Faculty Spotlight
Mr. Chris Foeckler
March 26, 2024
Entering college, Mr. Chris Foeckler didn’t expect to be a teacher. He figured he’d be out of seminary and ordained by now.
“I had kind of the ironic inversion of your typical vocation discernment story, where after many career paths don’t work out, God shows you His call to the priesthood,” Mr. Foeckler says. “For me, I wanted to be a priest. I was in application to seminary; I was on silent retreats trying to make God call me to be a priest.”
But soon, Mr. Foeckler saw that God had other plans. “I realized that I was the one calling me to be a priest. And as soon as I realized that, and really let God lead me, it was very clear that He was leading me to be a husband and a teacher.”
Mr. Foeckler joined the Chelsea faculty in 2013, not long after beginning his teaching career. In over a decade at Chelsea, Mr. Foeckler has taught a bit of everything. But now, he’s focusing on the subject he’s most passionate about: Upper school theology.
“Theology is regina scientiarum, the Queen of the Sciences,” Mr. Foeckler says, “I see all the other academic topics as integratable into each other, and to theology. For example, in math, when you’re training the mind to understand the relation of quantity and quality, you’re actually training students to perceive truth, and the interrelationality of truths to the Truth, who is God. All the subjects are supposed to center on Christ, but theology is where you can do it explicitly.”
But while Mr. Foeckler enjoys helping students better understand the faith, he knows it’s only part of the solution. “Theology class itself is not the solution. Theology class needs to be focused on helping students clarify their understanding so they’re more capable of participation in the entire Sacramental economy. Because ultimately, the solution is love of Christ.”
Faith—along with friendship, academics, and adventure—is one of the four pillars of Chelsea. And as Mr. Foeckler reflects on his decade at Chelsea, he sees how each of these pillars has helped define a Chelsea education throughout the years.
“Everyone involved in the shaping of this school would hold very dear and central that we are helping our students be disciples of Christ, to have a living faith, and dearly hope to meet our students again in heaven,” he says.
“Likewise, in academics, we want students who appreciate the discipline of learning, the life of the mind, and have some facility with the intellectual life. Friendship: We hope that our students have grown in their understanding of their duty towards each other in relationship, and ultimately in charity, and have learned to navigate the twists and turns of friendship in a wounded world.”
And, lastly, Mr. Foeckler identifies the pillar that is “dear to his heart”: Adventure.
“This is so desperately needed in younger generations,” he says, “Face the dragon. Take the adventure. Stand up, do your duty, and be brave. Until you actually do that a few times, you will never know what you’re capable of.”
The upshot is graduates who are uniquely prepared for the challenges of life.
“We hope that a Chelsea graduate is someone who knows, as G.K. Chesterton put it, that dragons are in the fairytales not to scare, not to reveal that evil exists—we all know there’s evil,” Mr. Foeckler says, “They’re in the stories so that we know that they can be overcome.”
Mrs. Holly McShurley
February 28, 2024
For years, Mrs. Holly McShurley happily homeschooled her 10 children in the greater Front Royal area. But when Chelsea Academy started to expand its lower school a decade ago, she jumped at the opportunity to be involved.
“There are so many benefits to homeschooling, but Chelsea provided opportunities for things that as a homeschooler I would never have been able to do,” Mrs. McShurley says. “The field trips, canoeing trip, camping trip…these Chelsea adventures are opportunities for students to connect with their peers and develop beyond the classroom.”
For Mrs. McShurley, this social interaction is a key part of a Chelsea education. “One thing that I love about this job is I’m training children to go beyond the ‘first society,’ their family, and into the ‘second society,’ Chelsea, before they ultimately go out into the world,” she says.
“We want to train them how to interact with one another, especially when there are tensions, and there are difficulties. But we’re dealing with them in a directed environment, where they can learn how to navigate those things.”
As importantly, Chelsea creates this “directed environment” while remaining mindful that, as Mrs. McShurley puts it, the family remains the “first society.”
“The school wants you to be home with your family,” Mrs. McShurley says, “Chelsea is always mindful of family life in scheduling after-school activities and extracurriculars. It’s always been a true partner to parents.”
As Chelsea’s inaugural 4th and 5th grade teacher, Mrs. McShurley has played a hands-on role in the growth and success of Chelsea. She has taught in the lower school since the addition of those grades in 2013—and credits, in part, the different types of professional development offered by the school for her longevity at Chelsea.
“In our lower school, we have very practical professional development. But we also have school-wide professional development that is the development of our minds. We are sitting there talking about our patron, St. Thomas More, what his virtues are, and how we as a faculty can emulate him and foster those virtues. Cultivating that life of the mind as a faculty is so important to being effective in the classroom.”
Reflecting on a decade at Chelsea, Mrs. McShurley suggests that what makes Chelsea special can’t be reduced to one specific aspect of the school day. It’s the combination of dedicated stakeholders coming together in support of one mission.
“I would not want to teach at a place where the parents were not involved and supported. Where we didn’t have a vibrant Catholic ethos. Where I didn’t get along with the colleagues, and we didn’t have a sense of humor,” she says.
“At Chelsea, it’s really all one thing: The colleagues, the parents, the students, the Catholic ethos, the school activities, the Chelsea Houses….That all creates a school environment that is an absolute joy to work in every day.”