English teacher Katie Dolan leaving STA

Dolan remembers her times at STA before starting her new journey in Washington, D.C.

photo courtesy of Shana Prentiss

photo courtesy of Shana Prentiss

story by Elsa Feigenbaum, alternative coverage by Alexandria Davis

 

After 16 years of advisory parties and literature, English teacher Katie Dolan will be leaving STA at the end of the school year.

According to Dolan, she has known since July that this will be her last year at STA, and announced it to her advisees right off the bat at orientation. Through her husband’s governmental job, they were given a variety of cities to chose to live in. Dolan said she is excited to see the diversity, history and culture that Washington, D.C. has to to offer.

“I’ve always said I would never move anyplace north of Kansas City except for New York or Chicago,” said Dolan. “I found myself wanting to stick my foot in my mouth because I hate cold weather.”

Dolan will be running a writing center at another all girls school in Potomac, Maryland, a northwest suburb of D.C. There, she will work with students to strengthen the aspects of their writing along with helping teachers better teach the subject in their classes. According to Dolan, it is odd for her to think she will not be teaching but is excited for the challenges this position offers professionally.

“A part of me felt like if I taught at an all girls school I would feel like it was supposed to be like St. Teresa’s,” Dolan said.

Though she will miss the Kansas City barbecue and the small city aspect, her biggest adjustment will be a life without STA. In her time here, Dolan has taught eight different classes to all grade levels and coached dance team, volleyball and long distance track.

Dolan has had many favorites in her time at STA: Bistro Kids grilled cheese, the Music and Arts Building, Los Tules advisory parties and those events that cannot be recreated. But one of things she will miss most is the STA sisterhood.

“It enhances my experience as a teacher,” said Dolan. “Just the idea that there is something bigger at work than just me. The attitude that we’re in this together and we are here to treat each other as important people.”

Another one of the many things Dolan will miss is her advisory. At her new school, Dolan will have a homeroom, but does not think the experience will be the same as STA. Though she hopes to make it similar, she does not want to replace her STA advisory.

“I feel like [my advisory has] become my family at STA,” Dolan said. “It will be really hard to  leave my advisory because those girls are really great.”

According to advisee freshmen Megan Cotter, she has enjoyed her time in the Dolan advisory this year. She is sad she will not get the opportunity to get to know Dolan as she gets older, but knows many girls will miss her and her teaching.

According to Dolan, in her most recent years at STA she has focused on encouraging students to act on what they believe. Dolan believes the purpose of reading and writing is to take the words of authors like Jane Austen or Maya Angelou and see what can be learned today. For her students, this includes not just having a class discussion about an inequality, but to go out into the world voting and spending money based on this.

“I just want them to be authentic human beings,” said Dolan. “Who through their lives, their actions and their decisions live out what they value and what they believe.”

 

The Dart interviews theater teacher Shana Prentiss about her relationship with Katie Dolan.

Q: How did you and Dolan become friends?

AThat’s kind of a funny story because when I started [teaching], I was in Mrs. Good’s room and Dolan was in Mr. Bertalott’s classroom so we were like right down the hall from each other for at least the first two years that I was here and we didn’t talk to each other. She thought I was weird and I thought she was annoying. We literally did not speak to each other. We might say hi as we passed each other but that was really it. I’m not really sure exactly when it turned around, but we had some mutual friends and so we started spending more time with each other outside of school. But the thing that really cemented our friendship was our trip to Scotland. I had never taken students abroad and she had and we were friends at that point. And so I asked her if she wanted to come with me as a chaperone because I really wanted to have someone who had experience. That was really kind of the turning point in our relationship, it was that trip.  We just had so much fun with each other, we traveled really well together and it was after that when we became really inseparable.

Q: What was your first thought of Dolan before you met her?

AI was a very different person when I started [teaching]. I was much quieter, much more reserved and she scared me a little bit. She was loud and full of life and so just out there that I was a little intimidated by her at first and I was just like, “Wow, that’s a lot to take, like that’s just a lot to take at one time.” Of course now, that’s everything I love about her.

Q: How would you describe Dolan?

AThat’s a hard one. She is probably the most lively, she brings out the best in me, she is the most caring, hilarious, fun, loving, kind person I know. I love what she does for our students, she absolutely makes everyone around her better. I am thrilled that so many STA have had her influence, that they have gotten to know her, that they have been taught by her, that she has been a role model. She’s definitely changed my life for the better. She’s made me more accepting of myself, made me not apologize for who I am, she’s just such a good person and so much fun to be around.

Q: What is your favorite memory with Dolan?

A: It’s hard to pinpoint it into just one. I sent her a list of things that I love about her and memories that I have of her. I think it’s her laugh. Her laugh is just the greatest thing ever. You, just hearing it coming down from the first floor, hearing her laugh during productions when she is sitting down front and I’m all the way in the back. When I hear that laugh, it just fills my heart with so much joy. You know, she’s a little bit of sunshine on a dark day.

Q: If you could tell Dolan anything right now, what would it be?

AI love you. You are just the best thing in my life, and I love you.