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August 22, 2019A trio of Catholic educators from Oklahoma City's Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic School are now accredited Trustey Fellows from the prestigious Notre Dame Center for STEM Education.
The instructors are Beverly Swickey, Kathy Rooker and Valerie Lassiter.
The Notre Dame program, which stretches over three years, is not a brief professional development session. The teachers from Saint Charles started the program in 2017.
"We're the first teachers from Oklahoma to complete this," Lassiter said.
She is a middle school science teacher at Saint Charles.
Swickey also teaches at the middle school. Rooker is a fifth-grade teacher. Each has been a part the faculty at Saint Charles for many years. They said the experience and knowledge gained during the program has already paid off.
"This has changed the way we teach," Swickey said.
The Notre Dame Center for STEM Education was established in 2015 to help educators reach young people, especially in underserved communities. Officials want teachers who can deliver a high-quality STEM education to positively shape the children's future.
"It was 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day and we had homework," Lassiter said. "It was very challenging."
Some of that is because STEM is a complex set of issues with its own unique objectives.
"We're trying to prepare students for jobs that have not been created," Lassiter said.
Rooker said well-trained scientists can carry-out Catholic teaching to help the poor and vulnerable.
"The students can help to provide clean water for everyone around the world. They can solve that problem," she said.
With the wealth of information acquired, the teachers provide professional STEM development for other teachers at Saint Charles and around the archdiocese. Saint Charles’ students have benefitted with actual classroom experiments. Even kindergarten students studied ways to make ice melt fastest.
Saint Charles Principal Todd Gungoll said the teachers' experience was "invaluable," for his school.
The 2020 deadline to apply for the program is in March. Visit stemeducation.nd.edu/trustey.
Steve Gust is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Photo: A trio of instructors from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Oklahoma City have graduated from a prestigious national program at the University of Notre Dame. Kathy Rooker (left), Valerie Lassiter and Beverly Swickey. Photo provided.
