St. Rita Attends 2024 Student Augustinian Values Institute

MALVERN, PA – Over the weekend, six of our sophomores accompanied by our Director of Campus Ministry, Mr. Kieran Kellam ‘98 and Campus Minister/Admissions Coordinator, Mr. Tony Munzing ‘16 traveled from St. Rita High School to another Augustinian High School, Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, PA to embark on a 4 day conference called Student Augustinian Values Institute (SAVI). Students travel from all 10 Augustinian Secondary Schools to one location each year to deepen their knowledge and understanding of our core values of Truth, Unity, and Love through encounters of friendship, service, and faith. At the end of SAVI, our Ritamen are commissioned to bring back their encounters of our core values to St. Rita, by finding concrete ways to promote these values and engage their classmates with them. 

Throughout this experience, our Ritamen were able to connect with themselves, their Augustinian brothers and sisters from across the country, as well as the world around them. SAVI 14 attendee Will Peterson III shared, “I learned a lot about the history of the Augustinians in the U.S. as well as the Augustinian values.” He shares this as our time together brought us to several locations in and around Philadelphia, where the Augustinians have made their mark such as Villanova University, which is the burial site of St. Rita High School’s founder the Very Rev. James F. Green, O.S.A., The National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia, and St. Augustine Church, the first establishment of the Augustinian Order in the United States founded in 1796. Our trip, of course, was not complete until our Ritamen were able to taste-test authentic Cheesesteaks from Geno’s and Pat’s near South Philly.