Hello and welcome to 4th grade at Mishawaka Catholic School! I am Patrick Gouker and I am looking forward to returning to Mishawaka Catholic School as one of our 4th grade teachers. A 2014 graduate of Mishawaka Catholic myself, I was part of the first class to go through an entire campus once our three parish schools had combined (I went through the middle school campus of St. Monica’s for 6th through 8th grade). Prior to the combination of our parish school, I attended St. Joseph’s School, the school of my parish at which I am blessed to remain active.
After my time at Mishawaka Catholic, I continued my education at Mishawaka High School where I graduated as valedictorian before moving on to earn my Bachelor of Arts in Theology with a second major in French and a minor in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, from which I graduated in 2022.
I am very excited to return to the Mishawaka Catholic School family, now as a teacher, as we strive to make clear the intersection of faith and reason, building as we do so, disciples of Jesus Christ. Formed myself by the vision of Catholic education promoted by Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, I look forward to continuing this mission of our school with his words in mind: “We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven” (Circular Letter 36).
As my classroom is dedicated to the patronage of St. Ambrose of Milan who, among other things, is the patron of bees and beekeepers, I encourage you to read this address of Pope Pius XII to beekeepers in which he describes the beauty of bees and the importance of the role of the beekeepers. We can learn much from these words if we, as parents, guardians, and teachers, allow ourselves to be thought of as the beekeepers and our students and children as the bees.
Sancte Ambrosi, ora pro nobis!
