Leading the Future: Dr. Palank Takes San Miguel's Mission to Rome

It isn’t every day that the president of San Miguel School is summoned overseas for his duties. But in December, Dr. David Palank traded San Miguel’s Georgia Avenue campus for Rome to join an international coalition of Lasallian leaders to discuss the future of the mission of St. John Baptist de La Salle.

Dr. Palank brings a token of San Miguel to Br. Armin Luistro, FSC, 28th Superior General of the De La Salle Brothers.

District leaders representing many of the 80 countries that cultivate the Lasallian mission gathered at a pivotal moment in the life of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Despite a declining number of religious Christian Brothers over the past several years, the Lasallian mission is thriving: over one million students are currently educated in the Lasallian tradition across 1,132 schools and educational works worldwide. But the question facing the gathering was this: How does the Lasallian community sustain their mission as leadership shifts from Brothers to lay partners?

Dr. Palank was called to represent for two reasons. First, DENA, San Miguel’s district, is already living the future that others are working toward: a model where lay leaders carry the mission forward alongside Brothers as equal partners. Second, as president of a school serving low-income, first-generation students, Dr. Palank represents exactly the kind of mission-focused, innovative ministry the Institute wants to preserve and expand.

The gathering reinforced what the Washington, DC San Miguel community has experienced firsthand: the mission of St. John Baptist de La Salle thrives where Lasallians, religious and lay, dedicate their energy and talent to serving those on the margins.  San Miguel will continue to walk with the families on Georgia Avenue knowing that schools like ours, in 80 countries around the world, are doing the same.