Journey to Regis Jesuit

Growing up in Texas, Craig Rogers’s formative education took place outside of the Catholic school environment. This didn’t hinder his faith though, as he went on to study for the priesthood for three years after graduating from college, ultimately deciding that his calling was not to the church, but rather to married life and teaching.

“After seminary, I took a teaching job in Charleston, where I taught for a year. During that time, my wife received a scholarship to attend law school in Denver and that became the main impetus for us moving here. A colleague in Charleston had been an educator at Regis Jesuit and she said to me, ‘Oh, you have to teach there.’ I had studied with the Jesuits before, so the idea of teaching at a Jesuit school definitely drew me. Luckily there was an opening and that’s how my journey at Regis Jesuit began.”

Rogers is grateful that his son and daughter were able to attend Regis Jesuit, graduating in 2016 and 2020 respectively. “I’m thankful for the education they received and that I got to teach them both. It was a great gift in my life.”

A passion for the classroom

Having always taught theology, Rogers currently teaches scripture to sophomores. He was also assistant principal for 10 years, from 2010 to 2020, for faculty and curriculum. “I loved many parts of that job; it was a great privilege to serve.” After 10 years in the role, he felt the need to return to the classroom: “It’s where my heart’s always been.”

A particularly sentimental teaching standout for him was when he was asked to create a ‘gifted and talented’ class for senior theology in 2006; a course that continues to this day and is open to any senior that would like to attend: “It was a dream class, meant for a group of students who were really bright and motivated and were able and willing to do some tough stuff,” he explains.

The class quickly evolved into a ‘great books, meaning of life, philosophy, spirituality, biggest questions of theology and life’ type of course and by great books, Rogers means “the 600-page version of Les Misérables, the 800-page version of The Brothers Karamazov, Night by Elie Wiesel, World Religions and the like; different books over the years that taught us all so much,” he says, adding that “you’re never quite done figuring it all out.”

Becoming ‘Coach Rogers’

Outside of his theology teaching, Rogers is passionate about his role as Head Golf Coach, a sport that he has a great personal love for: “I’d like to play as many of the great courses as I can before I die, especially the British Open ones; I’ve played four out of ten so far.”

He admits that it’s been largely through his role as a coach that he’s learned and tries to impart the invaluable lessons that come from both winning and losing: “We’ve had a lot of success, winning eight state championships. But, for me, it’s the ability to see how the game can make you a better person that has always been my focus, and that of Regis Jesuit as a school, where ‘mission-driven’ athletics is at the heart of all the sports we offer. In my second year we almost won State; we got second and I was really upset. We kept getting close, several times after that. Then, in 2009, we got second again. Man, I really wanted to win, you know? It came down to the last hole. After the round, I was with the kids and they were fighting back tears, and it dawned on me that I really wanted to win when I was a younger coach, for the kids, yes, but a lot of it was about me; I really wanted it for myself and my own ego. That year, 2009, it became clear to me that it really wasn’t about that anymore. I don’t know where that happened exactly, somewhere along the road though. This place, I think, and maybe just growing up a little bit and having kids myself, but something had certainly changed within me, which I was grateful for. It wasn’t about my success as a coach, it was about those kids. Subsequent to that, we did win a bunch. It was great, but I was different and I credit Regis Jesuit to cultivating that within me and helping me become the man I’d always hoped to be.”

A holistic approach to education

Outside of the curriculum, Rogers believes there is a great deal you can instill in a student other than just the teaching: “Life is hard. We’re sometimes horribly insecure and it’s difficult to detach from our desires to be liked, praised, noticed and successful. So whatever class I’m teaching, I try to tackle the world of the mind versus the world of the soul and the spirit.”

His chosen remedy to calm the mind? Meditation. “I teach it a lot; how to quiet the mind, breathe and be still. In my experience, and increasingly over the years, kids have been drawn to it and even recognize that they need it. Our minds are so active, so hard to settle down and contain. I think if we can all do better at that; learning how to live in the present and find peace within, then we’re going to have a better shot of walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

Rogers has also found that exposing his students to other religions helps inform their world view. “I’ve always taught Christianity, but also something to do with other religions as well, which has influenced my approach to Christianity and scripture; helped buttress it, so we can better experience the sacred and God’s universal voice of love.”

Teaching in a digital age

“Technology is changing the world in so many ways,” says Rogers. “We continually try to figure out what’s the proper place for things like AI and how to balance it with a liberal arts education. These are lingering questions that I don’t think will ever go away, but I do believe that our deepest goals and hopes for our students will always remain the same. We still hope to create young men and women who encounter and experience the love of God; who see Christ as our ultimate guide and savior. That will never change, but on the outside, how we go about helping them navigate the modern world, will certainly evolve.”

Walking in the shoes of others

“At Regis Jesuit, our effort to shape Men and Women with and for Others really comes down to the simple understanding that if it’s just about ourselves, we’re never going to make it,” explains Rogers. “We have to take care of each other and try to make the world a better place. Our service program, immersion trips and other excursions, expose our students to people that are having a harder time in life; that need help and assistance, sometimes in very basic ways. We can’t have a good life if we ignore that; if we ignore them. They are our brothers and sisters.”

He adds that connecting with Regis Jesuit alumni is a great blessing for him: “I’m old enough to have 45-year-old former students whose lives are ruined, you might say” adding that the Jesuit Volunteer Corps have an expression, ‘ruined for life’, because “once you taste the blessings and fruits of serving others, you can’t be contented or satisfied with just trying to pursue the nice things of life. Making it all about ourselves is not why we’ve been put on this earth.”

Why Regis Jesuit?

When asked why parents should send their children to Regis Jesuit High School, Rogers offers an interesting perspective: “I believe that kids raise kids in a lot of ways. When I think back to my high school experience, so many of the choices I made had an awful lot to do with who I was hanging around. Yes, our level of education and coaching at Regis Jesuit is outstanding, but if we didn’t teach our students a darn thing; if we simply corralled them on our campus and let them hang around all day long, I think it would still be worth the price of tuition because Regis Jesuit is simply a magnet for good people.”