GASTONIA — St. Michael School is incorporating a new Catholic liberal arts curriculum in the classical model, phased in over three years starting this fall. Already, the move is attracting interest from parents and increased enrollment.
Classical education is an effective and increasingly popular model for private schools, and it is rooted in the Catholic tradition.
In a classical education or academy model, students are taught how to learn and think critically – going above the already rigorous language arts and STEM curriculum standards the school currently has in place. In this time-tested and research-based approach, students develop not just intellectually but also spiritually, emotionally and socially as lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.
St. Michael School has a distinguished history of educating thousands of students over the past seven decades, but in recent years the school has struggled to remain sustainable.
At the end of the 2015-’16 school year, the parish took out a loan from the Diocese of Charlotte to help cover a shortfall of $198,000. The subsequent year, the diocese took on the financial operations of the school while leaders began evaluating how to set the school apart and position it in what has become a competitive private education marketplace.
Since announcing its transition plans last fall, the parish has offered a series of talks called “Hearts United” to inform parents and parishioners about the Church’s role in education. Principal Michelle Vollman has also shared information about classical liberal arts through “Coffee with the Principal” meetings and weekly newsletters.
“I believe that Catholic liberal arts is going to be something wonderful for our school,” Vollman said. “It will really help us grasp hold of our Catholic identity and give the students the tools and the strategies that they need to be lifelong learners and thinkers for themselves.”
Thanks to these communications efforts, the school has already seen an enrollment increase of XX percent – 30 new students – for the fall.
Curriculum enhancements will be implemented over the next three years, and are being made in consultation with the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. ICLE aims to equip Catholic educators to renew today’s Catholic schools by drawing on the Church’s tradition of education and pursuit of faith, wisdom and virtue.
The school has already received two visits from Colleen Richards, an ICLE consultant, offering teacher workday trainings and classroom observations.
“What does the Church give us in education? We have 2,000 years of tradition here… There is a huge tradition that we have to draw upon, so we are very glad to help St. Michael’s to access it and bring it to life in their classrooms,” Richards said.
“I’m excited about the Catholic liberal arts transition, because of its ability to renew Catholic education, and it renews Catholic education in re-introducing something in the human person which we all have, which is wonder,” said Father Lucas Rossi, pastor, in a video the school released this spring. “What we want to preserve is that wonder for the good, the true and the beautiful – to preserve that all of the time they are at St. Michael School.”
Math and science teacher Maria Boylan is looking forward to sharing the new curriculum with her students. “To me classical education, liberal arts education, is going to be such a refreshing way for me (to teach). I have always believed in curiosity and encouraging wonder, and just the love of learning. So it’s really, truly bringing out the best in children. I believe every child is gifted and I think this program is going to focus on enhancing their giftedness and bringing it forward.”
Parent Robert Sawyer said he and his wife Katie were both raised Catholic and want to provide a similar foundation for their children. “We appreciated the solid foundation that provided, not only from the spiritual sense, but also the liberal arts education,” he said.
Father Rossi described a Catholic liberal arts education as helping to revive within children the desire to keep learning – not just to ask, “What do I have to do to do well on this test?” or to think, “When am I going to need this in life again?”
He said the school hopes the new educational approach will “get away from this sense that education is only supposed to be pragmatic, and to make it just useful for someone, but rather shows us how to be truly human, which is to be in union – heart, mind, body and soul – with our Creator, our heavenly Father, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life to that relationship.”
— SueAnn Howell and Patricia Guilfoyle, Catholic News Herald
Learn More
At www.stmichaelcs.com: Learn more about St. Michael School’s three-year transition to a Catholic liberal arts curriculum starting this fall.
‘My heart is going to be here always’
Sister Emma Yondura, SSJ, amuses St. Leo School students during a school day. The Sisters of St. Joseph have been beloved members of the Triad area Catholic Schools for decades. Photos provided by St. Leo School, Bishop McGuinness High School and St. Leo Parish (Left) Sister Emma receives recognition for her dedication as a first-grade teacher at St. Leo School. (Opposite page, from top, clockwise) Sister Emma Yondura and St. Leo students enjoy lemonade ice cones. Father Christopher Gober, pastor of St. Leo Church, offers his thanks to the Sisters of St. Joseph June 12. Siobahn Magin and her daughter bid Sister J.C. Tate goodbye June 15.WINSTON-SALEM — The close of the school year marked the end of an era as the Sisters of St. Joseph bid farewell to the communities at St. Leo School, St. Leo Parish and Bishop McGuinness High School where they have served for decades.
Sister Emma Yondura, Sister John Christopher “J.C.” Tate and Sister Anne Thomas Taylor are leaving after a combined 80 years of service.
Sister Emma will go on to a new elementary school assignment in Philadelphia, Pa., and Sister J.C. and Sister Anne are retiring to the Sisters of St. Joseph’s motherhouse in Chestnut Hill, near Philadelphia.
Since their arrival to the diocese in 1943, the Sisters of St. Joseph have been integral to the founding and flourishing of Catholic schools in the Triad: Villa Maria Anna Academy in 1949, St. Leo School in 1953 and Bishop McGuinness High School in 1959. Numerous sisters have passed through the schools’ doors over the decades, but the three sisters who have served most recently are especially beloved.
Faithful servants
Sister Emma came to the diocese in 1973, just one year after it was carved out of the Raleigh diocese. Forty of her 53 years of religious life have been devoted to the Charlotte diocese. She first served in Charlotte at St. Ann School and then moved to the Triad, serving at St. Leo School as a first-grade teacher, facilitator of Catholic identity and afterschool care leader over the years.
First-graders have been her love since beginning as a teacher in 1970, and hundreds of students have learned from her how to strive to do their very best – as God is calling them to do.
“Even though I have to move forward, my heart is going to be here always,” Sister Emma says. She recalled the generations of families she has seen come through St. Leo School. “I will miss knowing the families I have ministered to all along. It’s too close to my heart to have to say goodbye to them… I have had so many happy memories.”
Sister J.C. became a part of the BMHS family in 2001. She taught chemistry for many years, demonstrating in her classroom that faith and science go hand-in-hand. In recent years, she served as a substitute teacher in the science department and as attendance coordinator.
Sister J.C. says she would love to “sneak out” with no fanfare. “I will miss both the students and the faculty,” she says. “I loved being down here (in North Carolina). I will miss the members of the PTO, too. They are the most thoughtful people you can ever know.”
“I loved teaching. I’ve loved working with kids over a long period of time,” she explains. “I will miss teaching. I’m gonna miss the kids.”
Sister Anne joined the BMHS community in 1996, first as a music teacher, then as dean of students. She helped build up the school’s theater arts offerings from an extracurricular program into its own department. Most recently, she has been a “spiritual counselor” for students who come to her to discuss their challenges, aspirations and prayer life.
“It’s sad that our presence will not be physically there, but the spirit and our charism will always be there,” Sister Anne says. “The charism and the hospitality and the warmth will always be there. It’s who we are, it’s how we work and it’s what we teach.”
In appreciation
The sisters’ substantial contributions to the community have been widely recognized and celebrated in the parishes and schools they served.
“We are grateful for the kindness and care these sisters, and their predecessors, have provided for generations of students. Throughout their years of service, the sisters have become members of our families, taught thousands of students, mentored fellow teachers and exemplified Christian discipleship,” school leaders said in a letter signed by
Father Christopher Gober, pastor of St. Leo Church; Gary Callus, principal of St. Leo School; and from Bishop McGuinness High School, Father Noah Carter, chaplain, and George Boschini, principal.
“The sisters have been role models for what it means to give oneself to others through a vocation to religious life. Their charism as Sisters of St. Joseph has been more than teaching – they have imbued our schools with love for God and others,” they said.
As the school year wound down to a close, multiple celebrations were held to honor the legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph and to say goodbye to Sisters J.C., Anne and Emma.
On May 27, St. Leo School dedicated its library in honor of Sister Emma. St. Leo Parish held a special farewell reception for the sisters June 12. And on June 15, BMHS dedicated two statues in honor of the Sisters of St. Joseph and their contributions to the Catholic community in North Carolina over the past 60 years.
Part of the family
The Nolans are one of hundreds of Triad families touched by the Sisters of St. Joseph over the decades. All four of the Nolan children remember the sisters’ compassionate presence at St. Leo School and Bishop McGuinness High School while they were growing up.
“The best thing about the sisters is that they adapt how they care for their students based on who their students are. They treat them like family,” says Siobahn Magin, the youngest of the four Nolan children, who is now married and a parent herself.
Magin says the sisters recognized she had leadership potential and gave her opportunities to shine. She and Sister J.C. developed a close bond during her years at Bishop McGuinness High School – so much so that Magin calls Sister J.C. “Grandma.”
“To have someone in your corner who leads with the love of service and their love of Christ is just so special.”
Her mother, Trish Nolan, recalls how both Sister Anne and Sister J.C. accepted each of her children just the way they were, especially through their awkward teenage years.
“They looked at each of my children and recognized they were good kids and recognized their strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “They just helped the kids reach their potential. They treated them all as individuals.”
The sisters were in attendance at the Nolan children’s events over the years and were invited to all of their weddings.
“They are just regular gals who loved my children unconditionally through the highs and lows in our lives,” Nolan says.
Although Magin and Nolan have moved out of the area, they made the hours-long drive to the statue dedication June 15. They wanted to be present because, as Trish Nolan says, “The Nolans love the Sisters of St. Joseph. They are part of our family.”
New endowments
To honor the sisters’ legacy of Catholic education, St. Leo School has established the “Sister Emma Yondura Endowment Fund” that will support an annual full scholarship to a rising first-grade student at St. Leo School, The endowment was funded by parishioners’ donations as well as donations from the parish and school.
An endowment called the “Sisters of St. Joseph Fund” has also been established in their honor. Proceeds generated by the endowment will provide tuition assistance for families who wish to provide a Catholic education for their children at BMHS.
Katie Williams, director of advancement for BMHS, is coordinating the endowment gifts with the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation. She has worked with the sisters for the past 12 years.
“I know that the impact the sisters have had in our school and in Catholic education as a whole will be remembered for years to come,” Williams says. “I hear all the time memories and stories of sisters who have touched the hearts of so many staff members and alumni here at Bishop.
“It’s bittersweet to see them leave, not only as a loss for the students who are to come, but for me and many of us to bid farewell to two of our friends. I know I speak for many people when I say it has been my honor to work beside them.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. St. Leo School, Bishop McGuinness High School and Patricia L. Guilfoyle contributed.
Honor the sisters’ legacy
Interested in contributing to the “Sisters of St. Joseph Endowment” in honor of their legacy to Catholic education in the Triad? Contact Katie Williams at 336-564-1009 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
