By Michael Gresham
The Texas Catholic
There is not one day — even the hardest day — where it is not clear to Emily Lazor-Rodgers that what she is doing is important.
“As a teacher, it’s going to be difficult at times, but the relationships we have with students — and the growth they can have when we partner with their families to help them achieve success — is really inspiring,” said Lazor-Rodgers, who is entering her 10th year teaching at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep. “It’s such a gift.”
Lazor-Rodgers began her journey as a Catholic school educator through the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education Teaching Fellows program, an initiative that places recent graduates from colleges and universities across the country into under-resourced Catholic schools. Participants serve as full-time teachers while pursuing a master’s degree in education from the University of Notre Dame.
As an alumna of that program, Lazor-Rodgers was honored in July with the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education, presented to graduates of the ACE Teaching Fellows program who have distinguished themselves in making significant contributions to the ministry of Catholic education.
“She is an amazing teacher who cares deeply for her students and their experiences,” Nivea Torres, principal of Cristo Rey Dallas, said, adding that Lazor-Rodgers embodies the character of a supportive and dedicated teacher. “She is a beautiful example of what it means to have a heart for others and encourages her community to be in practice of living to love and honor God and each other.”
Inspired by family
A native of Bel Air, Maryland, Lazor-Rodgers said her journey into the classroom began well before joining the ACE program, as she credited her parents for inspiring the vocation.
Her father, a clinical psychologist, became a second-career Catholic school teacher when a position opened at the high school Lazor-Rodgers attended during her senior year.
“It was really cool to see how my dad’s life was transformed by being a Catholic school teacher, just being a part of a community,” she said. “It was just really life-giving for him.”
Lazor-Rodgers said her mother’s story of growing up in poverty in the Philippines before immigrating to the United States in 1983 also shaped her vocation.
“My grandmother really valued education and made a lot of sacrifices so that my mom and her siblings could receive an education,” Lazor-Rodgers explained. “She went to Catholic school growing up in the Philippines, and that really changed the trajectory of her life. She ended up going to medical school there.”
Lazor-Rodgers said her mother drew on those experiences to instill in her own children a sense of compassion and mercy as well as an understanding that people’s lives can be changed by others investing in them.
“That planted a seed in me and my brother from a very young age,” she said, “and I try to stay close to her story.”
After graduating high school, Lazor-Rodgers attended Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she received a bachelor’s degree in theology and religious studies. While at the university, she began tutoring at St. Anthony Catholic School, a campus that was also an ACE placement site.
“They wanted to be economically affordable, and you could see how they were serving a real civic purpose in helping young people in the community,” she said. “That’s what we try to do here at Cristo Rey Dallas. We think about the academic and the spiritual but also the civic — to prepare people to be positive members of society.”
Inspired by her experience at St. Anthony, and encouraged by a mentoring professor at the university, Lazor-Rodgers joined the ACE program after graduation.
“I knew I wanted to teach and do some sort of postgraduate service,” she said, noting that the program’s faith-based foundation and civic mission were key factors in her decision to join. She was also intrigued that, unlike other programs, with ACE she had no input on where she would be assigned. She was placed in Jackson, Mississippi, which at the time was only about 2% Catholic.
“I had grown up in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and gone to college in D.C., so my life was very northeast,” Lazor-Rodgers said. “Going to Mississippi opened up my eyes to the diversity of the American experience.”
‘I’ll be here’
After graduating from the ACE program, Lazor-Rodgers worked for ACE in South Bend, Indiana, for three years before returning to classroom teaching, moving to Texas in 2016 to join a pair of ACE classmates, Gunnar Rawlings and Tim Woodward, who were founding faculty members of Cristo Rey Dallas.
“They encouraged me to apply,” Lazor-Rodgers said, adding that after interviewing with founding principal, Christine Román, she knew Cristo Rey Dallas was the place she needed to be. “She told me, ‘We’re here to partner with families, and the parents are more important educators than we are.’ That’s just so Catholic. Parents are the primary educators. Catholic education is different if we really believe that.”
Lazor-Rodgers was offered the job, and before consulting anyone else, she said, “Yeah, I’ll be here.”
Lazor-Rodgers teaches AP Seminar to juniors, a social science research class based on Catholic Social Teaching that focuses on topics such as immigration reform, juvenile justice, and ethics in medical research.
At Cristo Rey, Lazor-Rodgers said she is inspired daily by the value the community — from students and parents to faculty and administrators — places on families.
“Our students… are loving; they respect their parents and are very grateful for them,” she said. “The more we can bring parents in, the better our educational outcomes will be.
“Our parents are so faithful,” Lazor-Rodgers added. “The more family rosaries we can have, the more families that come to Mass, the more it will improve the faith life of our school.”
Outside the classroom, Lazor-Rodgers leads a women’s strength training club for students and faculty. She and her husband, Clinton, are parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. The couple recently welcomed a daughter, Rosey Flor. As a new parent, Lazor-Rodgers said her sense of her teaching vocation has deepened.
“You send your kid to school, and you just hope for the best,” she said. “My intention going into the school year is: They’re not other people’s kids — they’re all our kids.”
Ten years into her tenure at the school, Lazor-Rodgers said her passion for Cristo Rey Dallas remains strong.
“I just really love Cristo Rey,” she said. “The more people that know about it, the better.”
Cutline for featured image: Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep teacher Emily Lazor-Rodgers was honored in July with the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education, presented to graduates of the ACE Teaching Fellows program who have distinguished themselves in making significant contributions to the ministry of Catholic education. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
