Four receive Excellence in Education Awards

September 15, 2005

The Ninth Annual Bishop's Dinner for Catholic Education will celebrate Catholic schools and recognize excellent teachers. Four Catholic school teachers will receive Excellence in Education Awards.

This year's recipients are Cynthia Edge of St. Mary's School, Humboldt; Laura Owens of Sacred Heart School, Sioux City; Richard Seivert of Gehlen Catholic, Le Mars; and Janet Wade of St. Edmond Middle School, Fort Dodge.

The award was established to recognize teachers who are dedicated educators in diocesan Catholic schools.

Recipients of this award must have been a teacher in the Diocese of Sioux City for at least five years. They are to have expressed a clear, integrated philosophy of Catholic education and be held in high regard by their peers, students and/or parents.

Cynthia Edge is a sixth grade teacher at St. Mary's Grade School in Humboldt. She is also the technology coordinator and teaches computer classes to fourth through sixth grade students. In the past, she has taught at Catholic schools in West Bend and Clare.

She attended Iowa Central Community College for two years before transferring to Iowa State University where she earned a bachelor's in elementary education. She is presently working on her master's in administration through the University of Dayton.

"I treasure the children that I work with each day," she said. "Every day is an opportunity to make a difference in the life in each child that has been entrusted to me. These children are our future. My children have had many good teachers as they went through St. Mary School. The teachers have made a difference in the lives of my children. I am attempting to say thank you for that by doing this for the children of others."

In her essay about Catholic education, Edge noted that her ministry as a teacher is very important to her because she teaches the values that are most important to her as a person, parent and teacher.

Edge and her husband, Keith, have three children: Kaleb, Ben and Katie.

Laura Owens is a second grade teacher at Sacred Heart School in Sioux City. She began her work at the school in 1989 as a fourth grade teacher and made the switch to second grade in 2002.

She attended Wayne State College in Wayne, Neb.

"It is exciting to be recognized for my contributions to the teaching profession and I am deeply honored at receiving the teacher of excellence award. I feel privileged to be part of the ministry that helps in the educational and spiritual growth of students in our Catholic schools," she said.

In her essay about Catholic education, Owens stated that infusing Gospel values into the curriculum helps students to integrate these values into their lives long after leaving the classroom.

Owens and her husband, Kevin, have two children: Anna and Ryan.

Richard Seivert is a guidance counselor for students in seventh to twelfth grades at Gehlen Catholic as well as a high school social studies teacher. After a four-year teaching stint at Armstrong, Iowa, Seivert began his teaching career at Gehlen in 1976. He assumed the counseling position at Gehlen in 1983. He is a track coach at the school and directs the Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras and Mission Honduras Le Mars.

Seivert is a graduate of Dakota State in Madison, S.D.

"I am honored, but humble, to receive this award," he said. "I accept in the name of all the fine priests and sisters I have worked with over the years at Gehlen - as a young teacher and coach I could not have had better role models. I honor them today in accepting this award and I hope I can live up to the principles and values they taught me. I also accept in the name of all the fine teachers, secretaries, custodians and cooks I have learned from, along with all the students who have gone through Gehlen and by extension their parents. And most importantly, I accept in the name of all the poor of Honduras our programs try to help - looking into the face of poverty keeps me grounded in who I am as a Christian and Catholic."

Seivert said he viewed educating today's children within the Catholic school as one of the most important professions in the country and culture.

"Bringing the cross and what we believe into everyday life for a student is paramount in what we do," he added. "Teaching by example is everything - placing the importance of being Catholic and Christian above everything else is hard and difficult but extremely rewarding in the lives of the young we teach. I have been honored to be a teacher in the Catholic school system today - it is a 'life,' not a job."

Janet Wade, a teacher at St. Edmond Middle School, has been teaching in the Fort Dodge Catholic School System for 25 years. For the past 10 years she has taught seventh and eighth grade math. Prior to her work at the Catholic school, she worked with behavior disordered, autistic and chronic disruptive programs with the AEA.

She earned her bachelor's degree from UNI in special education and k-8.

"This award is a blessing from God, for it is from God that I have the ability to teach," she said.

In her essay about Catholic education, Wade said that she is blessed to work in a Catholic school where she note only can teach what she loves - math - but also is able to talk about her favorite friend and mentor - Jesus.

"My goal is to create within my students, confidence in self, a passion for life, the curiosity to keep learning and to reach beyond what I teach in the classroom," she said.

Wade and her husband, John, have two daughters, Marci and Angie; one son, Michael; and two son-in-laws.

These teachers will receive the award at the bishop's dinner that is slated for Oct. 23 at the Sioux City Convention Center.