What made you first want to become a teacher at CCC? What has kept you here for so many years?

I never thought of myself as a teacher. I was taking a year off to study for the MCAT. I was bio, pre-med, with a minor in Chem.
I am a graduate of Holy Cross, service was a large part of my time in college which led me to do a year of service after college. Jesuit Volunteer Corps placed me at a school in MT called Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy on the Crow Reservation.
I fell in love with my students and a lot of my insecurities around my own education and upbringing fell to the wayside when I realized that relationships are at the forefront of education. That was something I felt I was good at and enjoyed doing.
After that year, I had to decide if I was going to stay in the middle of nowhere, in that town there was no stoplight and the population was 67. There was a post office and a bait and tackle shop. I could have stayed there for a second year but I wanted to explore other options and I was introduced to CCC. I loved the school. Walking in I just felt good and it was joyful. The passion of the people in this place was immediately clear. The quality of life you have has a lot to do with the job you are working/career you have. My quality of life was based on professional development, personal development, and well-being. In New York City, I could be a part of the choir, and it was a great time in my life to live in NY.
That was just the beginning. This is my 10th year now here. It has completely sucked me in. My own growth and development have kept me here for so long. I really appreciated GSP and the ability to be connected with students long after they graduated. My first class that I taught as 5th and 6th graders are sophomores in college and I’m basically still in touch with all of them. The mentality at CCC has always been if you want to do it, go for it and that’s how the volleyball program started. Bringing volleyball at the school has been really important to me and that is impossible to walk away from.

What do you think is special about a Holy Child education?

I love that a Holy Child education focuses on the whole child. When people ask me why I care so deeply about being an educator, I often talk about how I am “in the business” of creating wonderful people. While I of course hold students to high academic standards, I also strive to make sure they see all the ways they are learning outside of the classroom - daily!
Some of the difficulties I see in education, in general, is that there needs to be a lasting relationship, not just with the students, but in terms of the student's understanding that lifelong education should be at the forefront of who you are as a human. Because I truly believe that as soon as you stop learning, you stop living.
A Holy Child education ensures that wonder and awe are at the center of learning, both in and out of the classroom. Wonder and awe make experiences sticky and enjoyable, which is what we need to focus on if we want to be cultivating curious beings.