This fall, Father Gabriel Richard High School began a pilot program dedicated to including students with cognitive impairment in our school community. The Venerable Lejeune Program grew out of a desire to bring students the opportunity to learn and grow according to their needs in an authentically Catholic educational environment. This past spring, Liz Shafer was hired to lead the program, and sixteen enthusiastic FGR students signed on to be peer mentors and attended training provided by the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame Program for Inclusive Education in South Bend, Indiana in June.
With one student, Luke Humphreys ’28, Mrs. Shafer and his peer mentors are happily working to make his days fruitful, productive, joyful and edifying for all.
“Luke has grown so much in executive function and student skills this fall semester,” reports Mrs. Shafer. “He’s grasping the content and the other students are great at including him in classwork.”
Daily Schedule
Luke’s day is spent partly in classes with other students and partly with Mrs. Shafer in their dedicated space. Recent days begin with their Jesse Tree journal, an exercise which has Luke trace the genealogy of Jesus through the generations of the Old Testament as he prepares for Christmas. They read a Bible passage and prepare an ornament for the tree in their room.
Luke’s math lessons are presented by Mrs. Shafer as well. He is studying exponents currently and likes to “challenge” Mrs. Shafer by writing numbers for her to work with on the board.
To complement standard life skill lessons, Mrs. Shafer prepares lessons in the virtues for Luke. Prayfulness is one they discussed recently, and Luke has practiced it through good posture and attentiveness at all-school Mass twice each week. At Mass, Luke sits with the boys in his House Group and then attends lunch or Households with them depending on the day.
For the classes into which he is integrated, he has a peer mentor who is assigned to him for each period. The peer mentor is not taking the class as well but is scheduled as a peer mentor. This concept is similar to the service-oriented aiding hours that have been a staple for FGR seniors who agree to prepare laboratories for the science department or help Campus Ministry prepare for upcoming retreats. The peer mentor is dedicated to helping Luke work through the material during class and offer him support if he needs it.
In Conditioning class, Luke participates fully. Mrs. Shafer describes how he “loves it!” “His movement has improved a lot over the course of the semester, and he enjoys the warmup, the weight room, and the workout plan Coach Maus has created just for him,” she says. “His classmates are helpful and supportive.”
Luke also attends the Theology I class with a peer mentor. The class is currently studying the Gospel of Luke and our Luke recently participated in a group project making a poster about the Kerygma. While the content of the assigned Bible readings can be a bit challenging for Luke, Mrs. Shafer has found ways to reinforce them and help him learn them well. For example, she has realized he does well with visual learning and has sought out clips from The Chosen to illustrate what the class is reading.
Peer Mentors
Luke’s peer mentors are “so good,” says Mrs. Shafer. “They are really dialed into his needs and as they have gotten to know him this semester, they have come up with great new and innovative ideas of how to enhance his learning and help him.” Some have commented that they cannot imagine the school without this program and Luke in it now.
Veronica Lang ‘26 reflected on the changes she has seen occurring over the past few months in Luke and in her peers. “ I’ve loved watching Luke come out of his shell and get more comfortable every day. It’s also so cool to see everyone who may not have had experience around kids with a cognitive impairment interacting with him and getting more comfortable,” she says.
Another peer mentor, Nick Caplea ’26, agrees. “It has shown me how mentees learn differently, but also how very capable they are,” he says. “I thought a lot of lessons would be modified a great deal to help him, but the more I’ve worked with Luke, the more I realize he can do the same exact thing as long as he is provided some adjustments.”
Luke’s parents, Joe and Julie Humphreys, have much positive feedback about the program. “The Lejeune Program is a great program that includes one-to-one academics, as well as mentors that take the students to general education classes. This gives the students the ability to model their mentors. The curriculum is custom-made for each student depending upon their strengths and weaknesses. The general education classes provide appropriate challenges that give the student the ability to achieve and show that they are able to learn the larger scope of the course. The program draws so much more out of the student than is possible in a setting where students are not exposed to such a wide range of subjects, mentors, and one-on-one help.”
Catholic Environment
While they are pleased with the academic aspects of the program, they are effusive with their praise of the Catholic environment. “As pleased as we are with the academics, the religious aspect is the highlight of the program. Going to Mass twice a week and being around other faithful students helps us raise our son to be a good Catholic in this society. We are very happy this opportunity presented itself for our son and pray that it can benefit many more students.”
Mrs. Shafer also desires to bring more students into the program. “We keep hearing of seventh or sixth-graders who are excited to apply for the program in time, but we are looking to add students next year as well,” she says. “There is lots of interest in being a peer mentor, and we need students to serve.”