News Archive
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The Billiken Teacher Corps Celebrates 10 Years!
This June, as our BTC members moved into community and started classes, we kicked off our 10th year of forming and empowering the next generation of Catholic school teachers. Marking this decade also coincides with the Saint Louis University School of Education celebrating 100 years of educating educators. There is much to be grateful for! |
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Saint Louis University’s Billiken Teacher Corps Adds New Pathway to Meet Growing Demand
Saint Louis University’s Billiken Teacher Corps, in an effort to meet the demand for Catholic school educators throughout St. Louis, will add a new pathway for the 2024-25 school year for participants to earn their Master of Arts in Teaching with Certification. The program, the Billiken Teacher Corps: MAT Magis, will join the Billiken Teacher Corps: Cura Community as an option to earn an MAT while also dedicating themselves to education and deepening their faith. |
Summer 2023 Newsletter
HOPE. That is what the Billiken Teacher Corps does. Every day, our corps members are accompanying their students in creating a hope-filled future. They bring their whole selves to their classrooms and bring that hope into action for their students. The Billiken Teacher Corps supports its teachers in their professional learning, as well as in their personal and spiritual journeys. We are only able to do this with the support of alumni, faculty, university supervisors, principals, school mentors, our instructional coach, and our generous benefactors who make our mission come alive in historically underserved Catholic schools.
HOPE. That is what the Billiken Teacher Corps does. Every day, our corps members are accompanying their students in creating a hope-filled future. They bring their whole selves to their classrooms and bring that hope into action for their students. The Billiken Teacher Corps supports its teachers in their professional learning, as well as in their personal and spiritual journeys. We are only able to do this with the support of alumni, faculty, university supervisors, principals, school mentors, our instructional coach, and our generous benefactors who make our mission come alive in historically underserved Catholic schools.
You're the Reason: Megan Kelly and the Billiken Teacher Corps.
The Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) is what drew graduate student Megan Kelly (Grad Ed '23) to St. Louis from her native California, where she grew up in a small agricultural town and went on to earn undergraduate degrees in child studies, history and Spanish studies at Santa Clara University. While being a BTC member makes for a busy schedule, Kelly says it’s been a huge time of progress and learning. “I can take what I’m learning from the grad school courses and use it the very next day in my lesson, so it’s a really cool opportunity to integrate things straight away,” she said. “And then in the next class, I can go talk about what worked and what didn’t.”
The Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) is what drew graduate student Megan Kelly (Grad Ed '23) to St. Louis from her native California, where she grew up in a small agricultural town and went on to earn undergraduate degrees in child studies, history and Spanish studies at Santa Clara University. While being a BTC member makes for a busy schedule, Kelly says it’s been a huge time of progress and learning. “I can take what I’m learning from the grad school courses and use it the very next day in my lesson, so it’s a really cool opportunity to integrate things straight away,” she said. “And then in the next class, I can go talk about what worked and what didn’t.”
Summer 2022 Newsletter
While this newsletter reflects on last school year, for the 2022-2023 school year, the BTC has placed 12 teachers in 8 different schools. This translates to approximately 1,000 students learning from our passionate, energetic, faithful corps members. Our BTC members can also be found coaching on the cross country course, leading Kairos retreats, tutoring after school, and enjoying life in St. Louis and Springfield. After graduation, most of our alumni continue teaching, many in their original BTC placement. For the first time in BTC history, one of our alumni from Cohort 3 (Class of 2019) has become a principal! Our BTC members and alumni are making a positive impact on the future of Catholic education!
While this newsletter reflects on last school year, for the 2022-2023 school year, the BTC has placed 12 teachers in 8 different schools. This translates to approximately 1,000 students learning from our passionate, energetic, faithful corps members. Our BTC members can also be found coaching on the cross country course, leading Kairos retreats, tutoring after school, and enjoying life in St. Louis and Springfield. After graduation, most of our alumni continue teaching, many in their original BTC placement. For the first time in BTC history, one of our alumni from Cohort 3 (Class of 2019) has become a principal! Our BTC members and alumni are making a positive impact on the future of Catholic education!
A Passion That Doesn’t Graduate
By: St. Louis Review - May 26, 2022
Starting a teaching career in 2020 was not for the faint of heart. But the sixth cohort of the Billiken Teacher Corps did just that — and graduated May 19 with a love of teaching intact. During the 2021-22 school year, 14 teachers served in nine different schools, collectively teaching more than 1,000 students. For the first time, the program included schools in Springfield, Illinois, placing teachers at St. Patrick Catholic School and Sacred Heart-Griffin High School.
By: St. Louis Review - May 26, 2022
Starting a teaching career in 2020 was not for the faint of heart. But the sixth cohort of the Billiken Teacher Corps did just that — and graduated May 19 with a love of teaching intact. During the 2021-22 school year, 14 teachers served in nine different schools, collectively teaching more than 1,000 students. For the first time, the program included schools in Springfield, Illinois, placing teachers at St. Patrick Catholic School and Sacred Heart-Griffin High School.
Summer 2021 Newsletter
As we graduate our fifth cohort of Catholic educators, we are even more amazed by the faithfulness, passion, energy, flexibility and creativity our corps members and alumni have demonstrated over the past year. Not only have they risen to the challenges of being novice teachers in the classroom, but they have also navigated an ever-changing terrain of virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning with grace and compassion for the students and families they serve. Not only do they teach their subjects with passion, but they are credible models of faith and justice for their students. They truly are the next generation of Catholic Educators, and we are so proud of them.
As we graduate our fifth cohort of Catholic educators, we are even more amazed by the faithfulness, passion, energy, flexibility and creativity our corps members and alumni have demonstrated over the past year. Not only have they risen to the challenges of being novice teachers in the classroom, but they have also navigated an ever-changing terrain of virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning with grace and compassion for the students and families they serve. Not only do they teach their subjects with passion, but they are credible models of faith and justice for their students. They truly are the next generation of Catholic Educators, and we are so proud of them.
Billiken Teacher Corps Expands
By: St. Louis Review - December 10, 2020
Beginning in 2021, the Billiken Teacher Corps at Saint Louis University will send teachers to St. Patrick Catholic School in Springfield, Illinois. This is the first time the program has partnered with a school outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Since 2015, the Billiken Teacher has placed new teachers in St. Louis Catholic schools. This year the corps placed 12 teachers in 10 schools in St. Louis.
By: St. Louis Review - December 10, 2020
Beginning in 2021, the Billiken Teacher Corps at Saint Louis University will send teachers to St. Patrick Catholic School in Springfield, Illinois. This is the first time the program has partnered with a school outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Since 2015, the Billiken Teacher has placed new teachers in St. Louis Catholic schools. This year the corps placed 12 teachers in 10 schools in St. Louis.
SLU to Partner with St. Patrick’s Catholic School for First Billiken Teacher Corps Cohort in Illinois
By: Saint Louis University - November, 2020
Since 2015, the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) at Saint Louis University has placed new teachers in some of St. Louis’ hardest to staff Catholic schools. Beginning in 2021, the program will send teachers to St. Patrick’s Catholic School in Springfield, Illinois.
By: Saint Louis University - November, 2020
Since 2015, the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) at Saint Louis University has placed new teachers in some of St. Louis’ hardest to staff Catholic schools. Beginning in 2021, the program will send teachers to St. Patrick’s Catholic School in Springfield, Illinois.
Summer 2020 Newsletter
Our faith invites us to practice Christian attitudes in small matters so that when more significant challenges present themselves we might respond in a Christ-like manner. About six months ago, members of the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC), all graduate students living in an intentional faith community while teaching in urban Catholic schools, gathered for a fall retreat. Before celebrating the Eucharist on Saturday evening, the group read St. Luke’s account of the Emmaus story and then paired up to walk and talk about how God had been present in unexpected events during the last weeks. What we could not realize in the moment was that this retreat activity would provide a spiritual template for how to accompany new Catholic educators in a time of disruption.
Our faith invites us to practice Christian attitudes in small matters so that when more significant challenges present themselves we might respond in a Christ-like manner. About six months ago, members of the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC), all graduate students living in an intentional faith community while teaching in urban Catholic schools, gathered for a fall retreat. Before celebrating the Eucharist on Saturday evening, the group read St. Luke’s account of the Emmaus story and then paired up to walk and talk about how God had been present in unexpected events during the last weeks. What we could not realize in the moment was that this retreat activity would provide a spiritual template for how to accompany new Catholic educators in a time of disruption.
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Archdiocesan News Brief - Serving Catholic Schools
By St. Louis Review - October 10, 2019 Saint Louis University’s Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) is celebrating five years of serving local Catholic schools. Developed in 2014-2015 by the SLU School of Education, the two-year graduate program provides an opportunity for faith-driven college graduates to pursue a teaching career in under-resourced Catholic schools in the St. Louis area. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps Celebrates Five Years of Serving in Local Catholic Schools
By SLU Newslink - October 11, 2019 Guided by the Jesuit emphasis on academic rigor and service to others, SLU's Billiken Teacher Corps is celebrating its fifth anniversary and its latest cohort of new student teachers working in local Catholic schools. |
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Summer 2019 Newsletter
By the Billiken Teacher Corps - September, 2019 What is the mission of the Billiken Teacher Corps? Just as this newsletter is going to print, Pope Francis is visiting small island communities in the Indian Ocean. There, in his homily in Port Louis, the Pope—a former high school chemistry teacher—described our vocation as Catholic educators: Our young people are our foremost mission! We must invite them to find their happiness in Jesus—not by speaking to them in an aloof or distant way, but by learning how to make room for them, learning their language, listening to their stories, spending time with them and making them feel that they, too, are blessed by God. |
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The Billiken Teacher Corps Celebrates 5 Years
By Saint Louis University School of Education - September 10, 2019 The Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) was developed by faculty and staff in the SLU School of Education in 2014-15 to pursue the University mission by serving local Catholic schools. The BTC is a two-year graduate program that provides an opportunity for faith-driven college graduates to pursue a teaching career in under-resourced Catholic schools in the St. Louis area. |
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Winter 2019 Newsletter
By the Billiken Teacher Corps - January, 2019 Contained in these pages are stories about lives changed through our collective contributions to Catholic education. Read on to hear about Catholic Schools Week, especially the second annual BTC Catholic School Olympics. Our undergraduate student intern, Nick Bernard, recounts his memory of the day: I heard a group of kids asking what you learn in college. A SLU volunteer explained, “You learn how to be just about anything you want!” At Catholic School Olympics students got a glimpse of the array of possibilities that lie before them. What was a first-time college visit for many of these kids was one they won't soon forget. |
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Catholic School Olympics kick off joyous week for Catholic education
By Dave Luecking St. Louis Review - February 1, 2018 With music blaring, about 160 students from eight Catholic schools in the archdiocese joyfully claimed Courts 2 and 3 of Simon Recreation Center at St. Louis University. In two lines, the sponsoring Billiken Teacher Corps formed a canopy for the youngsters to come through, skipping and dancing, whooping and hollering in anticipation of the fun times ahead that afternoon — the Catholic School Olympics to kick off Catholic Schools Week Jan. 28 to Feb. 3. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps Hopes for a Blessed Beginning to the Start of School
By SLU Newslink - August 18, 2017 Members of the corps, which combines graduate studies, classroom teaching and an intentional faith community, came together earlier this month to travel to their new classrooms in local Catholic grade and high schools to receive blessings in anticipation of the new school year. |
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Let Us Introduce You: Juan Barzallo
By Agnieszka Gorczyca The University News - April 27, 2017 As a graduating senior, Juan Barzallo took some time to reflect on his time here at SLU. He pared down his extensive involvement in extracurricular activities from 15 to six after his freshman and sophomore years. “Juan, his freshman year, wanted to do everything, he wanted to be everything,” said Barzallo. In addition to mere participation in each organization, he was also on five executive boards during his sophomore year. |
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More non-Catholic students are enrolling in St. Louis area Catholic schools
By Kristen Taketa St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Jan 30, 2017 Standing tall with twin spires of stone overlooking Interstate 70, Most Holy Trinity Catholic church has remained an anchor in the Hyde Park neighborhood for more than 150 years. A laminated black-and-white photo kept in the back of the church serves as a memory of a different time. The photo shows a microcosm of the church’s congregation in 1950: the parish school’s graduating class. All are wearing graduation caps, holding candles and smiling on the front steps of the church. Every one of the 42 students in the picture is white. Today, 92 percent of Most Holy Trinity’s students are African-American. All of the students receive need-based aid. Just one student is Catholic. |
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Corps Values: Graduate Students Make an Impact on St. Louis' Catholic Schools
By Emily Clemenson Universitas Alumni Magazine - Fall 2016 Thirteen strangers are chosen and instructed to live together, eat together and depend upon each other. This isn’t the next season of prime-time reality television. This is the Billiken Teacher Corps, a two-year, service-driven master’s program at Saint Louis University. |
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Teach Me: Classroom and Community Come Together in Innovative Saint Louis University Program
By Emily Clemenson Jesuits.org - February 24, 2017 Thirteen strangers are chosen and instructed to live together, eat together and depend upon each other. This isn’t the next season of prime-time reality television. This is the Billiken Teacher Corps, a two-year, service-driven master’s program at Saint Louis University. Participants are not just roommates or classmates; they’re treated as a community — somewhere between a cohort and a family. They have shared experiences and make programmatic decisions as a group. They’re young, energetic teachers who rely upon each other for prayer, support, fellowship and camaraderie. |
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Second Billiken Teacher Corps Class, New Director Announced
By Jeanette Grider SLU Newslink - July 12, 2016 The second year of the Billiken Teacher Corps (BTC) has been filled with energy and anticipation as this year's cohort started and last year's inaugural cohort continued their graduate studies and preparation for fall teaching assignments. Adding to the excitement was the announcement of Ronny O'Dwyer, S.J., as the first director of the BTC. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps ‘rock stars’ pave way for successors
By Dave Luecking St. Louis Review - March 3, 2016 The inaugural Billiken Teacher Corps entered the program without a playbook or roadmap; it was learn on the go, plan on the fly. Not so with the second class. "We are so excited about people coming in," said Sarah Staten, a member of the inaugural Billiken Teacher Corps, who now number six. "We can give them advice, tell them what the program looks like... Then, they can train the new class after that." |
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Billiken Teacher Corps member glad to be in St. Louis
By Dave Luecking St. Louis Review - March 3, 2016 As a University of Notre Dame undergraduate, Sarah Staten considered the school's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) for graduate studies, a program in its 22nd year. She'd earn a master's degree in education and gain practical, classroom experience teaching at a Catholic school. Those aspects matched her aspirations, but one detail made it a non-starter: That Catholic school might be anywhere in the United States. |
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Answering the Call to Teach
By Jessica Bock St. Louis Post Dispatch - February 1st 2016 In her first year working in campus ministry, Elise Earley couldn’t shake the call she felt to serve, but in a different way. She prayed, looking for direction from God about where she could make the most difference. Teaching, she realized, could be that calling. Earley applied for a teacher certification program, still feeling unsettled about where exactly education would take her. She had just hit submit on the application when her office phone rang with an actual call. |
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Inaugural Participants of Billiken Teacher Corps Kick Off the Program
By Sara Hendrixson SLU Newslink - September 9, 2015 Saint Louis University's School of Education and the Archdiocese of St. Louis have established a unique new program for students pursuing graduate degrees in education the Billiken Teacher Corps. The program combines service and teaching to offer a unique opportunity for faith- driven college graduates to have a transformative impact on Catholic schools in the St. Louis Metro area and live out SLU's mission of serving a higher purpose for a greater good. |
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SLU Launches Billiken Teacher Corps
By Jeanette Grider SLU Newslink - July 10, 2015 Saint Louis University's School of Education and the Archdiocese of St. Louis have partnered on a unique new program for students pursuing graduate degrees in education. The Billiken Teacher Corps combines service and teaching to offer a unique opportunity for faith driven college graduates to have a transformative impact on Catholic schools in the St. Louis Metro area and live the Jesuit mission of serving a higher purpose for a greater good. |
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Seven Participants Chosen for Inaugural Urban Teaching Program
By University Communications Newslink - June 8, 2015 The Archdiocese of St. Louis and the College of Education and Public Service at Saint Louis University recently named the seven members of the inaugural Billiken Teacher Corps program. The servicebased program is a collaboration between the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Saint Louis University to place graduate students in urban Catholic school classrooms. |
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Seven Participants Chosen for Inaugural Urban Teaching Program
By Gabe Jones Archdiocese of St. Louis - June 3, 2015 The Archdiocese of St. Louis and the College of Education and Public Service at Saint Louis University recently named the seven members of the inaugural Billiken Teacher Corps program. The service-based program is a collaboration between the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Saint Louis University to place graduate students in urban Catholic school classrooms. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps 'rockstars' focus on community, service and students
By Dave Luecking St. Louis Review - May 27, 2015 John James of St. Louis University referred to the inaugural class of the Billiken Teacher Corps as "rockstars." "That's the standard we set; our first year out of the chute, they had to be rockstars," said James, the assistant professor in the College of Education and Public Service entrusted with the Corps, along with SLU's Father Christopher Collins, SJ. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps mobilizes SLU mission
By Tim Wilhelm The University News - March 20, 2015 The College of Education and Public Service has created the Billiken Teacher Corps, a program allowing graduate students to earn a master’s degree while serving as teachers in Metro area Catholic schools. The Archdiocese of St. Louis, SLU’s Center for Service and Community Engagement, and the SLU Jesuit community have partnered in the creation of the Corps, alongside affiliated area schools and their surrounding communities. |
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Billiken Teacher Corps aims to make impact
By Joseph Kenny St. Louis Review - March 18, 2015 The College of Education and Public Service at St. Louis University is forming the Billiken Teacher Corps, in which college graduates seeking a master's degree will teach in urban Catholic schools in the archdiocese and live together in a Jesuit mission. The program combines service and teaching. According to an announcement from SLU, it will help faith-driven college graduates have "a transformative impact on Catholic schools in the St. Louis metro area and live the Jesuit mission of serving a higher purpose for a greater good." |