Even though it is traditionally a period of rest, summer is a time when teachers and students often reflect on the previous year’s triumphs, as well as let the next school year’s cares seep into their minds.

This past school year, Archbishop Moeller High School initiated the MoeTerm program, for which Jennifer Boggess, Director of MoeTerm and a Moeller educator, has a lot to be proud of from its inaugural year. To continue its success, she used her summer to start planning for the 2026-2027 school year.

A four-day immersive encounter, MoeTerm lifts students out of the traditional classroom for new and relevant experiences. It enables them to explore new interests or dive deeper into a potential career. With dynamic opportunities on and off campus, students meet new people, exercise their critical thinking, and reflect on the impact of their experience.

And this past year saw many successful encounters!

“A service project group traveled to Guatemala to work with ImagininGuatemala to build houses for families in Antigua,” said Boggess. Another course, “‘Rock and Roll Revolution’ had students building and decorating their own guitars, learning basic chords, and gaining insight into the origins and evolution of rock ‘n’ roll,” she continued. Students could also choose a course on “Farm to Table,” learning both about animal husbandry and processing from a local butcher, or they could spend time at the University of Cincinnati learning about different areas of engineering.

When student Joseph Nanista was going to miss MoeTerm because he’d be out of town during its scheduled four days, Boggess and Nanista put their heads together and developed an independent study that allowed him to creatively explore his interests outside the classroom.

“Around my eighth-grade year or so, I remember reading George Weigel’s Letters to a Young Catholic and being quite impressed with how Weigel tied certain Catholic places together with certain aspects of a sacramental worldview,” said Nanista. “Since I’m more acquainted with animated movies than globetrotting, I decided to write about those instead.”

Nanista paired Pixar movies with papal encyclicals for a more focused direction and produced three essays filled with deep insights on how the Christian worldview can be found in ordinary American entertainment.

“I’d say that the WALL-E/Laudato Si’ pairing was the easiest,” Nanista said. “They’re two pieces about the human impact of neglecting creation, and the parallels were easy for me to spot.” In WALL-E, a robot in the future is developing consciousness and is left to clean up Earth after human consumption spoiled the environment. If we do not care for the gift of creation, Pope Francis warns, our future may be in jeopardy.

Nanista’s second essay looked at the value of human life as expressed by Pope St. John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae and compared it with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Puss in Boots is given nine lives that he wastes away until the last one, when he decides to find the Wishing Star to receive eight lives back. During that quest, he comes to many of Pope John Paul II’s conclusions about finding joy and improving quality of life.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has always been a favorite movie of mine, and since the main theme of that one was about accepting death, I knew it had to be paired with an encyclical about valuing human life,” said  Nanista.

Finally, Nanista said he also “wanted to honor Rerum Novarum with an essay, as it was the encyclical that really brought Catholic Social Teaching into the mainstream.” After considering several movies that could pair well with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, he settled on A Bug’s Life. In this Pixar film, ants must gather food for their grasshopper overlords, who are led by Hopper. Eventually, Flik, an ant with the zeal of Pope Leo XIII, leads the colony to overthrow the oppressive grasshoppers.

“Managers as cruel as Hopper and his gang are (I hope) few and far between,” Nanista wrote, “but their demise serves as a cautionary tale as to what the working population will do in order to restore justice if they are pushed to the end of their strength.”

This MoeTerm project successfully helped Nanista develop writing and analysis skills he hopes to use as an English major and author. “I’m rather interested in stories,” he explained, “and I feel that they are quite effective vehicles for transmitting ideas and doctrines.” Stories, he believes, are accessible to people and help them think about things in a deeper, more unguarded way.

For Boggess, this independent study was a highlight of the first successful MoeTerm at Moeller High School. “His ability to draw complex connections between children’s movies and papal encyclicals was amazing,” Boggess said.

As the school prepares for the second year of MoeTerm in 2027, there are plans for a course on Ecotourism in Costa Rica, a Silicon Valley immersion experience, and an opportunity for service with Give Kids the World (an organization much like the Make a Wish Foundation).

Through innovative courses and dedicated instructors, Moeller High School excels in Catholic education. MoeTerm is forming a new generation of Catholic men who are ready to face the challenges and opportunities they encounter.

Further Reading

Joe Nanista Analyzes Papal Encyclicals and Pixar Films