Kristen Kullberg molds together art, faith, and knowledge as an eighth grade language arts teacher at Sacred Heart School in Washington, D.C. She was one of the 10 Catholic school teachers in the Archdiocese of Washington to receive a 2021 Golden Apple Award. Presented by the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office, the award sponsored by the Donahue Family Foundation recognizes teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education.
Sacred Heart is the only bilingual school in the Archdiocese of Washington and serves the community of immigrants in the surrounding Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods. The school is staffed with a family of teachers who serve God, the community, the students and each other. Among these teachers is Kullberg.
Kullberg has been teaching for 16 years, 14 of which have been at Sacred Heart School. She said the school’s dedication to the community is truly Catholic, and that being able to welcome all children, from all paths of life, into a school that makes them feel comfortable and included, reflects the way that God welcomes all people into His arms.
She began her higher education in community college, then transferred over to the University of Maryland in College Park after her sophomore year, following the loss of her father, John. Kullberg, who was her biggest supporter and influence in her youth.
In her Golden Apple essay, Kullberg wrote about her childhood and how she admired her father. She said they always went on adventures to churches and museums, where he taught her about God and the beauty of art.
“I have continued to look and listen for the beauty of God deep in all things throughout my life and have discovered a deeper respect for just how vital this is as a teacher dedicated to Catholic education,” she wrote, “ I live my faith through teaching and in providing faith-based learning experiences steeped in the arts for my students.”
Kullberg teaches middle school students language arts, but also holds the job of Arts Integration Instructional Coach. She said, “I have been able to discern the difference between learning and art. I use art in everything! To me art is religion, religion is art, human connection is art, learning is art, and art is a vehicle for understanding.”
With this method of teaching, she is able to find beauty in all that she teaches to her students, whether she might be speaking about art itself, God, or language arts. She said that it offers a means of making a connection with students.
When asked what the biggest blessing of her work is, Kullberg explained that using the lessons her father taught her to teach her own students provides her with an abundance of humility.
“I get to witness humans at their most vulnerable moments… I get to watch these humans straddle the past, the present and future, and faith… it’s the most human moments that I have the privilege of witnessing,” she said.
She continued this mentality of educating even through the pandemic. Kullberg believed that when school switched to being online, teachers had a choice. They could have either dreaded the entire experience because it was difficult, or they could dive in head-first and take it for what it was. Kullberg chose the latter.
Kullberg said she made the most of teaching online, and she was grateful that students with more timid personalities had an outlet to speak through a screen, since they may have been too shy to speak in-person. Kullberg also appreciated feedback from students, as they were both experiencing an environment which they were not used to.
Online teaching was not a new struggle to just Kullberg, it was also new to the students. She said that not only did all teachers have a choice, but so did students. They had the choice to attend, to participate, and to learn.
Kullberg would ask them questions about her methods, hoping for honest responses. Among them, she would ask: “Are we connected?” She wanted to make sure every student was having a meaningful learning experience.
Making sure her students are comfortable and engaged didn’t begin with the pandemic, or end when the school resumed in-person classes. She explained that she had always had this mentality. Kullberg encourages attendance to class, not just because of missing work or content.
She tells students, “We rely on your thinking, we are a community of thinkers, and you’re a valuable player. When you are not there, you are taking away from the collective understanding, (and) we need your input.” She said this shows her children about how important they are as individual students.
Sacred Heart School Principal, Elise Heil, praised Kullberg, saying, “She is a true, phenomenal educator in the truest sense of the word. She brings her full self to school every day and provides a really authentic and loving environment for children to learn in.” Heil also described Kullberg as a leader for the students and staff alike.
When Kullberg was presented with the Golden Apple Award, she was surrounded by her coworkers, students, friends and family, and she said that she was completely blindsided by the surprise presentation.
Sacred Heart School has a mosaic at its entrance, which Kullberg and her students designed and created in 2017, using colorful tiles to reflect the school’s diversity and centering the design around the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“To have my nuclear family, and then all of my colleagues and my kids, standing on top of the mosaic that I facilitated the creation of, was just a collision of everything that brings beauty and light and empowerment into my life.” Kullberg said, speaking of the presentation of her award.
Kristen Kullberg receiving the Golden Apple Award helped bring together her family, school, their faith in God, and their appreciation for the beauty in art; all of which are the driving forces behind her achievements and success as a Catholic school teacher.
