Loyola has revamped the Cura Personalis program through the implementation of the STOPit app. Cura Personalis has existed for the past 15 years when it was created by Assistant Principal & Director of Counseling Dr. Paul Jordan ’88.
Jordan said, “It’s not to say that [Cura Personalis] hasn’t been utilized, but we haven’t been great about advertising it and putting it up in front of [the student body].”
At the end of last school year, Jordan asked counselor Angela Reno Valvardi to submit a proposal to vet companies regarding new student assistance programs. Jordan said, “[Reno Valvardi] had worked with this student assistance program before when she was in Pennsylvania, so she was familiar with that piece, so I asked her to look for a function of an app that would match the goals of what a student assistance program would have.”
Jordan, Reno Valvardi and Dean of Men Daniel Annarelli eventually chose the STOPit app over alternatives after having a webinar interview with the company and talking to other schools regarding their experience with STOPit.
Jordan said that the Cura Personalis program’s goal is to deal with situations in a proactive manner rather than allowing negative behavior to continue and then have to deal in a reactive manner with a disciplinary board or some type of punitive action. He said, “We created a mechanism by which [students]could help each other without there being a consequence to it.”
According to Reno Valvardi, Cura Personalis director the Rev. Stephen Barber, S.J., has been an instrumental resource that students can go and talk to on campus. Barber is there as support for students when struggling with something or when they need someone to talk to without any judgment.
Jordan said, “What I do [with information sent to me]is send it to the counselors to follow up on. I have the ability to write back to people, so I’ve done that with a number of different cases where I’ve asked for more information.”
Both students and parents can submit information anonymously through the STOPit app without any disclosure of whether it comes from a parent of a student or a student. However, he added, “If the law is broken somewhere, and it was brought to our attention [through the STOPit app]our goal would be to help the student and his parents navigate the process, owning up to what happened but in a way that we’re not throwing him out on his own but working with him.”
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