Chesterton Academy of Notre Dame: For Sean Conway, faith and mathematics add up
The mission of Chesterton Academy of Notre Dame is to educate its students in the classical tradition and the truths of the Catholic faith, and to help them develop the skills and character necessary for success in college and professional life as well as in building up the kingdom of God.
Graduating senior Sean Conway is an exceptional example of what Chesterton strives to do.
Conway, one of 18 seniors, has been at the Academy for all four years of high school after being home schooled. His parents were part of a group that sought to launch a Spokane chapter of the Chesterton Schools Network, which supports new Catholic high schools across the United States. The Spokane school is only 6 years old.
“Our teachers help us to find our own solutions to problems instead of just giving them to us,” Conway said. “That often involves teaching methods like Socratic seminars, where students are asked questions and invited to ask our own.”
Conway plans to study mathematical science at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio next year, but doesn’t know what he wants to do beyond that. He has always been good at math, he said, because there’s always one answer and “you keep working until you find it.”
He knows that his faith may be challenged at Franciscan.
“I’m looking forward to Steubenville,” he said. “I chose that school because I think it’s best for me to be around others who are strong in their faith. But I know that there will not be complete uniformity in religious views there, and I will have the opportunity there to live my faith as a choice and not as a requirement.”
He sees no conflict between the certainty of mathematics and that of faith, and feels that it is not a problem to integrate the two.
“In math, there are basic principles that you have to follow, nonnegotiables,” he said. “It’s the same in faith; there are some things you can’t deny. When there’s a hard math problem, you have to find your way through it. In the same way, when there’s a real-world problem in faith, you also have to work through it to find the best solution. The beauty of faith is that there’s not just one answer. There are different answers, and you trust in God to help you do the right thing.”
Conway has been active in the school community as an altar server at daily Mass and as a member of the soccer, basketball and golf teams. He had never played competitive basketball until ninth grade, but eventually became an All-League guard and team captain despite injuries that limited him during his senior season.
Chesterton students were given the job of choosing which of their classmates would be recommended for profiling in this section. Headmaster Shane O’Doherty said it was easy to guess that the seniors would choose Conway to represent the school.
“Sean is an incredibly gracious and kind person,” O’Doherty said. “He works hard at everything he does and there is nothing that he does half-speed. In the classroom, there is nothing that doesn’t get done despite his busy sports schedule, and he always wants to know how high the bar is so that he can make it.”