Newman University Director of the Academic Resource Center Bo Bonner took on the role of emcee for the high school section of the Midwest Catholic Family Conference’s 16th annual conference for families Aug. 7-9.
The event, which took place in the Convention Center of Century II, was open to all members of the family and was broken down into different programs for different age groups: adults, young adults, high school students, middle school students, and children (pre-K and elementary school students). The conference featured a number of guest speakers.
“Getting to work with all the people and speakers was wonderful,” said Bonner.
This year’s theme for the conference, “Wedding Feast of the Lamb,” is from the center panel of the Renaissance work of art “The Ghent Altarpiece” by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The work is considered a masterpiece of Northern Renaissance art, and contains great symbolism and images of the redemptive mysteries of the Catholic faith.
Bonner said the artwork helped open doors to discussion with the high school group.
“Sometimes with high school students, people assume that you can’t give them too much meaty material to chew on, but high school students are able to talk on it because art is a good medium,” he said.
In addition to being director of Academic Resource Center, Bonner teaches philosophy and theology at Newman. He was asked to be the emcee for the high school conference around April. Bonner said the event allowed students to interact with one another through various activities that had been planned throughout the day, such as story telling and prayer. It also made for some lively discussions, he said.
“I think the high school students liked being challenged when asked questions, and that’s my favorite part.”
