By: Jay Sorgi
The best Catholic education is meant to be “magis,” the Latin translation for more. It’s meant to embody more than just academic lessons. It’s meant to engender Christ within a student’s soul, all within a challenging, innovative, loving, and supportive atmosphere that reflects God’s love.
Oakland Catholic Schools is honoring five educators whose life and work embody “magis,” bestowing them with the diocese’s Saint Francis de Sales Teacher Award.
“I’m really grateful for our educators here who exemplify a higher standard. They’re pushing themselves to it, but their students are benefiting from their commitment, deep commitment, long hours, great care, faith examples day in and day out,” said Oakland Catholic Schools Superintendent Andrew Currier.
“The whole point of the St. Francis DeSales Teacher Award is to spotlight these examples of excellence, of people going above and beyond just what they’re supposed to do. These winners do that.”
Anne Carrell
St. Patrick School, Rodeo, 3rd-5th Grade Math teacher, 11 years tenure
Word of mouth brought Anne Carrell to Saint Patrick’s. Community and a deep faith have joyfully locked her into a blessed educational vocation.
“I had a friend who said there was an opening about 12 years ago, and that started it, and I just haven’t left yet,” Carrell said.
Originally from Detroit where she first experienced Catholic schools in her childhood, she had to leave that educational setting when moving west to the Bay Area.
“I had a couple years of public education, which I thought was great until I was able to get back into a Catholic school and saw what was happening,” she said.
“I was still able to see the value of what we can do in a Catholic school setting that is just not touchable in public schools.”
For her, that reality comes in seeing God present in the classroom through her students, even in what sometimes can be perceived as peripheral in a concrete subject like math.
“I see the face of God when I see my high achieving learners who are getting (concepts) before I speak, nurturing and guiding those students who need more help and instead of being ridiculed for needing more help or instead of hiding the fact that they need more help, they’re willing to raise their hand, ask for help, and get it from myself or one of their classmates,” she says.
“Our administration has given me the freedom to decide who I pull and either challenge or go over a concept I was unsure that they got, and they are so joyful to come to this classroom, my classroom, after lunch. They love being in a small group. They’re excited to be up front and have this smaller instruction. They work together. They’re excited about solving something that they were having trouble in class. I really look forward to that.”
And as she puts it, “I do believe I have my dream job.”
Brian Cushing
Bishop O’Dowd High School Class of 1984, Social Studies Teacher and Girls Lacrosse Coach, 34 years
When you look inside of Brian Cushing’s classroom at his alma mater, postcards abound above the room’s old-school chalkboard.
“I have by far the most decorated room in the school,” Cushing says. “The postcards wrap all the way around my room. Pretty much every square inch of the walls is covered with something. Teaching history makes it easy for that to happen.”
It’s especially easy when you decide to replicate the blessings of your own Bishop O’Dowd education and replicate it for thousands of students who have walked into a classroom filled with 34 years of collectibles, knowledge, faith and perspective, and left deeper enriched in their intellectual and faith lives.
“I love seeing them come in as eighth graders, really. They’re not really freshmen yet,” he says of prospective Bishop O’Down students.
“They leave as young adults, young minds that are ready to take on the world. I enjoy the fact that we can teach to their faith.”
Dr. Doug Evans, Bishop O’Dowd’s principal, sees Cushing as both a man of deep faith and an example of someone who embodies the fabric of the school.
“Brian represents so well everything of who we are, both from a mission and charism to connecting with students,” he says.
Every day, Cushing sees how students provide evidence of God’s daily, loving presence, the kind that makes it impossible not to see the Lord in the veteran teacher’s midst.
“I really see Jesus when I see them help each other in the classroom to accomplish something or to understand something that we’re studying,” he says.
“We have a leadership team that’s health and wellness, where they’re looking out for the mental health of other classmates. We see it with the campus ministry team. We see it when they become leaders for the Kairos retreats. We see it when they’re leaders on the field encouraging sportsmanship. I think that’s really where I see God playing out and seeing our mission play out.”
Veronica Jarata
St. Bede School, Hayward, 5th Grade Teacher, 19 years
When Veronica recovered from a four-month battle with cancer in 2023, she encountered a deep moment of needed reflection which paralleled her gratitude for healing.
“That’s when I asked God, ‘Help me find where You want me to be,’” the veteran of nearly two decades of teaching said.
“That’s when I thought about what brought me joy, and what brought me joy was the kids, just seeing them learn and seeing them grow.”
It led to her returning to full-time teaching at Saint Bede.into what is now her 19th year at the school.
She didn’t receive a Catholic elementary education, but volunteering at a school while in college led her to teaching, and a conversation with God led her to Catholic schools.
“I asked God to find a school where I can teach about Him because just growing up, I just kept feeling His presence, and so now I’ve been here for 19 years.”
She moved into nursing for more than two years, but remained as a resource teacher until her battle with stage one cancer began. The Saint Bede’s community came through.
“I’ve developed a long-term friendship with most of the staff,” she said through joyful tears, “and they were a constant presence when I went through my diagnosis.”
That community welcomed her back full time when Jarata called principal Janine Durana connected with her.
“Janine said, ‘Fifth grade is open.’ I said, ‘Okay, God, is this where you want me to be?’” Jarata recalled.
“Every time I would step into a classroom to help out another teacher, I would miss being in the classroom. I would miss just having my own homeroom and having the children fill it in. That was, that’s what brought me joy, just seeing them grow.”
The rest is continually-developing history, the kind embedded into the hearts of Jarata’s students.
“It’s not just young people she’s influenced. She’s influenced all of our co-workers here, especially me,” says Durana, whose son was a pupil of Jarata’s.
“Out of everything, it’s Veronica’s heart, it’s her passion, it’s her dedication for the students, for the staff, for this community that really makes her a deserving award winner.”
Allison Payawal
St. Patrick School, Rodeo, 1st Grade Teacher, 27 years
Allison has made her life’s calling blocks from San Pablo Bay, a calling to share her love for God.
“I’m able to share with the youth how to love like God, how to teach like God, and how to share His message,” she says.
“I make it a point to say good morning, good morning to each one of the ‘firsties,’ all 40 of them. And I think each one of them look for me in the morning to make sure that I’m going to greet them and have eye contact with them. Every time I say good morning to them, each one smiles back at me.”
The East Bay native ventured to the University of California-Irvine and California State University-Long Beach for her undergraduate and graduate education, but a call from Father Larry Young brought her back north.
“Father Larry found me in Long Beach, called me personally on the phone and asked for me to fly up north for an interview when I graduated from college,” Payawal said.
“I’m a product of Catholic schools. I went to elementary Catholic school. I went to Catholic high school, so I know I wanted to be a part of the community and continue teaching in a community of Catholic schools.”
Payawal has taught children from preschool to high school, but as she puts it, she definitely prefers to work with “little ones.”
“I teach first grade, so for me, it’s seeing God’s face in the children in the first year,” she says.
She particularly cites a moment of helping a student with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder where someone feels unable to speak in specific social situations when they may be comfortable to talk at home.
“She hasn’t talked in years in the classroom, and this year she finally opened up and started talking inside the class, not to me directly, but to her classmates and to my teaching assistant. I think her being comfortable in the classroom to talk to her classmates and to talk to my teaching assistant shows the face of God.”
Katie Thornbury
Christ the King School, Pleasant Hill, Assistant Principal, Middle School Language Arts and Algebra, 14 Years
Katie’s current stop on her journey as an educator comes in the place where her own Catholic education began.
“I started with my roots and returned to those,” said the Cardondalet High School and University of Notre Dame graduate who had taught in a charter school and worked for numerous organizations before coming back “home” for her career.
“I knew I had to go back into Catholic schools. Contrasting with public schools and charter schools, I just felt there was something missing. When I made the decision to go back into the classroom, Catholic school was where I wanted to be.”
Christ the King’s principal says that Thornbury’s brilliant mind, humility, organizational skill and engaging spirit leave a legacy of both academic performance and impact.
“Katie’s classroom is a classroom of excellence. The expectations are known, high standards, and certainly nurturing. It’s life-serving beyond our walls,” Dr. Joe Silveira says.
“I credit her mind, her conscientious work ethic and spirit and her ability to work hard. She works well into the late evenings and is always with the blinders on in a self-effacing way, huddled up and trying to be the ‘magis,’ the ‘more’ in our lives.”
“I love being a teacher and teaching is a lot of work, but it’s worth it. And it’s really cool when you see students come out with an amazing speech or a really cool poem that they’re excited about,” Thornbury says.
“I had one student today who couldn’t wait for me to read her story that she had written for this competition we’re doing and was so excited to share that. So when I see kids get really excited about what they’re doing and what they’re writing.”
In the end, Thornbury gets a five-days-a-week blessing of seeing God’s face in the students she impacts each day.
“The kids who are in front of you, they are (God’s presence) there. “It’s a fun part of my job to be able to teach them to see that in their classmates as well. Each kid who comes in has their own personality is their own amazing and unique talents, skills and soul,” she says.
“I think it’s really cool and a big responsibility to know that I have a part in shaping that soul. Every day you go in, you’re trying to find that piece of holiness in them, that piece of God. It’s your job to bring that out.”