Education

Students in Barb Ryan's eighth-grade language arts class at South City Catholic Academy are taking "The Hobbit" to another level.

The class was reading the adventurous novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. Relating to the book, Ryan challenged the students to think more about a hero's journey by researching other characters, using their Chromebook laptops, and creating their own hero.

Ideas rang out as Ryan sought input on the characteristics of a hero and names of other heroes who had an unusual birth.

Antonio Pimentel rolled a ball of dough in his hands, gently dipping it into a plate of powdered sugar. By the time he got to his third dough ball, though, his hands managed to get deeper into the sugar.

"Yeah, I'm a snowman," the first-grader grinned as he shook the excess powdered sugar from his hands.

Most Wednesdays after school, Antonio and his siblings head down to the teacher's lounge at Our Lady of Guadalupe School for Adventure Time, an after-school program that introduces them to hands-on activities that inspire fun and creativity.

Belinda Bond was the first African-American woman to manufacture, import and wholesale a line of jewelry featuring millionaire Madame CJ Walker for JC Penney. She earlier had a career as an auditor with Southwestern Bell. Now the owner of a consulting firm, she's known as a dynamic, charismatic speaker with an unlimited source of energy and exciting visions for the future.

Four Catholic school teachers were among 109 St. Louis-area educators who received Emerson Excellence in Teaching Awards in a ceremony Nov. 12 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton.

Selected by the Catholic Education Office, the archdiocese's 2017 Emerson class consists of: Laurie Clarkson of Sacred Heart (Troy); Katherine Compton of St. Rose of Lima (DeSoto); Karen Pollmann of St. Gerard Majella (Kirkwood); and Becky Struckel of Assumption (Mattese).

The Beyond Sunday capital campaign is the outgrowth of the seed Archbishop Robert J. Carlson planted eight years ago, soon after his arrival in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

He identified Catholic education as his top priority in the Alive! In Christ initiative, later included it among the four pillars of the beONE vision then made it the primary focus of the historic Beyond Sunday campaign, which was launched in June 2015 by the newly formed Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri.

My, how the archbishop's education seed has grown.

Since arriving eight years ago in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has stressed the importance of Catholic education.

His support has been evident at the local level, but now, he's receiving national acclaim.

The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) named Archbishop Carlson as a 2017 recipient of its prestigious Seton Award, given "annually to exemplary individuals whose support and service impacts Catholic education and the well-being of our nation's youth."