Germantown resident named Catholic Educator of the Year
Divine Savior Holy Angels High School (DSHA) announced today that Germantown resident Mrs. Deb Mueller, Dean of Students / Director of Student Activities and Math Teacher has received the Catholic Family Life Insurance 2009 Catholic Educator of the Year Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements during the 2008-2009 academic year as well as her adherence to DSHA’s mission.
Mueller joined the faculty at DSHA in 1994 as a math teacher and assumed her current position in 2004. In February 2009 she chaired DSHA’s first-ever all-school educational forum, View 360: DSHA Perspectives - a two-day, intensive learning experience was designed to promote the kind of big picture, well-adapted, global citizen development that the 21st century requires and to which DSHA is committed. In addition to being relevant to DSHA’s mission of preparing young women intellectually, spiritually, and personally and promoting the gospel message of Jesus Christ, View 360 was developed as part of DSHA’s five-year strategic goal of improving the students’ experience of cultural, socioeconomic, intellectual, and faith diversity.
Mueller’s hands-on involvement in View 360 ran the gamut from formulating the day’s agenda to producing statistical posters to developing scripts for vignettes. But her most daunting task began months before when DSHA’s Diversity Task Force first entertained the idea of holding such an event. It was Deb’s ability to transform the then-nebulous concept of a two-day forum in which our young women would have the opportunity to stand in someone else’s shoes, conducted outside of the classroom setting and suitable for 655 girls ranging in age from 14 to 18 that brought View 360 to its fruition.
“Education is about helping young people gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the world around them,” says Mueller “The processes of teaching and learning involve creating learning environments to aid in achievement of this goal, providing support for the individual learner in the process of inquiry, discovery, analysis and synthesis. As a teacher, I work to motivate the learner and guide her through this process.”
Selected by an independent panel of judges, Mueller was awarded $1,000 in US Savings Bonds and a $1,000 cash award designated for use by DSHA.
Catholic Family Life Insurance, founded in 1868, is America’s oldest Catholic fraternal and financial services association. Its 48,000 members are active in 78 all-volunteer, member-led chapters that annually donate nearly $1 million to charity through fundraising efforts and Catholic Family’s matching funds program. The association’s national cause is “Catholic Schools for America”. CFLI has $1.4 billion of life insurance in force and $279 million in assets.
