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It doesn’t take much to see that Cara Green loves teaching. 

A Spanish teacher at St. Mary’s School in Waterford, her classroom is a shrine to her passion. Her space is filled with various art projects and crafts, from the paper shoes that line the floor for Three Kings Day, to the pink and orange flowers and sugar skulls made for the Day of the Dead. 

Much like her room, Green is full of color and life. She talks with her hands and tells stories with excitement and joy that captivate her audience — and her classroom. And her passion for her career and her students hasn’t gone unnoticed: this year, Green was awarded the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Distinguished Elementary School Teacher Award as part of the Albany Diocese’s Catholic School Week. 

The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton award honors a Catholic school teacher who carries out the mission of his/her Catholic school, demonstrates excellent teaching skills and has a positive impact on their students. All award recipients were honored at the Catholic Schools Week Mass on Jan. 27 at St. Mary’s Church in Ballston Spa with Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger presiding. 

“I am so honored, I can’t believe it,” Green told The Evangelist. “Anybody here could have gotten that award, everybody here is so wonderful and so dedicated. I’m humbled. I cried when our principal told me. And the first person I told was my mom because she knew all my life I wanted to be a teacher.” 

A native to the Albany Diocese, Green grew up attending Catholic schools, starting at St. Anthony’s School in Schenectady and graduating from Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady. To this day, Green is still in touch with a number of her teachers. Her husband, Brian, mows the lawn of her old first-grade teacher, Stephanie Kleindienst. And her old ELA teacher, Mary Schwartz, is their daughter’s godmother. After hearing about her award, they were some of the first people she called.

“I think we’re going to get together and celebrate!” she said. “I’ve just been really lucky. It’s just amazing, I can’t believe it.”

Even as a child, Green knew she wanted to learn Spanish. Her mother’s closest friends lived in Miami and spoke fluently and Green recalls traveling to visit them and wanting to connect through their language. She obtained her bachelor’s in elementary education with a concentration in Spanish and a masters in reading, both from The College of St. Rose in Albany. In college, she studied Spanish at El Centro Norteamericano in Seville, Spain, where she lived for six months. 

Green loves to tell her students about the culture of Spain; about the people she met and the things she tried, hoping that it inspires them to feel curious about the world.

“I hope they realize the world is so big and so exciting and there’s so much more to what we see every day,” she said. “There’s a saying in Spanish that means, ‘the world is a handkerchief (el mundo es un pañuelo).’ We get to see and explore and there’s so much more out there, and speaking Spanish is the key to making new friends and seeing new people.”

Green started her teaching career in her old elementary school, St. Anthony’s, and then switched to St. Clement’s School in Saratoga where she worked for almost 17 years. Green started looking to transfer schools when her daughter, Kateri, (named after the saint) started going to school. Now in kindergarten, she attends St. Mary’s and is right down the hall from Green. 

Due to short staffing, Green also teaches virtually in four other schools: Sacred Heart School in Albany, St. Jude the Apostle School in Wynantskill, Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush and St. Mary’s in Ballston Spa. It’s a lot of work at times, but nothing she isn’t happy to take on. Teaching was always what she wanted to do.

“My dad came to my first open house night because they knew all I ever wanted to do was be a teacher,” Green recalled. Growing up, her younger sister was always her student, as she played teacher with her at their home. 

Now, working and living out her dream, Green hopes that her students feel happy and safe in her classroom, but also leave the school with “an appreciation of other cultures and being open to different people.”

“Just be open to trying new things,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to try new things, to go to another place, to meet new people, to learn a new language and try something new.”

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