Saint Thomas the Apostle Catholic School
Class of 2007

Saint Mary’s Catholic High School
Class of 2011

My background:

“My mother has been a proud member of the Saint Thomas Sodality since before I was born, so it was no surprise when I was sent to Saint Thomas for kindergarten through my eighth grade years.  After graduating from Saint Thomas, I went to Saint Mary’s where I was given the tools to go to Creighton University.”

“During my time at Creighton I was lucky enough to have been selected to go down to Peru for a poverty immersion program. My journey to Peru was life-changing. I was exposed to and living in extreme poverty for two and a half months.  My host family’s house had tin roof with a human-sized hole in it, the daycare I was assigned to had no running water, full families were living in what could be best described as shanties, and electricity was spotty at best.  The system was broken, and my new-found friends were the victims of it. I wanted to change the system I wanted to become a social worker.”

“After graduating from Creighton with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology I became a visitation worker for a small contractor for the state of Nebraska.  During this time I worked as a subset for the Child Protective Services, I was exposed to a side of life that no child should ever be exposed to.   I worked closely with families and children who had experienced generational poverty, neglect, and abuse.  About a year and a half after working there my heart felt heavy and I decided that I needed to take a break from social work.  I began working for a Montessori school. It was here I discovered my passion for teaching the Montessori model, which encourages freedom within limits and above all independence.  I was in my happy place, but after another year and a half I decided it was time to move on as I felt my skills were needed elsewhere, I almost missed social work.  I moved onto work at Omaha Early Learning Centers, a Head Start program whose mission is to break generational poverty through education.  I am very proud to be a part of a company that shares the same mission as I do.”

What Impact did Catholic schools have on me?

“Growing up in the Catholic school for my entire life has shown me the true meaning of servitude, patience, and humility.”

Accomplishments:

• I graduated from high school in 2011 with the Science Award for my graduating class
• I am a proud member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority
• I graduated from the number one ranked school in the entire Midwest
• My biggest accomplishment? I am a happy person who plays a role in her community daily.  I get to go to a job that I feel passionately about and that is fulfilling.  I’ve made life-long friends along my journey and I’m getting married to a man that I love and that loves my faults as much as he loves my perfections.  That is my biggest accomplishment.

Future plans:

“We can never truly know what road God has planned for us, but I can see myself to continue working as an Early Childhood Teacher for at least a couple more years while I start my master’s degree (to be determined).  From there I can see myself continuing to impact the lives of at-risk families and children.”