Dominican Sister Mary Jordan Hoover won’t be welcoming students to the new diocesan high school in Dumfries until next fall, but her tenure as principal is already fully under way.
Since arriving in the diocese earlier this summer from her previous position in Nashville, Sister Mary Jordan has moved into Aquinas Convent in Woodbridge, set up shop at Holy Family Church in Dale City and started crafting relationships with principals of the grade schools whose students will feed into the high school when it opens.
“It’s a lot of bridge-building and community relations,” the new principal said. “Most of my meetings with the principals are really the first steps in building a relationship because they’re my colleagues and I need to know them.”
Sister Mary Jordan is currently immersed in developing a calendar of events to promote the school, still unnamed, such as speaking at Masses, potential town meetings and attending grade school back-to-school nights.
“I’ve really been working in the area of marketing, admissions, curriculum and planning,” Sister Mary Jordan said, adding that she hopes to begin advertising for positions and interviewing for faculty and staff in the coming weeks — no small task, especially when looking for a very particular type of person.
“I want people to work at the school who understand the mission of a Catholic education and who desire to understand what it means to form students in the Dominican tradition,” the principal said. “I’m looking forward to having teachers who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do much work to make the school a wonderful place.”
Teachers who can witness, she added, are what she is looking for the most — even over teachers who can teach a subject matter.
“Students are hungry for witness value, so to have teachers that are witnesses of the faith interacting with them daily will have a profound effect on their formation as human persons, and their maturity and their growth to live their faith in the world,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “That’s what we hope the new school will do.”
Starting a school from scratch is a unique position to be in, Sister Mary Jordan said.
“That’s a lot different from going to a school that’s already in operation,” she said. “A school in operation has a culture.”
The new school does not — yet. But the sister hopes that the culture will develop with the arrival of students and will stem from the four pillars of the Dominican order: prayer, study, community and service.
“When (the students) come through the doors, they’re going to be like every freshman that comes through the doors at a Catholic high school in Virginia,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “But perhaps when they leave the school, their formation will be in the Dominican spirit.”
Having the new high school grounded in the Dominican spirit means that the order’s motto, veritas, or truth, will be the central building block of the offered education.
“We believe that teaching the truth is essential in any school,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “But that we teach the truth with love because then people desire to live the truth. That’s very different than sometimes the notion of people receiving the truth but having it hammered on them or shoved down their throat.”
Though she’s been in Northern Virginia for nearly two months, as of last week Sister Mary Jordan had only spent a handful of days actually in her office, which she had to set up as well — choosing furniture and installing a phone line and computer access with the help of the diocesan information services department.
“It’s so basic, really, the things that have to take place — basic in terms of your basic needs to run an office,” Sister Mary Jordan said.
She’s also had to speak to the local postmaster about getting an address set up for the school where mail can be delivered even though the school’s site is not yet operational.
The school itself is still on track to open in August 2008 with a goal of 475 freshmen and sophomores. That number will continue to build as the last two grades are added on.
“To start with freshmen and sophomores is a plan that will enable the students to be a part of building a new school,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “The first students will play an important role, too, because they are going to be the students who will set a tone at the school.”
But before the students show up, the principal has the next 12 months to continue outlining and acting on steps that will make the unique opportunity of opening a school a reality.
“It’s so early on that we’re just developing some of those plans,” Sister Mary Jordan said. “There’s a lot to be done.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald