Forming Ignatian Educators for the Future
Like many Prep graduates, Dr. Bob Russo ’65, P ’92, ’03 left town after graduation to further his education—first at Fordham University, then at Tulane Medical School. But soon he found himself back in Fairfield, once again immersed in the community where he’d formed stronger bonds with his friends and brothers than at any other institution. By the late 1980s, he was chairman of Prep’s Board of Trustees, an office he held several times during his Board tenure until he stepped down in 2019.
Russo, a retired radiologist, has played an integral role in Prep’s evolution as a Jesuit institution over the years. Russo and his wife Kathy’s most recent gift to Prep is an investment in the next innovation of a visionary program Russo once helped bring to life—the Jesuit Educators Academy (JEA).
Since the early 2000s, JEA has formed Fairfield Prep’s newest faculty members as Ignatian educators during their first five years, enabling them to translate Ignatian principles to their own lives, their classroom instruction, and their relationships with students and families—ultimately shaping young men who embody the qualities of a Jesuit, Catholic school graduate at graduation.
“When Prep was founded, the Jesuits were the teachers. There was always this idea that the Ignatian culture of a Jesuit school would come from having Jesuits in the classroom,” explains Elaine Clark, dean of academics, who currently runs the JEA program. “As the ranks of the Jesuits shrink, JEA is an insurance policy that those of us who carry on at Prep carry on that Jesuit nature of the school that makes Prep so special.”
In the 1990s, Russo was one of several board members involved in helping Prep prepare for a future with fewer Jesuits, work that ultimately birthed JEA. “We saw it coming,” Russo recalls, “But nobody wanted to give up the Jesuit ideals. The only way to carry forward was JEA. And it works—when you walk onto the campus, you see it.”
“I spent years going to Jesuit conventions around the country, and there really wasn’t a Jesuit school ahead of Prep in teaching and living the Jesuit ideals,” Russo observes. “We were always light years ahead of other schools because of the quality of people at Prep.”
Recognizing the needs of the times and today’s teachers, staff, and students, Prep is again taking another step forward in forming Ignatian leaders. The JEA for new hires is being adapted to include coaches, staff, and moderators to put everyone on campus on the same footing. The school has also begun developing JEA 2.0—a program of ongoing Ignatian formation for veteran faculty members.
“When our boys walk into this building, we want them wrapped in our Ignatian values and principles so that when they graduate, we are sending the most well-formed boys out to this weary world to make a difference. This is why Dr. and Mrs. Russo’s gift is so very important,” says Clark, “It allows us to take a teacher or a staff member and help them be the very best that they can be for our boys.”
The Russos, who are also proud parents of Prep alumni, have donated to Prep regularly even when $25 was all they could afford. “When I first got a decent job, I said I was going to pay back all the good things Prep did for me,” Russo says. “The education at Prep sets people up on a road that will make the world better. I think that’s what we’re ultimately looking for—a society that we can all be proud of.”