Pacifica Stories

Katie Savage has been one of our beloved Pacifica English teachers for six years. At this year’s Senior Dinner, she was presented with our Faculty Member of the Year award. Her coworker and good friend, as well as last year’s Faculty Member of the Year, Hilary Miller presented Mrs. Savage with this well-deserved award. This award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates a deep commitment to Pacifica’s mission and excellence in creating a successful learning environment. Katie does both of these things with ease. Read on to hear more thoughts from Pacifica staff members on why Mrs. Savage is deserving of this year’s Faculty of the Year Award.

Katie embodies the Pacifica mission. She inspires her students to think, to go deeper, and to address the big questions of life.  And, she does it all by integrating her deep faith into everything that she does. She is a leader in her classroom, in her department, and in our school.  The way that she is loved by the students is indicative of the impact she is making in their lives. We are blessed that she would choose to serve at Pacifica. She makes literature come alive and demonstrates a true love for learning. 
-Erick, Principal

As her fellow teachers have shared, Katie Savage “is all in” and  “goes the extra mile consistently.” Katie “is a joy to work with, is excellent at her job, and is beloved by the community.”  Her lesson plans are well-crafted with a curriculum that is intentional, engaging, and accessible to different types of learners.  She gracefully integrates thematic continuity within the class period and the unit and “tactfully leads discussions, encourages students to think critically and helps them make connections…to think outside the box and apply their learning to everyday life.” She is an incredible teacher, colleague, and blessing to the Pacifica community - we are excited to award Katie Savage with the 2023-2024 Faculty of the Year Award!  
- Dr. Rachael Nyabadza, Associate Head of School for Academics

"I loved Crime and Punishment." I don't know if you've spent much time trying to get a high schooler to like a novel, but it's quite hard to do. It's even harder when it's something they're forced to read from 19th-century Russia with over 500 dense pages. And yet, I've heard this phrase over and over again. So how? Katie Savage. That's how. Katie has created a classroom culture imbued with the love of literature. While we want students to have high scores and lots of skills (and they get both from her classes), it is this--to instill a love of reading--that I consider to be the highest achievement of a literature teacher. And Katie does it. Again and again and again.

Perhaps I would be jealous if I weren't so in awe. There are the other--more ordinary--markers of a fantastic teacher in Katie as well: her diligence, the consideration she shows in crafting lessons to meet students where they're at, and her deep reflection on what her students need. But I do think it is in sharing this thing that she loves, that we should all love, that Katie best honors God. After all, stories are meant to help us make sense of the world and of ourselves, and that endeavor--that pursuit of capital "T" Truth--is all a part of the Great Pursuit, a part of the Great Story. What a gift Katie is to Pacifica and to her students and to her peers. 
- Hilary Miller, English Teacher