Fr. Troike Summer Program at Cathedral Prep

40 Years Shaping Future Leaders

By Stefanie Gutierrez

Stefanie Gutierrez Photo

40 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP: Cathedral Prep Seminary, Elmhurst, has hosted the Father Troike Summer Leadership Program for seventh-graders and incoming freshmen of the prep seminary. Among the counselors and attendees are: back row, left to right: Mark Facchin, Earl Atwell, Maciej Sadowski, Sean Spies, Brian Mejia and Orrin Kumar; front row, Father John Cush, Nigel Frank, James Conroy, Nicholas Frangella and Mario Giustizia.

“The best thing about the program is the fact that the youth are here. The halls are filled with life,” Msgr. James Cooney, spiritual director at Cathedral Prep Seminary, Elmhurst, said about the school’s Father Edward W. Troike Leadership Program, now in its 40th year. “It gets pretty depressing in August when they aren’t here!”

The summer program has offered leadership training to thousands of seventh- and eighth-graders from every social, economic, and racial background. This year, it opened its doors to not only Brooklyn and Queens, but also to the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

The leadership program began as a response to the call to promote leadership through development of strong academic, athletic and social skills in 1968, after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It is named for the late Father Edward W. Troike, who taught math and served as spiritual director at Cathedral, both Brooklyn and Elmhurst, from 1962 until his death in 1974.

The program is designed to not only sharpen basic skills to help prepare seventh-graders for the eighth-grade TACHS exam, but also to instill qualities of Christian and community leadership.

“When the students from the summer program complete the TACHS exam, their results are higher than what their teachers or administrators expect,” said Father John Cush, program director. “There is a lot to be said for that.”

Eighty-four boys are attending this year, with 26 of them being members of Cathedral’s incoming freshman class.

Matthew Zinser, former head counselor and a parishioner at St. Matthias, Ridgewood, stopped by Cathedral Prep for a quick visit one early Tuesday morning. He graduated from the school in May, and is one of three (out of 37) graduates heading to Cathedral Seminary Residence of the Immaculate Conception, Douglaston, in the fall.

This summer is his first in four years that he isn’t a part of the program. Now working in Manhattan for the summer before he leaves for Cathedral Seminary Residence, he tries to stop by “at least once a week.”

Zinser recalled his first year as a counselor. It was Father John Cush’s first year as part of the summer program, and he is now program director.

“He is such a good example of what a priest should be,” said Zinser. “I got closer to the spiritual side of Cathedral when I would set up the chapel every morning before Mass.”

The program has a non-mandatory Mass every weekday at 8:10 a.m. There are always around 20 boys and a few faculty members sitting in the chapel waiting for Mass to begin. On Wednesdays, the program has a mandatory Mass at 11 a.m.

The Eucharist, family and friends were the main topics of discussion when four summer counselors and five attendants of the program came together in Father Cush’s office to discuss the program and its 40th anniversary.

Nicholas Frangella, a seventh-grader and a parishioner at Our Lady of the Snows, North Floral Park, learned about the program through his pastor, Msgr. Raymond Chappetto, an alumnus of Brooklyn Cathedral. Frangella attends daily Mass, saying, “The feeling that I have after having Eucharist is such a wonderful feeling…” As he searched for the word to describe it, a friend of his, Nigel Frank, said, “You’re complete.”

Frank, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception, Jamaica, is an eighth-grader in the program who will be attending Cathedral Prep in the fall. He said he made the decision to attend the school when “the Father Troike program exceeded my expectations, and became my second home. This is my second family here.”

Counselors Maciej Sadowski, from St. Stanislaus Kostka, Greenpoint, and Mark Facchin, from Sacred Heart, East Glendale, agreed that the program gets better every year. Facchin said, “We are able to give back to the community and this program makes us concerned leaders.” Sadowski added, “It is so family oriented and we learn with our peers.”

The head counselor at this year’s program is Brian Mejia, from St. Michael, Flushing. He said that he thought he could “help out and give back” by becoming a counselor, but became like an older brother to one of the younger boys in the program, Earl Atwell, a parishioner at St. Vincent Ferrer, East Flatbush. This is Atwell’s second year in the program, and he will be a freshman at Cathedral Prep in the fall.

Atwell said, “When I left my first year in the program, I couldn’t wait to come back. I missed my boy Brian,” as others in the room laughed, because they understood. There have been many newfound friendships in the program.

James Conroy is a seventh-grader at Long Beach Catholic, and a parishioner at St. Mary Star of the Sea, Far Rockaway. He said, “Coming here makes me feel independent, and I’ve made tons of friends. I told my brother about it and I think he is coming next year.”

Msgr. Joseph Calise, rector-principal at Cathedral Prep and a former director of the program, said that his hopes for the next 40 years are “the continuing of making this building available to people who normally wouldn’t be able to come here. Through this program, students who can’t have this experience on a four-year basis can at least have it for four weeks every summer.”

“We have great support from the diocese,” Father Cush said. “The program has evolved over the years, but is ultimately about leadership.”

The 40th summer of the Father Troike program will close on July 27, when family, friends and alumni are welcome to attend the closing Mass and ceremonies at 7 p.m. The speaker will be an alumnus of the program, newly ordained Father James Kuroly, from Our Lady of Sorrows, Corona.

For more information, log on to www.cathedralprepseminary.com.

Directors of Fr. Troike Summer Program

Father Troike, deceased

Msgr. Philip Reilly, director of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants

Msgr. John Maksymowicz, Apostolic Nunciature, Washington, D.C.

Msgr. Sean Ogle, Vicar of Queens North

1992 – Msgr. Richard Marchese, pastor, St. Helen, Howard Beach

1993-94 – Father Richard Ahlemeyer, pastor, St. Clement Pope, S. Ozone Park

1995-2002 – Father Fred Marano, administrator, St. Rose of Lima, Parkville

2003-04 – Msgr. Joseph Calise, rector-principal, Cathedral Prep, Elmhurst

2005-present Father John Cush, spiritual director, Cathedral Prep

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