Grads donate two years to teaching

The four young adults are the first participants in a University of Dayton program that prepares teachers to come to the Albany Diocese, where they will live in community for two years while teaching in local Catholic schools.

Participants will share meals and prayer, participate in two retreats each year, and reflect on their personal faith journey. They also receive professional development, get assistance from mentor teachers, maintain ongoing contact with the University of Dayton's School of Education, and attend summer graduate classes at the Ohio university. At the end of the two years, participants receive master's degrees in education.

Named for pioneer

The program is named for Jean Baptiste Lalanne, one of the original seven members of the Society of Mary and a noted educator for more than 60 years. Currently, there are Lalanne communities in Cleveland, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan.

The first group of teachers received their master's degrees last spring. Of the original six, four are staying an extra year in the Lalanne program. The other two will continue to teach at the Catholic schools they were originally placed in.

Filling a need

"We hope that the participants will teach in Catholic schools for the long-term," he said. "There are lots of advantages to being a Catholic school teacher. Through Lalanne, we have a good chance of keeping them."

Some people have compared the program to the days when Catholic schools were staffed by religious women who lived in community.

"The comparison to religious life is fine," said Brother Ed, "but there is a richness in its own light. This takes the best of something that worked in the past and moves it into the future."

Getting a start

"When I started teaching in 1985, I lived with eight other people who were also ministering in the school," he said. "Their support was invaluable."

The community aspect of the program is one of the things that attracted Miss Peters to Lalanne. "I decided to join because I think it is an amazing program," said the teacher who will be at St. Patrick's School in Troy. "It provides me with a first year of teaching with support spiritually, professionally, and through community living with three other teachers. It is a great opportunity to ease into the first year of teaching, which I know can be very difficult. I am excited to live with other teachers, and it will be great to be earning a master's degree alongside."

In a community

"I joined because the components of Lalanne; community, spirituality, and professionalism were just what I was looking for in a service program," she said. "I also felt very comfortable with the people who were a part of it."

Christina Tetzlaff, who will teach chemistry at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady, credits the Lalanne program and the support it provides for giving her the courage to move east. A native of Cleveland, she and her family thought that she would return there after graduation.

"I am nervous yet excited for Albany," she said. "I know nothing of the area, and I know no one. However, I am ready for a challenge and a change in my life. If it wasn't for Lalanne, I would have never taken the risk at moving to New York. It will help out a lot that I am living in community. That support system is important."

Faith component

Catholic identity is crucial to Catholic school ministry, Brother Ed said, and is an area where new Catholic school teachers often need assistance.

"One principal in Detroit said we must put something in the water in Dayton," said Brother Ed. "Their faith development is much further along."

That's one of the aspects of the Lalanne program that the Albany Diocese found most attractive, explained Thomas Fitzgerald, assistant superintendent for the Catholic School Office. "This program is giving our schools individuals who have a Catholic identity," he said.

Catholic identity

Said Miss Peters, "My whole life I have attended Catholic school. That's 17 years of Catholic education if you count the University of Dayton and two more on the way. Both my parents work for Catholic schools."

Like Miss Peters, Miss Tetzlaff has experienced Catholic school education since childhood. "As I like to word it, I have been born and raised through Catholic schools," she said. "I attended Ss. Philip and James grade school in Cleveland, Magnificat High School in Rocky River (a suburb of Cleveland), and the University of Dayton. I have had some incredible influences [from teachers]. My aunt has taught in the Cleveland Catholic school system for 30-plus years, and I have seen her love and dedication to teaching."

New experiences

"I have never lived farther east than Dayton, Ohio," she said. "I will be about 13 hours away from my hometown, Indianapolis, Indiana, so this is a whole new experience for me. [One challenge] is coping with moving from the Indiana/Ohio area to the Albany area. I know that everything will work out. In the meantime, I will be praying and trusting in God to lead me in the right direction."

(The Lalanne program is open to education majors from other colleges besides the University of Dayton. For more information, visit www.udayton.edu/~lalanne, or call Brother Edward Brink at 937-229-3709.)

(08-30-01) [[In-content Ad]]