Teachers working at alma maters make it their mission to give back

Jody Harris has been teaching at his alma mater, Mount St. Joseph High School, for more than 37 years, and throughout that time he has stuck to a simple philosophy he learned at the West Baltimore school.

“As a teacher,’’ Harris said, “your body of work is real bodies.”

Harris, a 1979 graduate and Mount St. Joe athletics hall of fame baseball and football player, said the philosophy spread to him by the teaching of the Xaverian Brothers was the driving force behind his nearly four-decade career after graduating from Washington and Lee with a political science degree.

“There’s no question you need to buy into the Xaverian Brothers’ mission,” said Harris, one of 30 Mount St. Joseph graduates working at the school. “When I went to school there, at least half the faculty was brothers. I feel like I’m passing on that mission, their dedication and the core idea of what it means to be a Christian gentleman.”

Harris is one of hundreds of teachers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who feel the calling to return and pass on the values instilled in them through Catholic education.

“I feel blessed to do something that I love and to be a part of something that’s bigger than me,” he said.

Sam Bianco, a 2001 graduate, has been teaching at Mount St. Joseph for 17 years, serving the past three as an assistant principal and the director of student life. He also sees his return to his alma mater as a calling.

“I think the mission is something we all have in common,” Bianco said of Catholic school alumni who eschew more lucrative professions to give back to their schools. “If you ask the bulk of the teachers, they’ll tell you it’s the relationships that you built here; you want to be a part of that again and give back to others.”

Bianco said working at and attending Mount St. Joseph is a profound experience.

“It just feels like home,’’ said Bianco, who attended St. Agnes School in Catonsville and The Catholic University of America in Washington. “I’ve spent my entire life in Catholic schools and I can tell you that this place has a sense of authenticity that is just something different.

“We have a phrase at St. Joe: enduring personal relationships. You see it on display every day in the way the teachers go the extra mile that transcends what that experience is all about. There’s a sense of community and caring about one another.”

Michael Stromberg is the new kid on the block when it comes to alumni teaching at Mount St. Joseph, but the 2017 graduate already has had many of the same experiences as Harris and Bianco in just one semester.

“I’m blessed to be part of such a great community,” said Stromberg, who teaches theology and is a campus minister. “Being back at St. Joe has shown me that Catholic schools aren’t just places we spend money to attend. They are special places that will be with us the rest of our lives. Mount St. Joe wasn’t just a school that I went to five days a week. It was so much more.”

Stromberg, who was class president and student body president while at Mount St. Joseph, said he got the “call” to return to his alma mater while finishing homework at Catholic University in May. He’s glad he answered it after a bit of hesitation.

“It’s been an adjustment, especially learning to call my fellow teachers by their first names instead of their last names like I did when I was a student,” Stromberg said. “I was hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put musical theater aside. But I’m glad I made the decision because it’s been so fulfilling. It’s a great feeling when I’m so exhausted at the end of a workday because I know I’ve been giving back to a community that’s been so much a part of my life.”

Two alma maters have been a part of Bridget (Bindel) Foley’s working life. The 2009 graduate of Institute of Notre Dame returned to her alma mater as director of admissions and a social studies teacher and has since transitioned to teaching at St. Ursula School in Parkville.

“From the time I got my teaching degree, I always knew I wanted to be in Catholic schools,” Foley said. “There’s that comfort level and sense of community.”

Foley said she felt like she was going home when she landed a job at IND right out of college and the transition to St. Ursula eased the disappointment of IND’s closing in 2019.

“It was great to have teachers at St. Ursula who taught me (now) serve as my mentors,” she said. “It just showed how important the friendships and connections you make in Catholic schools are.”

Terry (Sovero) Ferro, assistant principal at St. Mark School in Catonsville, said the Christ-centered learning environment is what drew her back to her alma mater, where she has worked for 13 years as a teacher and now an administrator.

“The teaching methods might have changed some, but it’s the same Christ-centered environment,” said the 1981 St. Mark’s graduate. “My mother went here and I sent my kids here. It’s a big part of my life, and it’s what I want to be a part of.”

Ferro said it has been a great joy to teach many of her peers’ kids, and she’s driven by a call to give back.

“I was very prepared for high school when I left here, having that St. Mark’s foundation,” she said. “And that’s what I strive to give back.”

Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@catholicreview.org

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