Flannery O'Connor Honored with Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education

“My parents named me Flannery O’Connor . . . 

knowing of the author, but probably not knowing that my life would be centered around Catholic education.”

Flannery O’Connor, a member of ACE 13 (Fort Worth), theology teacher and founding director of admissions for Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, has seen and experienced the power of education.

“It can be life-changing in terms of a person understanding their dignity and their worth,” she says. “The privilege for me as an educator is to see that person grow and go on in life and do what they feel passionate about. It’s hard work, but when it’s done the right way, there’s no better feeling.”

The Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education is given annually to two graduates of the ACE Teaching Fellows program who have distinguished themselves in making significant contributions to the ministry of Catholic Education. Flannery earned this honor for her continued dedication to educating and caring for the whole child while building communities where everyone is valued and heard.

The three pillars that root ACE–teaching, community, and spirituality–continue to resonate with Flannery, but one stands out. “Community,” Flannery says. “It’s something I very much value in my life. I don’t think I can ever say that I achieved something on my own.”

During her formation in ACE, those influences included her ACE community, the students, teachers, and parents at All Saints Catholic School where she taught, and the Notre Dame faculty who inspired her, including Dr. Rachel Moreno. “Everything she did was genuine and rooted in love. I admire that in her. That stuck with me,” says Flannery.

Taking the lessons of ACE with her, Flannery felt the pull back to her familial roots in Philadelphia, where she worked in Campus Ministry and enrolled at Villanova University and began work on her masters in counseling.

“I felt like it was a great transition, that it would help me be a better educator and help me find my place in education. As a teacher, you have your lesson plan and an idea of how the day will go, but we talk about how our students come into school with an invisible backpack,” Flannery says. “We don’t know what happened the night before, what they’re thinking, what’s on their shoulders. The counseling role is knowing how to have that conversation with the student and also with the families and to care for the whole child instead of just looking at the academics.”

To Flannery, teaching is much more than the hours spent in the classroom. “A quality education sees and values the gifts of students,” she says. “Education can break the cycle of poverty because it offers resources, which can lead to opportunity for students to excel and rise above the structures of our society that so often leave people out.”

After graduating from Villanova, Flannery met business executive John McConnell, who was interested in starting a Cristo Rey high school in Philadelphia. Cristo Rey is a network of high schools across the country that integrates four years of rigorous college preparatory academics with four years of professional work experience.

Flannery jumped at the opportunity. “ACE is very much rooted in love and gospel values,” she says, “Cristo Rey is the same way.” They got straight to work gathering data and writing the feasibility study, but they were missing one very important ingredient.

“The first thing you need is students,” Flannery says. She had never been a director of admissions, but she signed on to the challenge. Through the work of a committed team of teachers and staff, Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School opened in 2012. One hundred percent of the graduates were accepted to colleges and universities in 2016, and in 2017, and in 2018. Flannery says, “I just feel very, very blessed to have been in a place where I was able to have a conversation with a person who had a vision and a passion, and I was able to be a part of that.”

While teaching theology and working as an instructional coach to other teachers, Flannery is open to additional ways to serve. She is working toward her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Pennsylvania. “I’ve seen the power of excellent leadership. Schools need that and students deserve that,” she says.

“We’re extremely proud of our students and we just had our first acceptance to Notre Dame,” says Flannery.

She says, “Cristo Rey is where my heart is. We’re a school that works very hard to build a community where everyone knows they are valued and heard.”

Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School has a slogan: We believe. We dream. We lead. We serve.

“Being a part of the Cristo Rey community that lives out this slogan every day brings me great joy, and for this I am deeply grateful,” Flannery says.