Mrs. Stephanie Sebastian is the Communications Supervisor for MODG. She has been working for Mother of Divine Grace since 2017, and has agreed to share her education and work experiences for this report.

Tell me about yourself!

I grew up in Connecticut as the oldest of 6 kids! Reading and writing were my two favorite things (they still are). To give you an idea of the type of super cool kid that I was, when I was 11 or 12 I wrote a book about Marie Antoinette, in which she did not die in the French Revolution. I can tell you that Chris had an excellent time laughing about it I MEAN READING IT when we recently found it. Now, I live in California, pretty close to the MODG office, and we have four kids (the
oldest two are enrolled in MODG!).

Where did you attend high school and what was your high school education/experience like?
I was homeschooled for my whole life, including high school. My family used Kolbe Academy at the time, although now they have switched to MODG. 🙂 We were part of a
really active homeschool group as well, which offered tons of extracurricular activities. One of my very favorite experiences was getting to play the Blessed Virgin in Navis
Pictures’ all-child production of St. Bernadette of Lourdes, a movie shown on EWTN and sold by lots of Catholic bookstores! That was super exciting.

Did your high school years have any effect on your plans for further education?
Yes! My family always had tons of discussions over the dinner table about so many different topics, and that strongly inclined me towards going to TAC, a place where learning takes place through discussion rather than lectures.

Where did you pursue your further education and what did you study?
I went to Thomas Aquinas College West Coast! (TAC East is very close to my house in CT, but it didn’t exist yet at the time that I went!) My degree is a BA in Liberal Arts (as is true for
everyone who graduates from TAC!).

Why did you choose to study that?
I love this question because it doesn’t have as straight forward an answer as it might if I had gone to a different college and received a more specialized degree. TAC teaches you as a whole person, as a human being whose ultimate end is union with God. The education you receive there does an incredible job at instilling wonder in everything. God’s creation is marvelous, and spending four years studying Him in everything is an immense blessing. TAC has its students deeply consider and study the truth across all subject areas. Some people are hesitant to get a Liberal Arts degree, and would prefer to get a more specific degree that relates to a particular job field. But on a practical level, if you have spent four years studying the truth for its own sake and genuinely seeing the wonder in all of God’s creation, you will be able to do anything. And on a spiritual and more important level, this education will lead you to know and love God more deeply. As you can tell, I love TAC. 🙂 It’s one of my favorite places in the world and that’s especially true now that I’m working on planning my class’s 10 year reunion!

Before working for MODG, where else did you work?

How did they prepare you for working at MODG? Before MODG, I worked in the Business Office at TAC. I helped with payroll, taxes, business operations, all the fun stuff haha! I really did enjoy that, and it was really cool to see my alma mater from a different angle. It was a very seamless transition from TAC to MODG. Both schools have the same ultimate mission of helping students to know, love, and serve the Lord.

When and why did you begin working at MODG? What roles and positions do you have at MODG now, or have held in the past?
I began working for MODG in the fall of 2017, after my first daughter was born. In the beginning, I was the school’s testing coordinator and also worked as an office assistant for consultants. I also always worked a little bit in Communications, but it was in 2021 that I moved fully over into that department. During that time, I also taught several classes (Grammar, Sacraments & Apologetics, and of course Journalism/News Production!).

When and why did you decided to teach MODG’s Journalism/News Production class? What was your favorite part?
I taught Journalism/News Production for two years, starting in the fall of 2021. Before that I had been teaching grammar, but journalism was my true love and I was so excited when the opportunity to teach it came up. (Thanks, Mrs. McCarthy! 🙂 ) My favorite part was listening to the students’ ideas for what stories to write. You know someone is passionate about an idea when they are excited to spend time researching it, interviewing, and asking questions!

What does being the Communications Supervisor entail? What are some of your favorite parts of the job?
I love the MODG Communications Department! We get to work with pretty much all of the other departments at the school, and they are filled with great people. 🙂 My role is to help manage our external communications (things like marketing, ads, etc.) and our internal communications (emails to families about important news/events/deadlines, articles on the community page of the Family Site, etc.). The main goal of our Communications team is to help keep everyone on the same page and always moving towards our shared goal of helping families give their children a truly Catholic, classical education in their own homes.