AURORA—With the closing of the 2015-2016 school year, Mary Ellen Bender of St. Rita of Cascia School will retire after 30 years of dedicated service to the school and church.
But among her “infamous” projects is a parade of famous persons.
For the project, students research a famous person and give a presentation to other classes.
Her students showed how much that project influenced them on June 1 at a farewell assembly for Bender. Former students returned to the school as their famous people.
Graduating magna cum laude from Northern Illinois Universiety in 1978, Bender began teaching at St. Rita of Cascia that fall. She continued until 1982, when she took time off to raise her only son, Mark.
She returned in 1988, this time teaching fourth grade and creating a legacy that lives on through her students.
Bender believes in a fun and active teaching philosophy that includes many hands-on projects.
One former student listed some of her favorite projects, such as making papier-mâché volcanoes and painting them to show elevation; removing egg shells without cracking them; crafting space shuttle rockets from film canisters, and the famous person project.
“I remember it being the biggest project of the year,” said said Eric Lifka, who graduated from St. Rita of Cascia in 2011. “It took a long time to do, and it was always the most popular thing to go see on back-to-school night.”
Bender added a little something special to the project not only by having her students research a person and learn his or her life forward and backward, but she also insisted that her students “become” their famous person.
“My kids always looked forward to that. It was such a big deal for the whole school,” said Mary Beth Friel, a 1977 graduate of St. Rita of Cascia.
“I think Mrs. Bender did such a fabulous job with that because she got her kids so interested in their famous person,” Friel said, “not only doing the background work on it but actually becoming the person in dressing up and speaking like them during the presentations.”
In addition to the elaborate assignment, Bender also pushed her kids to pursue figures who weren’t so well known and would involve a little extra research. These people included Msgr. Edward Flanagan, Harry Houdini, Gabby Douglas, George Patton, and Mary Todd Lincoln.
John Bird, a member of the class of 2012, said he portrayed “Robert McCormick and he owned the Chicago Tribune. I remember going to Cantigny (McCormick’s residence) with my mom to get a tour. We got our own tour and got to go to all the different parts of the house.”
Bender taught her students that going the extra mile could pay off in more ways than one. Many remember her as someone who not only taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, but as someone who’d had a lasting impact on her students.
“Over the past eight years of seminary, I have been able to visit her class periodically and what has struck me is how very much she loves teaching her students and really strives to incorporate her faith in how she lives,” said newly ordained Father Sean Grismer, who was a 2004 graduate of St. Rita of Cascia.
“She is a faithful and loyal teacher and untiring in the love that she shares with her students,” Father Grismer added.
In addition to her projects, Bender had touched the lives of hundreds of students, parents, and peers through her years at the school.
“I can’t really think about St. Rita without thinking about Mrs. Bender,” Father Grismer said. “That speaks for itself on the impact that she’s had.”