The Cabrini Teaching Fellows: Revitalizing Our Schools

(Photo provided)

By Forest Barnette 

The year is 1912. 

A tired but determined Italian immigrant sits across from a Coloradan carpenter. Though the mid-April chill doesn’t betray it, a summer heat fast approaches the Rocky Mountain foothills — and there is much to do. 

Together, this mismatched pair draws up plans to house local orphan girls for the third consecutive summer camp hosted by a fledgling religious order. 

The head of that community sits at this table against all odds, toughened from long travels across countries and oceans, driven by a passion to provide an “education of the heart” to the neediest Americans.  

Here, designing Golden’s historic Stone House, is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. 

Just over a century later, during the summer of 2025, that same home was abuzz with chatter — this time of young men and women who share both St. Cabrini’s vision for education and her relentless grit. These are the Cabrini Teaching Fellows, gathering as part of their five-week intensive training as they prepare for their vocations as teachers. 

The State of Education 

Nationwide, schools are facing seemingly insurmountable odds. Due to burnout, rising cost of living, lack of support and an array of other factors, teachers are leaving the field in droves. Catholic schools in Northern Colorado alone hire over 100 new teachers each year. This constant turnover destabilizes school culture, challenges academic continuity, slows student growth and drains precious resources from shoestring administrations. 

For the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Denver, the issue runs deeper than mere staffing. Archdiocesan and parochial schools labor to deepen their Catholic identity and form students to be saints. To accomplish this, they need mission-driven, faith-filled teachers who themselves are striving for sanctity. 

Not only are passionate, faithful Catholic educators hard to find, but they are even harder to keep. Compared to their secular counterparts, teachers in Catholic schools make less money, do more work with fewer resources, and are more likely to leave education after an event like marriage or the birth of a child. In fact, nearly half of all teachers leave education in the first five years on the job.  

The result? A shortage of educators who are excellent in the classroom and deeply rooted in the Catholic mission. Without them, our schools — and our students — cannot thrive. 

Build Teachers, Build the Church 

Enter the Cabrini Teaching Fellows (CTF). Under the patronage of such a tenacious educator as St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and established in 2023 by decree of Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, this three-year program answers the crisis of Catholic education in Northern Colorado head-on.  

CTF provides a direct pipeline for Catholic schools to engage mission-driven teachers by recruiting, training and retaining young professionals who sense a deep call to education. These young men and women are sufficiently formed and supported to further the mission of the Church both within their schools and in life outside the classroom. 

Holistic Formation 

To accomplish this, CTF forms fellows in the same rich educational heritage that ignited such zeal in Mother Cabrini’s own soul: 2,000 years of deeply human education safeguarded and nurtured by the Church.  

St. Cabrini called this philosophy an “education of the heart.” She demanded a rigorous course of study that was as academic and spiritual as it was practical and moral. Her goal: to form the whole person toward deep love of God and neighbor. 

Similarly, CTF formation is more than just academic. Fellows participate in regular group formation experiences focused on human and spiritual growth as well as intellectual and pedagogical development. They dive into the rich history of liberal arts education. Spiritual directors provide individual guidance as the fellows discern the calling of Catholic education. Veteran mentors are assigned to each to ensure a healthy work-life balance and targeted growth in professional skills such as classroom management, culture-building and effective pedagogy.  

Therefore, steeped in this training for years, Cabrini Teaching Fellows carry on St. Cabrini’s mission both in the way they live and in the way they form their own students, injecting stability and excellence into the schools bold enough to invest in them.  

Intentional Community 

Despite the reputation of young professionals, these young men and women choose CTF because they yearn for intentional community — a critical element of each fellow’s success. 

By living closely with like-minded Catholics and sharing a mission, the fellows imitate the selfless lifestyle of Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. This provides further peer-to-peer support, camaraderie and accountability. As fellows learn how to form and sustain a community rooted in prayer, they’re equipped to leave the program with the tools necessary to diminish burnout for themselves and the educators around them.  

A Gift to Schools 

Those schools that choose to partner with CTF share the burden of the crisis in education with like-minded experts, dedicated to forming successful and passionate teachers. Principals are relieved of the hassles associated with constantly filling vacant faculty positions. Resources previously wrapped up in the training and development of young professionals can be redirected as the CTF team provides targeted formation. Classroom culture is strengthened and stabilized as fellows return year to year, already established in the school community. Academic excellence blossoms as curricula are honed by fellows accustomed to their content and familiarized with their students. 

The Whole Church Wins 

Teachers are the heartbeat of schools. By bolstering educators' vocations, restoration and healing stretches throughout the rest of the Body of Christ: education improves, evangelization occurs, students fall in love with the faith, families are inspired, parishes grow, ministries create positive change, outsiders are attracted to the Church, and still more souls are won for Christ. 

Mother Cabrini understood this reality intuitively: to rebuild the Church, we must rebuild education. As teachers, coaches and mentors, Cabrini Fellows are direct missionaries to our young people. 

Be the Solution 

These fellows who filled the Stone House with youthful energy and chatter are the beginning of a bold new way of supporting our schools. While the Holy Spirit is moving, he never does so alone. He calls out for more fellows, more mentors, more formators, more resources, more faith and more hope. CTF boldly steps into the fray to carry Christ’s healing to the schools of Northern Colorado. 

To find out how you can support the mission, visit www.cabriniteachingfellows.com.