Overview of Duties, Roles, and Responsibilities at Office of Catholic Schools

Over the summer, I have and shall continue my internship at the Archdiocese of Chicago, Office of Catholic Schools. The Archdiocese of Chicago's school system is the biggest Catholic diocese in terms of schools, staff, and students in the country. That is to say, it may not be the most populous diocese in the country in terms of faithful and parishes, but it is the biggest in terms of providing Catholic schooling for students ranging from Pk-3 - 12 grade. (A brief history of Catholic schooling in Chicago shall be provided in a subsequent blog).

The internship will have me engaging in certain office work which may not necessarily deal with history directly. Some of my responsibilities deal with customer relations, i.e. receiving calls and helping people with whatever questions they may have. Additionally, I will be doing certain assignments usually associated with secretary work, such as making copies, filling out expense reports, compiling deposits, creating spreadsheets and gathering documents, for which I will need to put the finishing/ correcting touches. To this may also be added the task of translating documents from Spanish to English, or vice-versa, so that those families that are part of Catholic schooling, but speak no English, may have the support needed.

From a historical perspective, many of the projects to which I will be assigned will have to do with interpreting data. This data will have to do with enrollment trends in the past 5-10 years, analyzing what factors could have possibly led to the variation in enrollment in different schools. In interpreting the data, I will be doing the basic questions of looking at when the numbers were compiled, the area in which the school is located (to get a better representation of enrollment numbers, demographic information is crucial), and what the numbers mean in context and how they can help us better address present and future problems. I will also be doing occasional historical reviews of schools which closed down, looking at the factors that led to their closing, again, with the idea in mind of using that information as indicative of possible outcomes for other schools.

It must also be mentioned that I will be doing much archiving. Though I have not yet done much archiving, as the end of the fiscal year approaches and records are asked for, I will certainly be doing much more archiving, and hence, hope to get a better understanding of it.

Peace,

Alvaro