Members of the Diocesan Office for Catholic Schools walked into seven classrooms this spring to surprise this year’s Golden Apple Award recipients with the news that they were being honored with the diocese’s highest recognition for teachers and principals.
Each reveal was a celebration of their dedication, leadership and excellence, carried out like a Publishers Clearing House announcement with surprises, balloons and awards as the cameras rolled.
The Witness was there to catch the surprising reveals on video and speak with recipients on why they teach in a Catholic school and the importance of Catholic education.
This year’s winners and the links to their individual videos are: Michelle Williams and Dana Baker of St. John the Baptist School in New Freedom; Jennifer Grill of St. Margaret Mary School in Harrisburg; Lucy Hamilton of Trinity High School in Camp Hill; Jacqueline Molsky of St. Theresa School in New Cumberland; Louise Pirrotta of St. Joseph School in York; and Teresa Swisher of Lancaster Catholic High School.
“I feel like it’s a mission. It’s not just my job. I really feel like it’s a calling to me,” Jacqueline Molsky, who teaches fifth grade at St. Theresa’s, said of teaching in a Catholic school. “I’m helping students not only academically but spiritually, guiding their values and helping with their character and their faith. I can emphasize respect, service, compassion and moral development along with their academic work. I’m able to teach the whole child – mind, body and spirit.”
For Jennifer Grill, who started as a substitute teacher at St. Margaret Mary School, Catholic education proved to be a witness and an inspiration for her to enter the Church after attending Mass with her husband and children.
“I always saw the education my kids were getting prior to me becoming Catholic and how they were taught to be good, upstanding, moral young adults who were to go on and hopefully be saints one day,” said Grill, who teaches eighth grade. “If I can make a difference in one child’s life, then I’ve won.”
Lucy Hamilton, Spanish-language teacher at Trinity, has taught in many classroom settings over her nearly 30-year career in education that has included public school, homeschool settings and adult education classes. She ultimately chose to teach in Catholic schools because, “I love the faith-filled environment and the ability to pray when I want to pray, to serve others and to foster the faith and family.”
“Whatever the curriculum is, it’s not just academics; it’s the faith,” she said. “It teaches not just academics but morality. It’s a holistic approach to education.”
Louise Pirrotta, fifth and sixth grade teacher at St. Joseph School in York, has also taught in various classroom settings, including as an educator of Japanese students, uneducated housewives and young Marines while her husband served overseas in the military.
“I choose to teach in a Catholic school because it allows me to teach the whole child – not just academically but faithfully, morally, spiritually. I can bring the Catholic faith into everyday moments in the classroom, whether it’s teaching kindness or perseverance or just seeing God’s presence in the world around us,” Pirrotta said. “Being part of their formation is an awesome responsibility and one that I don’t take lightly. It’s an honor.”
St. John the Baptist School in New Freedom is celebrating two Golden Apple recipients this year – principal Michelle Williams and kindergarten teacher Dana Baker.
“We have to let the children know that there are a lot of challenges ahead for them and how we get through them is by faith in God, turning to Jesus and learning how to surrender. We need to be still and listen for God’s voice because it is a noisy world right now,” said Williams, who taught at St. John the Baptist for seven years before becoming principal in 2022.
Baker worked in the public school setting for 13 years before applying to St. John the Baptist School. “I just didn’t feel like public school was where I needed to be or where my husband and I wanted our children to be,” she said. “I felt something was pulling me to Catholic education. I now know that it was God.”
Catholic schools “bring us back to our roots of Scripture, tradition and faith,” she added. “I just want to be part of nurturing that in the souls of these children.”
For Teresa Swisher, technology teacher at Lancaster Catholic, “When teachers are allowed to share their faith and their core values with students, the learning environment completely changes.”
She said her reason for teaching in a Catholic school can be summed up in a note she received from two 2015 graduates on the occasion of the Golden Apple Awards. It reads: “Thank you for shaping us into who we are today. We appreciate all the time and love you poured into us over the years.”
“This is why we are Catholic school teachers,” Swisher said. “It’s not just me; it’s every teacher in my building and every teacher in the diocese.”
About the Golden Apple Awards
This year’s Golden Apple honorees were celebrated during a dinner at the Best Western in Harrisburg on April 27 with Bishop Timothy Senior, members of the Secretariat for Education, fellow educators, family members and friends.
Recipients were also given a certificate of achievement, a $5,000 cash award and a 24-karat gold apple.
The Golden Apple Awards Program was established in 1992 by the Donahue Family Foundation, Inc., located in Pittsburgh. To learn more about the Golden Apple Awards or Catholic Education, visit www.GoCatholicSchools.org.
(Photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
