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TOP STORY OF THE DAY, brought to you free by WICU: Lots of firsts at CCA as new teacher follows in footsteps
A lot of “firsts” are going on this fall at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Brazil.
Catherine Dowers is in her first year as the school’s principal, while CCA alum Madolyn Greenley is in her first year of teaching first grade at the school.
Twenty years ago, Greenley was a student in the first-ever class of first-graders taught by Dowers.
That’s a lot of firsts, but both ladies seconded the notion that the changes are going well so far.
“It’s a first year,” Greenley said. “I’m still learning, but I’m excited and very grateful I’m in the environment where I am and I feel so supported. The parents and the students are wonderful.”
Dowers thinks her former student is stepping well up in her first year.
“Madolyn’s doing an awesome job, and she’s rocking it out,” Dowers said. “I’m very proud of her. It’s awesome that one of my former students took my job.”
The process of rejoining the pair was relatively simple.
“I had been hired as principal, and we knew the first-grade position was going to be available,” she recalls. “We had a couple of other positions available, and I was talking to Mrs. [Linda] Somheil [now Principal Emeritus]. She had saved some applications of past applicant’s, and Madolyn’s was in there. I called her immediately.”
While attracting more students and building numbers would increase the bottom line, especially in an era when people are disillusioned with some public school policies, Dowers noted that the school’s primary goal is the Christian education aspect.
“We’re not really trying to compete with public schools, and we want our kids to have a Godly, Christian foundation to build the rest of their lives on,” she said. “That has always been our focus.”
Cornerstone is in its 36th year of operation, and many of the employees are long-timers. The cook is in her 21st year, for example. Dowers noted the school is full in most of its classes with just over 100 students, but there are a few vacancies.
“It’s a special place, and we several students whose parents are alumni of Cornerstone,” Dowers said. “It’s not just about the A-B-Cs. Everyone here has a love for Jesus.”
Greenley, a Northview graduate, found teaching “later” than most people her age.
“I didn’t always want to be a teacher, but I think everything happens for a reason and life just kind of showed me this is the path I need to take. Cornerstone is a very important place to me, it’s where my school went to school, where my sister went to school and it’s just a great little community of people.”
Admittedly, Greenley could have made more money had she chosen to work at a state-sponsored public school over a private school funded solely by tuition and donations.
“I gradated from ISU right at the beginning of COVID, and there were not a lot of teaching positions open when I first graduated,” she said. “Trying to find teaching positions wherever was difficult for me. I did some subbing here and there, and Mrs. Dowers called me over the summer and talked to me about [her] position that had come open.
“It took me by surprise, and I didn’t think I would end up back here,” Greenley added. “It was very cool that I took over her job. I can speak for both of us that it’s a very unique situation, and she’s kind of taken me under her wing and shown me different things that I don’t think I would have gotten if I had gone to any other school.”
Greenley recalls her first-grade experience as a “fun environment,” recalling one particular lesson of doing the days of the week to the music of the “Addams Family” TV show — something she has her class do now.
“It’s what I remember, and it’s easy for them to do,” she said.
One common factors among students who respect their teachers is to be unable to call them by their first names long after the relationships has changed and both people are adults. Greenley admits she can’t take that step yet.
“I’ve cut it short,” she said with a laugh. “I call her ‘Dowers’. I cannot call her by her first name. It won’t happen.”