Dr. Catherine Bowes, the principal of St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown, has a special vantage point to religion teacher Holly Kaufmann’s classroom – her office is right next door.
“They (students) love her class. I can hear the laughter and discussions,” she said.
The principal of the Southern Maryland coeducational Catholic high school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers praised Kaufmann, saying she has a gift for connecting with her students, “has her heart in every lesson,” and has high standards for her students, who meet those standards.
Kaufmann, who was inspired to become Catholic while she was a student at St. Mary’s Ryken, graduated from there in 2016 and returned to teach there four years ago.
“She has a deep love for the faith, and she is able to do that in a way that they (students) mirror it back to her,” Bowes said.
The religion teacher’s classroom next door to her principal’s office had a crowd of surprise visitors on April 29, as officials from the Catholic Schools Office of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington stepped inside to announce that Holly Kaufmann is a 2024 Golden Apple Award-winning teacher.
The Golden Apple teachers, who will be honored at a May 16 dinner, will each receive a golden apple and a monetary award of $5,000 from the Donahue Family Foundation, which sponsors the annual award for teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education.
Holly Kaufmann found Christ, and hope and meaning in her Catholic faith, when she was a student at St. Mary’s Ryken High School, and now she hopes to help the freshmen in her religion classes there do the same.
“It’s such a gift to be able to be here in the place where I discovered my faith, and to be able to share it with my students each day,” Kaufmann said in an interview.
She demonstrated how classes typically start with her tossing a foam prayer cube to a student, who in catching it reveals which prayer title – including the Our Father, Hail Mary, the St. Michael the Archangel prayer, the Glory Be, the Guardian Angel prayer or the “Come Holy Spirit” prayer – is visible on the top square of the cube that landed in the student’s palm. Her students then pray that prayer together.
The students’ desks are arranged in a square shape with one end open, and Kaufmann walks back and forth in the middle, asking them questions, encouraging dialogue and adding an occasional joke. A display on a bulletin board in the back of the room includes the words “BE A SAINT.” On this day, she broke her class into small groups to research and lead upcoming discussions on the seven sacraments.
“We try to get out of the classroom as much as possible,” she said, noting that sometimes she takes her class to the school’s chapel or outside on the scenic campus that overlooks Breton Bay, for discussions and times for reflection and prayer.
The chapel at St. Mary’s Ryken is very important to Kaufmann, who grew up in St. Mary’s City and attended St. Michael’s School in Ridge before graduating from Father Andrew White, S.J. School in Leonardtown. When she was a high school student at St. Mary’s Ryken, her father died unexpectantly. Kaufmann drew strength from praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament in that chapel, and also during Eucharistic Adoration while she was a camp counselor at the Summer Program at St. John Francis Regis Parish in Hollywood, Maryland, where she is now a parishioner.
Kaufmann said the chapel was a place “where I fell in love with Christ,” and now “it’s wonderful to take my students” there.
In a reflection she wrote about being a Catholic school teacher, Kaufmann said, “Years ago, as a student at St. Mary’s Ryken, the witness of several teachers changed the trajectory of my life. I fell in love with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and entered the Catholic Church during my senior year. Now as a teacher, I have the opportunity every day to pass along the incredible gift of faith I received as a student… So many young people have never had the opportunity to encounter God’s love. If just one student comes to know Jesus Christ through my class, then everything is worthwhile.”
Kaufmann teaches five sections of religion to about 120 freshman there. The classes she teaches include Introduction to Religion, Introduction to Catholicism, Old Testament and New Testament.
“It’s a really formative time for them, where we’re taking students from all different backgrounds, middle schools and faith traditions and putting them together in one class,” she said.
Dr. Glenn Wood, the president and CEO of St. Mary’s Ryken High School, noted the importance of Kaufmann’s work teaching religion to ninth graders. “She has an even larger job, to talk to students who maybe never had a religion class, (who) see it lived out in Holly.”
He noted how Kaufmann attends sporting events and other school activities there to support students. “It’s not a 9-to-5 job for her. It’s truly a vocation,” he said.
John Olon, the chair of the theology department at St. Mary’s Ryken said Kaufmann’s “path here has been remarkable.” He added, “She understands who she’s teaching. She understands what’s at stake. She actually wants to bring souls to Christ.”
In her reflection on being a teacher, Kaufmann said a pivotal moment for her came in her first year of teaching, when a colleague encouraged her to pray for her students. Now over the summer when she receives her class rosters, she begins praying for her students by name. “It continues as I craft lesson plans in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or as I pace the classroom, praying the rosary for students as they take a test,” she wrote.
Christine Jaffurs, the director of school counseling at St. Mary’s Ryken, witnessed Kaufmann’s faith journey as a student that ultimately led her to feel called to be an educator. Jaffurs, who was her Confirmation sponsor when she became Catholic, said of her former student and now colleague, “I was her counselor. Now she’s one of my best friends.”
After graduating from St. Mary’s Ryken, Kaufmann earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ave Maria University in Florida, minoring in education, and now she is studying through the online program at Liberty University in Virginia to earn a master’s degree in school counseling.
Kaufmann in her reflection on being a Catholic school teacher wrote, “At any given moment, I have a classroom full of 25 young people whose souls are so thirsty for life and truth… Only Christ is the answer to this need. Teaching in a Catholic school allows me to authentically present Christ to my students through the way that I live and the way that I love them.”
The goal that she has for students in her class, she said, is that they “come to know and experience Jesus Christ.”
Asked about what impact she hopes to have on students, Kaufmann said, “More than anything, I hope they’re aware of God’s love for them, no matter what academic facts they take away, (that) they’re just so confident in God’s extraordinary love for them.”
