University of Notre Dame master's students teach theology in diocesan schools
SALT LAKE CITY — With the start of the school year, seven University of Notre Dame master’s of theology students are engaged in service in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. As participants in Notre Dame’s Echo Faith Formation Leadership Program, the students are spending two years working fulltime at a Catholic parish or school and taking courses online during the academic year. In the summer, they return to Notre Dame’s campus for an intensive course of study.
With no Catholic college or university within about 500 miles, the diocese has a great need for the Echo program participants, said Susan Northway, director of the diocesan religious education office and diocesan representative for the Echo program in Salt Lake City.
“We’re very much in need of well-formed ministers,” she said.
Two previous Echo program participants, Catherine Coffey and Paul Kaczynski, chose to remain in Salt Lake City at Judge Memorial Catholic High School after graduating from Notre Dame. While Kaczynski has now left to pursue post-graduate work, Coffey remains a teacher at the school.
“I can’t say enough about the value of having young, committed theology teachers in our schools,” Northway said. “They are a wonderful example to our students and have access to some of the best scholars through their Notre Dame affiliation.”
Among the 11 dioceses across the country that participate in the Echo program, the Diocese of Salt Lake City has the largest number of participants, Northway said.
“Given a choice, Salt Lake City is at the top for participants,” she said. “For young people the recreation opportunities are appealing. Also Salt Lake is a great, beautiful city with a very vibrant church, which really attracts them.”
Of the Echo students, five are theology teachers in various Utah Catholic schools, while two are apprentices at parishes in the diocese.
Michael Rawls, who is teaching at Juan Diego CHS, came to the program a little later than most participants. After graduating from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree, he worked for the Institute in Religious Life before going back to pursue a master’s degree in business. After graduation, he worked in Chicago in the business world but said he really felt “a pull back to service in the Church.”
“I really saw this as a great opportunity,” he said of the Echo program. “Being able to share is what’s most important to me. I feel blessed to be in this program.”
He is very appreciative of his mentor Kandie Brinkman, theology department head at Juan Diego.
“I really appreciate the welcome of the diocese and all the people,” he said. “It has been really interesting to see the community here and to be welcomed by everyone.”
Maria Kunath from Apex, N.C., who is teaching at St. John the Baptist Middle School, hopes to go into teaching. The Echo program seemed like a perfect combination of teaching and theology, she said.
Kunath said from the beginning she was struck by the collegiality among the staff at the school.
“They have a very strong reverence for the Catholic values of looking out for each other and having each other’s back,” she said. “So many people have been incredibly eager to help me get acclimatized and set up – it’s like I have a lot of moms on the faculty.”
“The students all bring something very unique and refreshing to the teaching experience,” she said of her experience so far. “They have such eagerness about learning about their faith and it’s great to tap into that.”
The Echo program requires the students to live together; Kunath has found community living to be a great experience, she said. About four times a week the Echo participants have night prayer together, something that Kunath said is a “very refreshing place to center myself.”
John Lee from Los Angeles is in his second year teaching at St. Joseph Catholic High School.
He said it has been a “phenomenal” experience.
“There’s a really tight-knit community here,” he said. “It has been a really good place to begin my teaching career.”
Lee said the most rewarding part of the experience has been sharing what he has been learning with his students, “raising their imagination, wonder and awe into God’s presence.”
The support system in the Echo program where participants are assigned a mentor, an Echo formation assistant and communicate regularly with the diocesan director is “pretty incredible,” said Lee, who hopes to continue in teaching or to return for future graduate studies after he completes Echo.
Colleen Halpin, from Omaha, Neb., is also teaching at St. Joseph and like Lee enjoys the school community, she said. She was drawn to Echo as a way to teach but also to deepen her knowledge in theology.
“It really is a best-of-both-worlds scenario,” she said.
Halpin said she also found the community living aspect of the program appealing.
“I had heard that first-year teaching was very challenging,” she said. “This is a great opportunity to live with other teachers going through the same thing and to grow with them in faith.”
Like his peers, Lukas Steffensmeier, who is teaching at Judge Memorial Catholic High School, said the Echo program is a great way to combine teaching and further studies in theology.
“I’m a huge fan of the Echo program; it’s definitely been a huge growing experience,” he said.
Steffensmeier said moving to Salt Lake City from the Midwest (he is from Des Moines, Iowa) and learning how to teach both have been challenging.
“What I liked about Echo was being put into a community with other teachers, some of them in their second year,” he said. “Even the first month, I had a huge support system with my peers who went through their first year last year and could help me develop as a teacher.”
Teaching theology has deepened his own faith, especially as he has studied the Scriptures, he said.
“As I had to dig deep, I had to immerse myself in the Scriptures,” he said. “I really got taken away by how beautiful so much of the Bible is and how comprehensive it is.”
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