Student Life

ECHO is an acronym for Encountering Christ by Helping Others, which is Fisher Catholic’s
student service program. ECHO is designed to help students live out the Gospels, take pride in works of charity and service, play an integral role in bettering and creating meaningful ties to our communities, and increase our faith. ECHO challenges our students to observe the world around them in search of those in need, work with others in their communities to plan and execute discreet service events (called ECHO Encounters) that students can contribute to, and to reflect on what they learned from the event about those in need, about themselves, and our Catholic faith.

Ideas for ECHO Encounters come from many places – students, parents, teachers, parishioners, and others within the FCHS community. To take these ideas and make them into ECHO Encounters, they can be submitted to or discussed with your Theology Faculty. It's important that the ECHO truly engage with those being served.

Scopes for individual ECHO Encounters are developed by students, parents, and others in the Fisher community. All ideas ultimately need to be approved by Theology Faculty.

Each Encounter is a well-defined “event” or series of events that helps people in need in some material or spiritual way. Ideally, each Encounter is an event that lasts on the order of 2-4 hours in length and requires 10-30 students to complete. That said, the scope for each Encounter will vary widely in terms of time commitment required. For example, approved Encounter “A” could require 30 students for 6 hours on a Saturday to pack boxes for a local food pantry, approved Encounter “B” could require 4 students to help buy and deliver presents for children of incarcerated parents, and approved Encounter “C” could require students to mentor and tutor young children once per week for several weeks. Single-person Encounters can also be approved (e.g., PSR teaching assistant, lead for weekly worship service).

Each FCHS student is required to contribute to - and write a brief Reflection about their experience with - at least one ECHO Encounter per quarter, and a minimum of four per school year. The ECHO is 30% of a student's Theology grade for the quarter.

Communication about ECHO Encounters occurs during Guild meetings, announcements in their
Theology classes, morning and afternoon announcements, general “word of mouth”, and via a “sign up” binder in the Front Office with lists of some (not all) upcoming ECHO Encounters. All students are highly encouraged to generate ideas for and lead their own ECHO Encounters so that they are, by default, in the know!

Many of our ECHO Encounters can use as many student volunteers as want to participate (e.g., an outdoor pro-life walk), whereas others have a limit on how many volunteers can participate (e.g., visit to a nursing home with limited space). In cases where more students would like to contribute than there are places for, student and adult leaders will work to help those who need quarterly credit the most. Students can always volunteer to be the respective student leader of an ECHO Encounter they conceive and plan.

We are looking for more adult volunteers to help conceive of, plan, lead, and execute ECHO Encounters. We are also looking for more existing organizations (e.g., St. Vincent de Paul, Habitat for Humanity, Bottoms Up) that we can partner with to serve people in our community. Please contact our Theology Faculty with your ECHO Encounter ideas and availability to volunteer. Thanks so much for your prayers and support!