Every other Wednesday, the DePaul Prep community participates in Vincentian Day Colloquiums. Vincentian Days are semester long opportunities for students to participate in topics that interest them. They have the opportunity to meet new students and take part in activities that they wouldn’t usually learn or do on a typical school day. Some colloquiums stay on campus and others travel around the city of Chicago. This gives students and faculty members a break from a long school day, but it also gives them a chance to spend the day doing something that they enjoy. All colloquiums offered at DePaul are unique in their own way and are very different from each other, which gives everyone a chance to try new things.

Ms. Morris is an English teacher at DePaul Prep. Her first colloquium was “Explore Chicago: Irish Traditions” and her current colloquium is “Paddle Battles: Intro to PickleBall.”

When asked what the main difference about her colloquiums were, she said that “the most obvious difference is that one is more physically active since it is a sport, while the other was focused on culture and traveling throughout the city to immerse our students in how Irish culture and heritage are represented throughout the year and around the city.”

Although most colloquiums are very different from each other, they can be very enjoyable. Sometimes you may have a hard time choosing your favorite. Teachers like Ms. Morris found this question difficult to answer because they were so different. “I feel very fortunate to have an awesome co-teacher as well, Ms. Kelley, who has been a great planning partner. We have enjoyed working with students who we might not know otherwise, as well. There are challenges that present themselves for both of them (planning and coordinating excursions and space with vendors outside of school) but we’ve been able to be creative in many ways to make both colloquiums very enjoyable for our students.”

Ms. Morris also said that “it’s been very fun to dig into the colloquium activities more and hear about what other faculty members have been able to put together based on the things they are interested in!”

Freshman Ivy Frater was also asked about the differences between her two colloquiums. Her first colloquium was “Sustainable Fashion Design” and her current one is “Exploring Chicago and its History.”

“In the new colloquium, we explore while the old one was more about creating things in the walls of the school,” said Frater.

When asked which colloquium she liked most, her response was, “I like both of them for different reasons, but I prefer my new one because we get to explore Chicago and go to different places which I really enjoy doing.”

While people may have different preferences on the types of colloquiums, these colloquiums are very different and give the DePaul community to do something that they enjoy with other people.