Name: Brother Ed Siderewicz
Brother Ed Siderewicz, a Lasallian Christian Brother is the President and co-founder of the San Miguel schools in Chicago. San Miguel Chicago operates two middle schools; one in the Back of the Yards neighborhood and one in the Austin neighborhood.
San Miguel is intentionally a small school that maintains a 9-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. The curriculum reserves 80 minutes a day for reading in the classroom, and another 80 minutes for a customized math program. Additionally, the schools are private, and non-tuition driven. Only 2 percent of the school’s income comes from tuition, with each family paying approximately $30 to $40 per month. Students are selected for enrollment based on financial need and academic underperformance at their local public school.
According to Br. Ed, "The dream was to provide a human and Christian education for kids who don't have a lot of options." While the Back of the Yards and Austin neighborhoods have some of the highest high school drop out rates in the country, more than 87 percent of San Miguel students graduate from high school, and in 2002 the first San Miguel students entered college. Of the students at San Miguel, Br. Ed says, “We help them to believe in themselves, love them unconditionally and watch them take off."
Before San Miguel, Br. Ed spent 7 years teaching in the indigenous communities of Guatemala. For more information, see www.sanmiguelchicago.org
- How were you called to your current ministry/service?
For me, personally, I had no other decision when I returned from Guatemala unless I compromised and would have been willing to live with a divided heart. I looked at the dream of the San Miguel school squarely, tried to discern whether or not I was nuts or whether or not this was an ego trip, and when we finally got the go-ahead on it my heart danced and was filled with joy. Opening the school was truly an inspiration of the heart. We didn't know where or how it was going to happen. We just prayed and took it one step at a time.
- Who Inspires You?
Those who put themselves on the line for something. Those who do so without necessarily knowing how it will all turn out. Those who reach for something much bigger than themselves. - What are the biggest obstacles to peace?
Finding peace first in our own heart, then committing to working at it with others. - What is the biggest challenge your organization faces?
As we were beginning the school, one of the toughest challenges was just hanging on as the program developed. Case in point - our congregation gave us the green light on 5/6/96, however they required us to have to endorsement of the Archdiocese as a Catholic school. Well, Cardinal Bernardin went in the hospital for his cancer surgery, beauracracy got in the way…we were ready to roll…however if felt as if we were just hanging. All along we just kept sharing our vision and plan and acted as if it were a done deal. Inside, however, it was a very uncomfortable feeling, uncertainty abounded…the part of us humans that yearns for solution, definition, assurance was nowhere in sight. - How do you nurture your faith life?
Solitude, music, sports. - Tell us something about yourself that we wouldn’t know.
I am totally miscast in my role. - Last good book you read?
The World is Flat - What were you like in High School?
Underconfident, a bit wild, not certain I could even make it through college. - If you were a teenage Peacebuilder you would…
In short, I would say you’ve found your calling when, in baseball language, something looks like it could be…it might be…and you commit to it unreservedly. Our calling simply can’t be found without that last part. The heart is our best guide for this. - Share a favorite quote that inspires you
“Faith is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change” – Jim Wallis
