By Mary Stadnyk | Associate Editor

As the new principal of Sacred Heart School, Mount Holly, Kathryn Besheer spent her summer familiarizing herself with the community by talking with the faculty, students and their parents as well as staff from Sacred Heart Parish. Two important questions she said she consistently asked in her conversations were: “What is your favorite part of Sacred Heart School? What makes us special?”

“Without missing a beat,” Besheer said, “everyone gave me the same answer. ‘We’re all family here.’”

“I am so grateful and I’m looking forward to being a part of this family!” said Besheer, a resident of Dayton.

Though serving as a school principal is new to Besheer, she brings with her strong academic credentials and a wide range of Catholic educational and catechetical experience that includes serving as a parish director of religious education, teaching and membership on a number diocesan and parish committees. Most importantly, she comes armed with a deep love of her faith that she can’t wait to convey to the young people in her charge.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy in hand from The Catholic University of America, Washington, Besheer arrived to Sacred Heart School from St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Burlington, where she has been director of religious education since 2009.There she oversaw a program with approximately 475 children in grades K-eight. Her time in Burlington  also included, but was not limited to, teaching seventh and eighth grade religion classes in St. Paul School; facilitating the parish Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process; designing and implementing sacrament preparation for eighth-grade Confirmation candidates, and implementing a high school ministry team to continue catechesis and service opportunities for grades nine through 12. On a diocesan level, she chaired the Confirmation Committee for the Sacramental Guidelines for the Diocese; taught classes for Diocesan Certification in Catechesis, and was a member on the diocesan TRED (Trenton Religious Education Directors) board and the Bishop (John C.) Reiss Scholarship Fund committee.

While in St. Katharine Drexel Parish and St. Paul School, Besheer said that it was through serving the families that “really opened my eyes to Catholic education.”

“I have always found great joy in my Catholic faith, but that joy was multiplied and yielded a deeper sense of peace as my understanding of the Church’s beautiful teachings developed,” said Besheer. “I knew early on in my career that educating children in the faith was something that I felt called to. And the opportunity to do this in Sacred Heart Parish and School was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.”

With the start of the 2015-2016 academic year on the horizon, Besheer is anxious to meet Sacred Heart’s 200 students and 18 faculty members and plans to spend the year learning more about the school’s culture and community. A priority that Besheer will surely implement is to have the students develop an understanding of and devotion for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She noted that the school already has maintained a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary which evolved from the long history that the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters had with Sacred Heart School. Besheer said that images of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary have been ordered for each classroom, and although the community recites the prayer to the Sacred Heart daily, “it is important to also incorporate this beautiful devotion into the framework of our life here at Sacred Heart School.”