WHAT'S GOING ON NOW:

RISING STAR RELIGIOUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Fostering Community & Individuality
Corpus Christi attracts families from the Harlem neighborhood and nearby Columbia University

Amidst the bustle and energy of a university neighborhood, a smaller and far younger enclave of pupils spends each day pushing themselves to learn and achieve.

The Corpus Christi School, which runs from kindergarten to 8th grade, sits on West 121st Street, a stone’s throw from Columbia University. For a century, Corpus Christi has been serving children from this neighborhood with a holistic, focused education that sends them to some of the city’s top parochial high schools. The school was founded by the Sisters of Charity and has been under the auspices of the Dominicans Sisters since 1936. Under their leadership, Corpus Christi has developed a reputation for being an innovative school that combines religious instruction with strong academics.

Part of the school’s core mission is to nurture the individual and to recognize that each student has a distinct learning style and set of interests.

“Students are encouraged to compete with themselves, and they are encouraged to be inquisitive and go beyond the textbook to more independent study and inquiry,” said John Balbi, the school’s new principal, who arrived last year.

A focus on reading is crucial to students’ success. Last year, Corpus Christi launched a “Read 100 Challenge” in conjunction with the school’s 100th anniversary. The goal was for each class to read 100 books, and by the end of the year, the parents, staff, teachers and students had plowed through a total of 2,040 books. The pre-K students alone read about 160 books over the course of the year.

Corpus Christi is following up the initiative this year with a “Read 101 Challenge,” which Balbi is planning to launch this month. Religious education is also an important part of each grade’s curriculum, Balbi said, grounding academic subjects with ethical and spiritual principles. Part of the school’s mission statement reads, “Christian service, personal development, responsibility and the love for learning are the cornerstones of our educational community.”

All students have daily religious instruction and attend mass on the first Friday of each month. About 20 percent of the school is non-Catholic and, while those students go through training for First Communion, for example, they do not participate in the sacrament. Members of the parish pay lower tuition costs than other students.

Classrooms are a place for innovation, and projects are as important as tests, providing students with the opportunity to exercise creativity and showcase individual strengths. Lessons often carry across subjects. Students in geometry classes, for example, use shapes in construction projects as well in solving traditional math problems. Art, music and physical education round out the lessons.

When the day is done, an after-school program continues students’ development. The goal is to help children reach their academic potential, and also to provide the opportunity for them to socialize with friends in a semi-structured environment.

Despite having only about 200 students, Corpus Christi is ethnically and socially diverse, drawing from the surrounding Harlem neighborhood and Columbia community, particularly students and professors at Teachers College.

But Corpus Christi’s size also means all grades are housed in the same building, with one class per grade, easing the sometimes rocky transition from elementary to middle school. It also makes for a close-knit and friendly environment. “Interactions are kind and just and collegial,” Balbi said, “and that kind of says a lot about the school.”

—Sarah M. Seltzer