Hobart RE director awarded Religious Educator of the Year

Amy Rudkins, director of religious education at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hobart, recently was named the Archbishop Paul S. Coakley Religious Educator of the Year at a ceremony in Oklahoma City. 

The award is given each year by the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma. The award winner receives $500, and their parish receives $5,000. The finalists each receive $250. 

The other finalists were Terri Headrick, from Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church in Oklahoma City, and Michelle Rodriguez-Pico, from Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Norman. 

Father Swamy Andarias nominated Rudkins for the award, saying “she is a role model for living our faith.” She has been volunteering as an RE teacher since 2000, serves as the youth minister and RCIA director, and organized a women’s Bible study. She also has been taking parish youth to Steubenville youth conferences for 17 years.

Headrick was nominated by Mandy Brown and Father Stephen Bird. She has been a volunteer catechist at Epiphany for 16 years. This past year during the pandemic, she taught four separate classes online.

Rodriguez-Pico was nominated by Itzel Duke and Father Joseph Irwin. She has served at Saint Joseph for 15 years and teaches confirmation to culturally diverse groups of high school students.


Photo: Jim Beckman, executive director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis, Michelle Rodriguez-Pico, Terri Headrick, Amy Rudkins and Peter de Keratry, executive director of the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma, at the Catechetical Conference Sept. 18 in Oklahoma City. Photo Fran Kozakowski/Sooner Catholic.