Hannah Walker didn’t agonize about where she would begin her teaching career when she graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021.
Her sister Maggie Walker Ostrich helped to make the decision easy. “She taught in the Arlington diocese right after she graduated and constantly talked about how faithful the diocese was, how great her school was and about the vibrant faith in this area,” said Walker, who teaches second grade at All Saints Catholic School in Manassas. “Coming to the diocese was an opportunity to take what I learned from Franciscan and continue learning and growing in my faith through teaching.”
The plan for Maggie was to give teaching in the diocese a one-year try after she graduated from Franciscan in 2015. “I’m currently in my eighth year, so it turned into a few extra years,” said Maggie, admissions director and library media specialist at St. John the Evangelist School in Warrenton.
She never wanted to stray too far from her family home in Buffalo, N.Y., but quickly embraced the strong Catholic identity of diocesan schools. “You’re at a million crossroads when you’re in college,” she said. “And you’re asking yourself, ‘What kind of environment do you want to be in?’ So, much of what I wanted was matched with the Diocese of Arlington. The schools here are just phenomenal.”
The diocese doesn’t keep statistics on where teachers attended college, but the Franciscan-Arlington pipeline is strong. Five Franciscan graduates are teachers at All Saints, where Principal Dave Conroy is also a Franciscan graduate. “I have a real appreciation for the spirituality and the formation that takes place at Franciscan,” he said. “There is a joyful spirit that surrounds the campus. The candidates who apply and end up teaching at All Saints bring a great love of the Catholic faith and a heart for the mission.”
“The beauty of teaching in a Catholic school is that you get to live out your faith in everything that you do, and you can’t say that about every profession,” said Hannah. “I can incorporate my faith in a math or science lesson and explain why God made things the way they are.”
Traveling back and forth to visit family in Buffalo is worth it for the Walker sisters. They are even trying to recruit their siblings. “The persuasion is continuing,” said Hannah. “When our parents visit, they love the churches, they love the priests, and they see how flourishing this diocese is.”
One of the six pillars of the diocesan strategic plan is to invigorate Catholic education for all. Attracting and retaining qualified, faith-filled teachers is an initiative underway in the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools and at the local level. With teacher retirements and average annual turnover, the diocese needs to recruit approximately 150 new teachers every year. Joseph Vorbach, diocesan superintendent of schools, wants graduates of Catholic colleges and universities to know that they are wanted.
“The diocese is blessed to have schools with strong Catholic identities that are attractive to graduates of the best Catholic colleges and universities in the country,” said Vorbach. “Our schools are further enriched by the arrival of these teachers who are so well-formed and on fire with their faith. At a time when families are seeking learning environments built on the truth of the Gospel, we are fortunate to have such strong partners in Catholic higher education.”
Christendom College in Front Royal doesn’t offer a teaching degree, but those graduates are also coveted, and can easily earn their Virginia Catholic Education Association teaching credentials by completing two courses during their first year as a teacher. “I was not quite sure where God was leading me,” said Grace Tipton, who graduated from Christendom in 2023 with a degree in English literature and a minor in theology. “The thought occurred to me of teaching, so I prayed about it.”
Soon after she began praying, Vorbach visited Christendom and let her know how quickly she could earn her VCEA credits. A few months later, she was teaching fourth grade at St. Thomas Aquinas Regional School in Woodbridge. “It was truly God guiding me and telling me, ‘Okay, this is where I want you to go,’ ” said Tipton, who now loves her job as kindergarten teacher.
Tipton admits that the first year was not easy, but she thinks more Christendom graduates should consider teaching. “Once you get past the intimidation of teaching, just look into it,” she said. “If you love children and if you love talking about Jesus, it’s such a rewarding job.”
Madeline Smith, who teaches middle school social studies at All Saints, agrees. She graduated from Franciscan in 2021 but did not study to be a teacher in college. “We’re at a time right now where teachers are really needed,” she said. “If a student is coming from Franciscan or Christendom or another accredited Catholic university, I think they should investigate the teaching profession, even if that’s not what their degree is in. It’s a tough job, but it’s a beautiful job.”
Conroy admits that the first year in the classroom is a rigorous and sometimes exhausting experience. “You go into it with that knowledge,” he said. “But it gets easier over time because it becomes more familiar and you develop lesson plans and strategies and methodologies, and you can go back to the ones that work and keep building on them.”
It would be hard to find a more enthusiastic cheerleader for diocesan schools than Conroy, who began teaching at St. Rita School in Alexandria in 1990 and was named principal of All Saints in 1996, where he remains.
“There’s just a tremendous commitment to Catholic identity that we have across our diocese,” he said. “If you’re looking to teach in a school where the faith is vibrant, where it’s palpable, where it really shapes the culture and transforms lives, the Diocese of Arlington is a great place to land.”
