TEACHER/STAFF
BIOGRAPHIES
Cathy Kollars
I was born and raised in California,
and I grew up living in Oakland and Walnut Creek.
From the time I was in sixth grade I knew that I wanted to be a Catholic School teacher.
My love of learning was fostered by dedicated
religious and lay teachers at St. Cyril's School (Oakland,
grades 1-6) and Christ the King School (Pleasant
Hill grades 7-8). After eighth grade I
attended Corondolet High School in Concord. I attended Holy Names
College in Oakland
for two years before transferring to California
State University,
Sacramento,
to complete my bachelor's degree in American History. I took a
break in my formal education right after college when I married, and we
moved to Missouri
for a year. After returning to Sacramento
I completed my teaching credential program and began teaching at
Presentation of the BVM School in Sacramento.
My husband and I decided to return to Missouri where we lived for the next
17 years. Throughout these 17 years I taught middle school students
social studies, religion, language arts (English), and literature first
at St. Pius X School in Moberly, Missouri, and then at St. Joseph
Cathedral School in Jefferson City, Missouri. In between teaching I
found the time to return to school to earn my MA degree in education from
Lincoln University
in Jefferson City.
When my husband received a job offer in Portland in the late fall of 2000, we moved to the Portland area in
the late spring of 2001. I have been blessed by first finding and
then being hired to teach at St.
Clare School.
This school and parish have very special charisms that make my job a
challenging joy. Now as I being my fifth year as eighth grade
homeroom teacher at St. Clare School,
I really feel like I am part of the St. Clare family in a place where I
belong. My husband, Randy, and I recently celebrated our 25th
wedding anniversary, and we were able to take an Alaskan cruise this
summer to commemorate our big event. When I am not teaching I enjoy
light hiking, reading, going to movies and watching baseball and
football.
I believe that being a Catholic school teacher is
one of my two vocations, (the other of course is being a wife) and I am
passionate about teaching to the best of my ability. This year
begins my 23rd years as a middle school teacher in a Catholic
school. The students give me inspiration every day to keep doing
what I do. Thank you for the privilege of teaching your children.
Una Maher
I'm sure my accent and my
hair are a complete give away: I was born and raised in Ireland.
I come from a family of five children. My twin brother is living in
Scotland
with his wife and their son. My younger sister is also in Scotland,
in her final year of a Master's program in physical therapy. My
parents and the rest of the gang are all in Ireland. So, what made
me come to Oregon?
I spend one year living in Arizona and
enjoyed the lifestyle so much my now husband (also Irish) returned to Ireland
to organize green cards and marry before moving westward.
I completed my studies in
St. Patrick's School
of Education, a
division of the National University of Ireland. Following this, I
worked in St. Brigid's National School in Dublin
teaching the equivalent to kindergarten, first and second grades.
While in Arizona I worked voluntarily in
a kindergarten class in Phoenix.
Right now I'm now living in Hillsboro with my
husband, Keith and our daughter, Allanah, (now 16 months old). She
is a little angel, the best thing to ever happen to us. In my free
time I enjoy cooking, taking walks, painting/drawing pictures and
spending time with my family . "Funnily" enough it's
about 16 months now since I've finished a picture but I'm sure I'll get
back to it some day!
This is my
eleventh year teaching and my sixth year at St. Clare School. I spent three years
teaching second grade and am now in my third year with
kindergarten. I am passionate about teaching really enjoy teachjing
kindergarteners. I am very happy teaching here, the sense of
community with our teachers, parents and students is unmatched. I
have made some real friends on the faculty of St. Clare and thoroughly
enjoy working with these people!
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