Every year in January, the Church observes Catholic Schools Week with Masses, assemblies, events and other activities for students, families, parishioners, and community members to celebrate what makes Catholic schools stellar. This year, we asked Detroit Catholic school alumni around the Archdiocese of Detroit about the impact their education had on their lives.
St. Michael Student-Turned-Teacher Grateful to Share Faith with ‘Next Generation’
Fourth-grade teacher at St. Michael the Archangel in Livonia, Christen Tice is a lifelong Catholic school student. She attended St. Michael’s for elementary school before attending Divine Child High School, and, eventually, Madonna University. After graduating, she returned to the school where her love for education and her Catholic faith all began: St. Michael. “I’ve been a teacher at St. Michael’s my entire career, so for the last 19 years.”
For Christen, the tight-knit community was the biggest reason Christen wanted to teach at St. Michael.
“The community is really my home. It’s a comfort. When you come in here, you just get that feeling that we’re home. It’s been a great community.” In a very literal sense, the community is also family. Christen’s mom attended St. Michael, along with 12 of her cousins. Her three children currently go to school there, “When I say it’s home, it really is home.”
Christen sees her education as the most foundational aspect of her faith life.
“My faith is pretty much in everything I do,” she explains. “To be able to become a teacher and pass that faith on to my students is probably the most gratifying thing about being at a Catholic school and the reason why I teach here as opposed to anywhere else. I am who I am because of Catholic schools, and it’s so gratifying to pass it on to the next generation.”
Catholic School Friendships Led Divine Child Graduate ‘Back to the Faith’
Sean McGrath is a nursing student at Wayne State University and a 2021 graduate of Divine Child High School. He is actively involved in the Catholic campus ministry, something he says would never have happened had it not been for the friendships he made in high school.
“The community at Divine Child was thriving,” reflects Sean. “There was a large diversity of students; that was something I really liked. I was a member of the track and cross country teams, and I grew very close with a lot of the guys there. I met one of my best friends at Divine Child who eventually, now in college, led my reversion back to the faith. All of the guys on the cross country and track teams helped lift me up and form me into the person I am today.”
Analyst for Detroit Police Department Learned to ‘Serve Others’ in Catholic School
Ismael Hernandez is a crime analyst for the Detroit Police Department and a graduate of St. Pius X Catholic School in Southgate and Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview.
“From a young age, I really wanted to help people. I wanted to better the lesser person,” Ismael says. “The education formed me to work hard, and study hard, and if you do all those things, line your ducks in a row, the results will pay off.”
That knowledge propelled him through high school where, he explains, the expectation was only higher.
“That transitioned me to high school where more things were added to my plate and the curriculum got harder. The mindset instilled here really set me up for my career.”
For Ismael, the teachers were one of the most foundational aspects of Catholic school.
“They really cared about the students, they all wanted the best for us. Whether it was science, math, handwriting, theology, an extracurricular activity, or a sport where my teachers were coaches, they wanted the absolute best for us and they would sacrifice their own time and even their own resources to make sure the students became the best versions of themselves.”
This selfless support was a fundamental aspect throughout the entire school community.
“These communities are so open. It’s family-oriented, close-knit, and very accepting. They welcome and accept you warmly with open arms and once they do, they don’t leave. They cater to anyone willing to join them and put the time and effort it takes to be part of the whole community itself.”
Inaugural Cristo Rey Graduate Reflects on Early Days of School’s Foundation
Jasmine Kendrick is a social worker at Angela Hospice Grief Care, a graduate of Detroit Cristo Rey High School in southwest Detroit, and a former admissions officer of the school.
Jasmine was one of the first students to walk through Cristo Rey’s halls. Part of a national network of schools that seek to offer corporate work-study programs, the Detroit chapter first launched in 2008, and, as Jasmine remembers, was a time full of energetic excitement.
The inaugural class was “small but very mighty,” Jasmine says, and she remains best friends with many alumni from the school. That “small mightiness” made so many aspects of her education memorable, especially when they unveiled an athletic program.
“The first year we had sports teams was my freshman year. There were no other grades, so you just had to make do with seven to 10 players. There was no one to swap out, no one to sit in time out,” Jasmine laughs. “Our players were literally playing the entire game and winning some of these games. It brought so much camaraderie and togetherness. It’s quite funny to look back and think about. We were building the culture that is there now, and that was really fun.”
Today, Cristo Rey has nearly 300 students and a robust athletic department, but even in those early years when Jasmine was a student and admission officer, it was clear the school had something radical to offer with its corporate-work study program.
“It provides students the ability to step outside of the classroom and hold entry-level positions at a variety of corporations and organizations across southeast Michigan,” Jasmine said. “That, coupled with the educational component and faith-based component really created a well-rounded person out of me. It provided me with the work ethic, expertise, and knowledge to succeed in any field of study that I was to be a part of. I’m so grateful for those experiences that I received at Cristo Rey.”
‘God Was Always with Us’ Remembers University of Michigan Student
Nicholas Welch is a senior at the University of Michigan studying organ performance and sacred music and a graduate of Divine Child Elementary and High Schools.
Nicholas’ favorite Catholic school memory was playing the annual hockey game against Dearborn Unified.
“It was one of the biggest games of the year. The whole school would come out and there was that moment when Father Bob McCabe would say the opening prayer for the game,” reflects Nicholas. “When you have hundreds and hundreds of fans joining in on the Lord’s prayer, it was something really special.”
These special moments where faith encapsulated everything in his schooling — athletics, academics, friendships — are what Nicholas treasures most about his Catholic school upbringing. “The teachers at Divine Child were amazing. They were so caring and every teacher had a passion for the Lord. It’s very difficult in some of the classes; they can be very overwhelming, but they always reminded us that God was always with us no matter what we did.”
Now that Nicholas attends a public university, he misses many aspects of his Catholic schooling, but also sees the solid foundation that was prepared for him to know the man he is, and what he believes.
“The education at Divine Child was very difficult, but difficult in the sense that it prepared me for who I am today. I was pushed in the Lord’s faith every single day, reminding me that no matter what we were doing in class, extracurriculars, or with friends, that the Lord was always with us,” Nicholas said. “Now that I’m at a public university, I don’t have the theology classes that I used to have that gave me a sense of my faith. It’s challenging me to do that work by myself now, and I think Divine Child really prepared me for this — my faith life, academic life, all the way around.”