Working while pursuing an advanced degree, Cindy says she found a passion for administrative roles that allowed her to care for students who were facing learning and behavioral challenges. “I was a behavior coordinator, and I loved it. I was a principal for a while, too, and then I worked in a central office as a student services coordinator.” 

Mentoring students who were in danger of not graduating was especially meaningful for Cindy as she saw the impact of helping students realize what they could achieve. It was one particularly challenging student Cindy worked with who opened her eyes to God’s plan for her life. “There was one boy who had some very serious struggles. He once broke a window with his head. One day during an outburst I just sat with him, and he eventually shouted, ‘What are you doing?!’ I said, ‘I’m praying for you.’ I immediately thought I was going to lose my job. But at that moment I didn’t care. I asked him if he prayed, and we talked about it.” After the eye-opening encounter, Cindy realized she longed to be in a job where she could relate to students in mind, body, and soul. “That struggling student needed more than just what education could give him. He needed prayer. The situation helped me see that I needed to be in a different environment.”

Cindy jumped at the opportunity to interview for the principal position at Holy Family and immediately felt the peace of God’s plan. “It was very comfortable. And right away I noticed a difference. Coming from a public school, even starting the interview in prayer was a joyful experience.” 

And now, Cindy describes the double blessing of her role: the freedom to educate the whole student and the grace of growth in her own relationship with God. “I was so used to not being able to say certain things at work. Now to be free to say these things is a gift. And I’m learning so much from the kids and from the teachers. I want to know more. I just want to know more about God and about the truth.” Brenda DeFord and Christopher Luea, former public school teachers who now work at Lansing Catholic High School, relate to Cindy’s experience. Brenda says that while geometry itself is no different at Lansing Catholic than it was in public school, the difference comes in the way she is called to evangelize to her students. “It has to be purposeful: pointing out the goodness of the Lord in struggles, praying with my students, talking about my own faith journey, calling on students to take a step in holiness. In turn, that's pushing me in my relationship with Jesus, which is a huge blessing.” 

Christopher feels similarly, noting, “though the public schools are very much a mission field, I felt a strong calling to share more fully and directly who I have become in Christ. In the work of forming the whole person, our faith must be included, in addition to a transfer of knowledge and skill development.” 

Like Cindy, Brenda, and Christopher, more than 20 of the new staff members in the Diocese of Lansing over the last three years made the switch from public schools to Catholic schools. Often leaving better pay and benefits for the opportunity to educate the whole person, they welcome the chance to be wholly engaged in the evangelization that takes place in Catholic schools.

Ultimately, Cindy says, she is grateful for God’s will, which led her not only to Holy Family School, but also to a deeper relationship with him. “Through all of this I have known God is walking with me.” And, she has realized, walking with the Lord and doing his work brings real fulfillment. “You can be happy. I used to see people who were truly joyful and now I feel like I’m there. And it’s because I’m here.”