November 26, 2025 // Schools

Teens Inspired to Pursue Teaching at Saint Francis

Todays Catholic

By Tim Johnson

The University of Saint Francis welcomed about 131 Catholic and public high school students from the Fort Wayne area on Friday, November 14, for Teacher Cadet Day. During the event, Saint Francis alumna and longtime Catholic school teacher Kathy Schnurr awarded the second annual Teacher-to-Teacher Scholarship, a $1,000 tuition award created to encourage future educators.

Speaking with Today’s Catholic before the assembly, Schnurr, who taught at St. Mary School in Huntington, St. Therese School and Queen of Angels School in Fort Wayne, said that when she learned about Teacher Cadet Day, “I thought, that’s the project we want to support.”

“My husband and I are both alums of Saint Francis,” she said. “We both studied elementary education, and we both taught in Catholic schools with Franciscan sisters. We’ve been connected to Saint Francis forever, and we wanted to give back something that would encourage future teachers.”

“In recognition of the many years my husband and I taught, I decided to name the scholarship Teacher-to-Teacher – from one teacher to another,” Schnurr said.

The University of Saint Francis offers the Pathway to Educator Preparation Program, known as PEPP. Brittany Straub, director of special education at the university, explained, “Right now we have agreements with two schools, Bishop Luers and, starting next year, Bishop Dwenger.”

The PEPP students leave their high school building and “come here for our intro courses,” Straub said. They also gain field experience in Catholic elementary schools in Fort Wayne. The goal is for these students to enter the university as freshmen.

Juanita Oberley, director of teacher education at Saint Francis, discussed what distinguishes the university’s education students.

“We don’t think of teaching only as a career,” Oberley said. “At Saint Francis, we look at it as a calling and a vocation. It’s more than teaching math and reading. We’re teaching students how to be good citizens. We’re teaching them how to be servants for Jesus Christ, taking our mission as an institution and integrating it into the curriculum so they can go out and be citizens in the world.”

Oberley added, “It’s creating a pipeline not only for us but also for the Catholic schools. They come to us, we train them, and the goal is to send them back as high-quality, mission-driven teachers.”

Abigail Dutcher, assistant professor of education in the division of teacher education, who coordinated Teacher Cadet Day, said: “One thing I hope the students take away is relationships with each other. These are going to be their colleagues in the future. These are the teachers who will be in Allen County classrooms in five or six years.”

But Dutcher noted that the education pipeline serves more than Catholic schools.

“We have students who come to Saint Francis determined to teach in public schools, especially in our high-need, low-income schools in Fort Wayne.”

“I see students who are very focused on making a difference,” Dutcher said. “To enter the profession now and say, ‘This is what I want,’ shows how driven they are. They go above and beyond. If they’re asked to do 50 field hours, they volunteer extra service hours.”

Two Bishop Luers students who attended the event are participating in PEPP. Senior Gertie Andersen, the recipient of the Teacher-to-Teacher Scholarship, hopes to become an elementary teacher.

“I take education classes at the University of Saint Francis a couple of days a week,” Andersen said. “My second-grade teacher, Mrs. Lewis at St. John the Baptist (in Fort Wayne), has always been my favorite teacher,” Andersen said. “I remember things from her class that helped me come alive as a learner and made me think that maybe I wanted to be a teacher, too.”

The keynote speaker, Graciela Miranda, a teacher at Pike High School in Indianapolis and the 2025 Indiana Teacher of the Year, offered an inspiring talk about overcoming learning struggles. Miranda challenged the future educators to see teaching not simply as instruction but as a vocation to “stand in the gap,” recognizing what students lack and helping create a path to success. She told students that new teachers bring essential value, fresh ideas, and cultural understanding, and she said that a sustainable career requires space for rest, celebration, and community.

After hearing the keynote, Andersen said: “I learned about all the opportunities you can have as a teacher, the different experiences, and the number of people you’ll meet through the profession. It was encouraging to hear that it’s OK to move around, to teach multiple grades or at multiple schools. That’s all part of the profession.”

Galilea Chavez, a Bishop Luers senior in PEPP, said, “Everything today has been really good, but I was especially surprised by the keynote speaker.”

Ellie Wilcher, a Bishop Luers ninth grader, told Today’s Catholic, “I’ve started to grow closer to teaching, and I’ve wanted to be a teacher since eighth grade.”

The scholarship competition included a lesson plan session. Students submitted their plans to the University of Saint Francis education faculty, who judged the entries. At the end of the day, Schnurr presented the Teacher-to-Teacher Scholarship certificates to Andersen, who plans to attend Saint Francis, and to Alivia Webb, a student from Carroll High School in Fort Wayne.