The Murray Institute: Educating the educators

Instructor Lucy Payne, center, talks with students Julie Steege, left, and Nikki Gibbs, right, during class Sept. 20 at the Murray Institute at the downtown Minneapolis campus of the University of St. Thomas. Steege is a teacher at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, and Gibbs is a teacher at St. Michael Catholic School in St. Michael. Payne is an associate professor in UST’s School of Education. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Like most educators, the principal of St. Thomas More Catholic School in St. Paul embraces professional educational opportunities for himself and his fellow Catholic administrators and teachers. That’s why Pat Lofton and hundreds of other Catholic school professionals have turned to the Murray Institute for Catholic Education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The institute grants scholarships for certificates and post-graduate degrees for educators in Catholic schools and religious educators in parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Since its founding in the 1960s, the Murray Insitute has served about 1,000 educators — and the good news gets around.

“I learned about the Murray Institute at the University of St. Thomas from other teachers and principals,” said Lofton, who graduated from the program in 2008.

All the institute’s programs are funded from a $15 million endowment built out of a combination of gifts from benefactors who have given through the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which founded the College of St. Thomas and helped found the institute, and what evolved into UST. The endowment funds allow teachers at no expense of their own to obtain advanced degrees, said Bernard ‘Bernie’ Brady, director of the Murray Institute and associate director of the university’s Office for Mission.

“Given the expense of graduate education, many Catholic educators could not envision working to attain advanced degrees,” Brady said.

This fall, the institute is serving about 100 students: 50 students working on degrees in the School of Education, about 30 students in the College of Arts and Sciences (which includes programs in Catholic Studies, music, Spanish, English and art history), about 15 students in the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and several students in STEM education in the School of Engineering.

Mary Kate Miley, a new cohort in the master’s degree program in Educational Studies, with a concentration on K-12 reading, said her main goal is to further her education to best contribute to the lives of her students at Annunciation Catholic School in south Minneapolis.

“By completing this program, I have deep confidence that I will be better equipped to serve my students — and they deserve the very best,” Miley said. “I am also looking forward to making meaningful connections with other teachers from different Catholic schools. I will have these connections and this support system for years to come. The way that the Murray Institute brings people together is a very special thing.”

Having the graduate programs fully funded by the scholarships is a life-changing opportunity and a big draw for many, Miley included.

“I earned my BA in elementary education from the University of St. Thomas in 2020,” she said. “This is my third year of teaching kindergarten and I am lucky to be able to wake up every day and go to work at a place that I love.”

Lofton, whose experience at the Murray Institute included obtaining an educational specialist degree, said that from his first appointment as a middle school teacher at St. Mark Catholic School in St. Paul from 2000-2006, to his role as associate superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, to his current position as principal of St. Thomas More, he has celebrated the opportunity to bring quality Catholic education that can help “shape students into young people who are faith-filled, intellectually curious and prepared to make a difference in the world.”

The Murray Institute has long taught a cohort of educators taking the same courses together in the same program, but in the fall of 2021 adjusted its model to include students working toward different degrees, Brady said.

“This opened the possibility of supporting students in a range of programs that in the past we could not support — for example, STEM education, music education, Spanish, English, Catholic Studies and art history,” he said. “We now also support students taking a single graduate course to ‘freshen up’ on a topic they may be teaching or to sharpen their teaching skills.”

In 2019, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, the University of St. Thomas and the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul created the Institute for Catholic School Leadership, offering certificates in Catholic school leadership for principals and aspiring principals in the archdiocese.

On the school side at the Murray Institute, the most popular program over the past several years has been the master’s degree in Educational Studies, Brady said. In that program, teachers study current theories and methods of teaching while also focusing on a particular area of pedagogy, for example, K-12 reading or STEM education.

“The M.A. in Educational Studies produces an enriched teacher on two accounts — on the methodology of teaching and on the particulars of the subject matter the teacher teaches,” Brady said. “And while there are a variety of concentrations, a growing area is special education, which helps teachers learn about and respond to the variety of learning styles that students have when they enter the classroom.”

On the parish side, the Murray Institute supports students in programs at the St. Paul Seminary, particularly the master’s in pastoral leadership.

Emily Dahdah of the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, where she directs the Department of Educational Quality and Excellence, is among members of the Murray Faculty Committee. Thanks to the Murray Institute, she said, Catholic school teachers have an opportunity to strengthen their professional skills while deepening their vocation to serve in the ministry of Catholic education.

“The Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education, which is the strategic direction for Catholic education that was led by (Archbishop Bernard Hebda) and all the stakeholders involved in Catholic education, and was established in 2019, sets the strategic direction for Catholic education in the archdiocese and we are grateful to have the Murray Institute’s support,” Dahdah said. “Essentially we have everyone rowing in the same direction for Catholic education.”

The Institute for Catholic School Leadership was one of the fruits of the Roadmap, education officials have said.

Jesuit Father Christopher Collins, vice president for mission at UST, said the Murray Institute is committed to helping Catholic educators. “It’s always hard to be a teacher, but anything we can do to invest in teachers and into their professional development is very important,” Father Collins said.

“Everyone is called to professional competence, and the depth of learning of our teachers and school leaders is really enhanced by this program,” he said.