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A Fierce Love of Students

BY MADELINE ZUKOWSKI, DSHA '11
How many teachers can say they’ve loved every single one of their students? Retiring Theology Faculty Lorna Grade can. She has authentically loved them all. And leaving these young women will be the hardest part of retirement.
Lorna Grade stepped into a new world on her first day at DSHA 14 years ago. Before she received her theology classroom full of 14-year-old girls, she went through DSHA orientation, which included Mass and a spiritual ice breaker exercise.
 
The exercise seemed foreign and awkward to her. She remembers holding onto a piece of yarn and rolling it across the floor to her fellow peers. In the end, it was a web amongst the group, and it led to the start of belonging to the tight-knit community of DSHA.
 
“Here I am going to Mass, talking about spirituality and rolling yarn around the floor,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be different.’”
 
A VIP WITH MANY HATS
 
Although Grade is now a seasoned educator, it wasn’t always that way. She got her start in the working world as the manager and director of the cardiovascular disease academic program at the old Mount Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee. Her role was business oriented—she was responsible for the accounts and finances of the program, oversaw personnel, and ran symposia. “I was a one woman show there,” she said.
 
She then transitioned to be the co-owner and executive director of a clinical drug trial company—all while raising her family—but after a decade she was out of a job, as the company closed. She thought back to her childhood dream, which was to be a teacher. Deciding to explore it, she was unsure of what subject she would teach. She then came across a newspaper article that spoke of a lack of theology teachers in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
 
“It was so weird. I was having issues at home, I was struggling with God in my life at the moment, and I was thinking about being a teacher,” she said. After getting her master’s in religious studies and studying how to teach, DSHA called on her in 2005.
 
A HUMBLING EXPERIENCE
 
While Grade moved from one leadership position to another, she quickly learned being a leader looks different in a classroom.
 
“When I came here, I was a know-it-all,” she said. “I’d run things, I’d get things done. But my students humbled me. It really made me sit back, evaluate, and know that in many ways, what I had to impart to them, they had as much to impart to me. I didn’t have all the answers.”
 
Although the first few years were challenging, and at times throughout her career she faced challenges with parents whose theological perspectives were different than her own, her heart was always in the right place: it was all about the girls.
 
She not only listened to them, but heard them. She constantly heard the need—and desire—to learn not only about the Catholic faith, but also faith around the world.
 
LEAVING HER MARK
 
Grade has taught freshmen girls for the last 14 years. When she started, the textbook used during freshman year spared only two paragraphs about the Church’s outreach to other Christian denominations or other world religions. But the students’ interest in this topic was obvious. Because of this, Grade set out to form a whole class surrounding world religions.
 
When the theology curriculum changed six years ago, Grade designed and proposed an elective World Religions class for seniors. It was accepted into the curriculum, and although it’s not a mandatory class yet, Grade wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually becomes one. World Religions is also a dual credit course, meaning students get college credit for taking the course.
 
“Mrs. Grade has always been curious about scholarly work in the discipline of theology,” said Academic Dean Heather Mansfield. “In both her freshman and senior classes, it feels like a college class.”
 
The course has been popular among seniors; in the 2017-2018 school year, 118 seniors took World Religions, and Grade, the only theology faculty member trained to teach these classes, was spending her whole day teaching the subject. She is a firm believer that understanding other religions and accepting those who practice different religions is social justice in action.
 
While DSHA is a Catholic institution, and Grade, a strong Catholic herself, “a great supporter who has fully embraced the Salvatorian mission,” according to Mansfield, is also passionate about preparing her students for the global world.
 
“This is the world these girls are moving into,” she said. “They’re going to go to college and their roommate could be a Hindu. They need to be able to live in the world that is their world.”
 
GIVING IT HER ALL

Grade has never met a student she didn’t like. When asked if that was a slight exaggeration, she said she’s loved “every single one of them.” Because she raised two daughters of her own, she knows what it’s like to be a teenage girl and the issues girls can face. And because she holds that compassion for her students in her heart, she is an ally to them, both in and outside of the academic world.
 
“I truly love these girls,” she said. “They give purpose to my life; I think about them all the time. I don’t care if I’m here 14 years teaching the same class, every day I plan everything out to give them the best that I can of what I teach. It’s from the minute the bell rings to the minute they leave.”
 
Grade’s even thinking about her students when she listens to the radio in her car. At times, she’ll hear something she can incorporate into her lesson plans. “There may be two weeks of school left, and I’ll want to add something into my curriculum,” she joked. “This is what I mean about me retiring. I don’t know if I can do it. I’m going to have to find a new way to redirect my energies.”
 
In addition to teaching, her energy has gone into watching her students grow from freshmen in her Christology class to seniors in her World Religions class and aiding them in that growth in whatever way she can.
 
“She really gets to see the growth and development of her students,” said Mansfield. “She is their mentor and guide; students really confide in her.”
 
Her classroom is packed full of students during lunch, and her iconic candy machine is full of candy for those girls who need a treat or a pick-me-up––whether that be M&M’s or a word of encouragement from Grade.
 
When she thinks about not returning to DSHA next year, tears fill her eyes.
 
“These kids have been my kids,” she said. “If they didn’t always like me, well, you didn’t always love your mom either. I’m going to miss them… they’ve had such an impact on my life.”
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    • Former Theology Faculty Lorna Grade constantly gave of herself to her students.

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