ve heard loud and clear since I’ve been on campus all [spring] semester has been family. I want to keep focusing on that family value. But areas that I see that we can really work on are providing opportunities for our students to have different experiences and leadership opportunities. I want to provide ways for our seniors to be mentors for our underclassmen and lead them through some of the things. I want to provide ways for there to be more extracurricular activities that have leadership opportunities for them so that when they graduate from DPCR, they’ve broadened their sense of who they are and what they’re interested in. They have those leadership experiences that they can draw on.

I think creating more leadership experiences will really continue to highlight that aspect of family. We are a family that loves each other and takes care of each other. We mentor our younger students by the older students and just pass that culture down.

CM: What is the value of a Catholic education, and particularly the one offered at DPCR?

JS: Catholic education does two things really well. Catholic education really can challenge students and create opportunities of rigor and growth for them to succeed and develop the academic knowledge and skills that they need. I contend, more importantly than that, Catholic education offers students the ability to grow as a whole person and the ability to grow as student, athlete, as a leader, as a person of faith, whatever their faith may be, as having a strong understanding of their moral framework—how they make decisions—and realizing that being a member of this world is being a member of this world in service of others.

The Corporate Work Study Program allows our students to see a future for themselves and to see themselves in a different experience than they’ve had before. It allows our students to really see them how God wants to see them. And by being out in the world, hopefully it opens so many doors for them, but it also shows them the importance of being a great person and being someone who people rely on and count on and enjoy to be around. I think the role that Corporate Work Study Program has at DPCR has such a phenomenal place in shaping our young men and women into who they’ll be when they go to college.