Blessed Sacrament Academy Beneficiaries – Together We Can Dance

I like to call beneficiaries to our Blessed Sacrament Academy ministry by another name as well. Whether they contribute time, networking, finances or advice they further our Mission and have become Missionaries in our part of God’s Vineyard.

A generous time donator left me with a delightful story concerning one of her challenges which seems to me to relate to our challenge. “I can learn dance steps half body at a time. I learn the feet and leg movements, then the arm and torso movements and I’m ready to dance. Problem is that I can’t put them together to make my whole-body dance at the same time.” I laugh each time I think of how adept she has been at organizing my office and how puzzled and jerky is her dance.

Our Mission calls us to a ministry which requires us to learn how to reach out in compassion to children vulnerable to the poverty into which they were born. BSA personnel have the head and heart functioning to the Gospel directive of helping those in need. The feet and legs in this dancing comparison need assistance. To provide the education, training, mentoring and networking our children and their families need to move beyond the handicap of believing there is no way out, we ask our BSA Missionaries to assist us with the funding we need, in addition to volunteer time and in-kind resources.

To that effect March 28, 2019, the Big Give SA 24 hours of online giving is on the horizon. We need all of our BSA Missionaries to gather around us and make this one-day event successful in bringing hope to our children through funding needed to extend the hand of care, training, and education. This is an online event. However, our Big Give crew will facilitate other ways of giving. Call 210-532-4731 before or during the Big Give to find out how.

Together we can dance with joy and delight in God’s growing Vineyard. When God is the conductor amazing things happen for us, for you. Please join us in this dance and be amazed at the life of a BSA Missionary. Thank you.

Sister Odilia Korenek, IWBS, CEO

Por Vida Academy rolling in a new school year

Por Vida Academy Charter High School is currently enrolling for the 2014-15 school year. Registration will take place from 9:00am-3:00pm, August 18th through 23rd. Por Vida looks forward to welcoming close to 200 students on the first day of school Monday, August 25th.Por Vida offers three types of diplomas for students seeking an alternative to public schools.• Traditional diploma• Credit recovery (with no age limit)• GED classes (Por Vida is also an official GED Testing Center) Por Vida teachers are participating in the Educator Effectiveness Process (EEP) again this year. EEP is a program of the Youth Empowerment Services, Inc. (YES), a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to “help ensure that young people, through education, can grow up ‘self-sufficient’ without a dependency on the ‘system’ ."In 2010, YES, Inc. was awarded the Teacher Incentive Fund grant to work with ten charter schools in San Antonio, including Por Vida Academy Charter High School, to help improve educator effectiveness towards the goal of increased student achievement. The EEP offers a comprehensive strategy for improving the performance of educators. The EEP performance-based compensation system defines a differentiated way to provide incentives/bonuses to individual principals and teachers, based on their level of effectiveness.“Quality teachers are the critical factor in determining students’ achievements in the classroom,” stated Joseph Rendon, Por Vida Principal. “Being a part of the EEP helps us recruit, motivate and retain effective teachers and administration/staff leading to positive gains for our students’ academic achievements and improved professional development opportunities.”