Before Kelly Aukward joined Seton Teaching Fellows, she was assured of an engineering job and had no intentions of becoming a teacher.
What changed her mind? A fateful college summer serving with Totus Tuus in Rockford, Illinois. Kelly credits her finding Totus Tuus—and her entire reversion to Catholicism—to “the Lord’s work through the internet.”
Once Kelly experienced evangelizing through her time with Totus Tuus, she realized she loved teaching and wanted to explore the field.
Instead of taking the safer path of engineering, Kelly took a leap of faith and decided to look into teaching. By pursuing this desire, she discovered Seton Teaching Fellows and felt it perfectly answered her longing to consider a career in education.
Fully immersed in the life of a Fellow
Teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly fully immersed herself in the life of a Seton Teaching Fellow. During the 2020-2021 school year, she taught at Brilla College Prep Middle School in the South Bronx. During the school day, she taught fifth and sixth grade math, and she taught seventh and eighth grade boys during El Camino Catechism.
Kelly loved her year serving with Seton Teaching Fellows, savoring the big city, the joy of community life, and living just blocks from the local parish, St. Rita’s. The year also confirmed her desire to teach.
“I loved being able to walk with students and their families,” she recalls. “The students brought me so much joy.”
After her STF year, Kelly knew she wanted to continue to grow as a teacher. On the recommendation of another Fellow, she moved to Philadelphia for its young adult community and local Alliance for Catholic Education at St. Joseph’s University (ACESJU). She completed the ACESJU program, where she received a Master’s degree in Secondary Math. During this period, Kelly spent the two years graduate program teaching at an all-girls diocesan school!
While the ACESJU program developed her experience as a teacher, Kelly credits much of her professional growth to Seton.
“As someone with no formal education in teaching, I really don’t think I could have made a better start.”
“As fellows, we had pretty intense instructional coaching, and our coach observed us often. There was a lot of opportunity to grow as a professional,” says Kelly. “As someone with no formal education in teaching, I really don’t think I could have gotten a better start.”
Beyond the classroom, STF also helped Kelly understand how to incorporate a life of faith into ordinary professional living.
“My time as a fellow helped me grow in my Catholic faith by showing me how I could incorporate my life of faith into my life as a working professional. On those long days where I’d like nothing more than to go home and crash, I was committed to going to St. Rita’s for daily Mass,” says Kelly.
After moving to Philadelphia, she met her husband Joe through a friend in her young adult community, and they married in 2023! Discussing vocational preparation, Kelly credits her Fellow year.
“I thought about community life a lot while getting to know Joe and during the early months of marriage,” says Kelly. “Living in community was the first time I had this intentional way of living. I learned how I approach and react to conflict, which were things that I didn’t get to experience living so casually with roommates in college. These lessons have affected how my husband and I budget, pray, and view hosting and hospitality. That’s something I’m still figuring out now and grateful to the Fellow year for.”
No matter what aspect of her vocation she is focusing on, whether it’s teaching or thriving within her marriage, Kelly holds on to the lessons she received from Seton Teaching Fellows.
“In the midst of the struggle, I try to remember that it is a mission, because at times it can feel like a job. In many ways it is, but that doesn’t mean the Lord can’t work through that,” says Kelly. “The work may feel mundane, but the Lord still works through that. I still remind myself of that today.”
