Paige Leo and her son, Lane, were baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil, saying Catholic school community felt like a 'second home'
Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series about how Catholic schools contribute to the faith lives of those in their communities.
ORCHARD LAKE — Paige Leo never went to Catholic school and her family didn’t attend Mass growing up, but she always felt a connection to the Church.
There were small Catholic influences in her life; her dad went to Catholic school, and she had friends who went to Catholic school.
So when the Central Michigan University graduate was looking for a place to teach, she felt compelled to apply to a Catholic school.
“I had friends and people I knew who went to Catholic school,” Leo told Detroit Catholic. “I just felt there was more of a community feel, a sense of home there.”
Leo felt right at home during the job interview, even getting a hug from Our Lady of the Lakes principal Lauri Hoffman at the end of her interview.
Her three years at Our Lady of the Lakes in Waterford confirmed her suspicions about Catholic schools: the small class sizes where she could better establish connections with students, a caring community atmosphere where teachers looked out for one another, and a shared common faith uniting the community.
“The families I worked with were so supportive, the staff cared about each other to a whole other level,” Leo said. “People would pray for you, would text you when something was going on. It wasn’t just a job; you were cared for as a person.”
Leo stepped away from teaching when her son, Lane, was born — also amidst the COVID-19 pandemic — but when she wanted to get back into teaching, she knew she wanted to teach at a Catholic school.
Just as providence would have it, Hoffman, Leo’s former boss, had just become the principal at Our Lady of Refuge School in Orchard Lake and was looking for a preschool teacher.
Our Lady of Refuge offered a chance for Leo to be in the same building with her son, an offer too good to let slip.
“Knowing I had my son and been home with him, I was searching for a place where we both would be spending so much time there that it would be a second home for him and I,” Leo said. “So when he comes to school, he comes with me. And we’ll be together until eighth grade. I hope and pray he will end up at St. Mary’s (Preparatory) across the street and we can continue our little teaching journey while he is in school.”
Leo became the new preschool teacher and director of early childhood education at Our Lady of Refuge. Once again, she found herself and her son in a Catholic school environment centered on prayer and looking out for each other.
It was something Leo always wanted for her and her son, but she also knew they needed something more — she knew they needed to become part of the Church.
Leo started taking OCIA classes, and this Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Refuge Parish, she and her son were baptized together.
“I saw this great community centered on faith, and I wanted that for my son,” Leo said. “I wanted him to have a second home outside of his nuclear family. So I started the OCIA program, and my son and I were both baptized together at Easter. I see good things happening in our lives, him and I together, trusting God has given me peace in some decisions in life.”
The seeds of coming into the Church were planted by teaching at a Catholic school, where teaching was more than a job; it was a calling.
“When I was at Lakes, I was in church in Mass with the kids and would get chills from hearing the kids sing, and it just felt good to be there,” Leo said. “I knew I would, at some point, find my way in. When I had my son, I knew I was going to do it for both of us so he could stay within his community and be able to follow the path with everyone in his school.”
Leo said she was at a trying time in her life when she first came to Our Lady of Refuge, unsure if she was on the right path.
But every time she and Lane go to Our Lady of Refuge for Sunday Mass and greet the families of students she teaches at the school, she is reaffirmed that they are in the right place.
“It’s amazing to feel the community involved when I go into the church because of all the families in the school. When I walk in, it’s like I know everyone,” Leo said. “With all the families with their children at church, my boss being the priest, it’s a nice experience seeing how we’re all connected and supporting one another outside school hours. So many people have come up to me and said, 'I saw you did this with your son,' welcoming us into the Church.”
Going through the OCIA process also allowed Leo to be on the student side of teaching the faith, which has given her an added perspective when teaching her own students.
“It has been interesting to be in the ‘behind-the-scenes role,’ to bring that into the classroom,” Leo said. “Being a preschool teacher, I always taught more of the softer side of the faith, (such as) ‘God loves you,’” Leo said. “The whole process of learning the faith as an adult, being able to do that for myself, I feel I could dive a little deeper and piece together what I’ve been teaching my children, but on a deeper level. And with the Holy Spirit, I am learning to rely on it more in my everyday life. I think that’s the biggest difference in my teaching.”
This school year will be the first in which Leo will take her students to school Mass and receive the Eucharist with the rest of the school.
It’s a sign of the transformation for Leo and Lane, now a 5-year-old who will be starting kindergarten at Our Lady of Refuge, of how Catholic schools have led them to the sacraments, to the warm embrace of Jesus Christ.
"Since coming to Our Lady of Refuge, I would say there is a comfort of seeing little signs that I’ve been on the right path,” Leo said. “I’ve felt that when I’m asking if I’m doing the right thing or if this is the right choice, God sends a little message and lets me know I’m on the right path and this is a good fit. It’s allowed me to have peace and give up some of that worry to Him.”
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