Alliance for Catholic Education
“Rosey Flor,” says first-time mom, Emily, holding her newborn daughter in her arms. ”We named her after my mom, whose name is Generosa, but her sisters call her Rosie. Also my husband's mom and grandma are both named Flor. So we gave her a very floral name.”
When Emily Lazor-Rodgers (ACE 18, RLS 10) found out the Alliance for Catholic Education was honoring her for her dedication to teaching, she was bringing Rosie home for the very first time. “The irony is when I graduated college my mom was wary about me becoming a teacher because she knew financially it could be more difficult. I feel emotional about all this in general, but thinking about it now that I have a child, it’s even more so. My mom immigrated from the Philippines, grew up in extreme poverty, and eventually became a physician ... I definitely do what I do because of her,”
Tucking her in at night, Emily remembers her mother sharing vivid stories about people on the street who did not have stable housing, stable healthcare, or a stable food supply.
“That was her motivation for getting through all of her schooling. I feel really close to my mom's immigrant story, as well as the fact my dad discovered great fulfillment being a Catholic school teacher as a second career after being a psychologist. It's just really powerful to see how close our students feel to their parents' stories. My students are motivated very much by their parents. In the same way I feel motivated by mine,” said Emily.
Serving mostly first generation Mexican-American students, Emily is approaching her tenth anniversary teaching at Cristo Rey Dallas. Dominic Fanelli, an ACE 18 classmate of Emily’s and a 2023 Michael Pressley Award honoree himself, shares,
“Emily teaches with a deep sense of purpose, humility, and joy. What sets her apart is how authentically she connects with her students. She doesn’t perform her service, nor does she seek recognition for it. Instead, she simply shows up—fully herself—every single day, committed to the dignity and growth of the young people she teaches.”
For her sustained, sincere, and unwavering dedication to her students, echoing Dr. Pressley’s commitment to strengthening Catholic education, Emily Lazor-Rodgers is awarded the 2025 Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education, Two awards are given annually to ACE graduates who have distinguished themselves in making significant contributions to the ministry of Catholic education. Eric Harper (ACE 20), principal at St. Matthias in Somerset, New Jersey, also was honored with the 2025 award.
An undergraduate at Catholic University, Emily felt called to postgraduate service teaching and was encouraged to apply to ACE. “I just remember being interviewed and thinking these are the kind of people I need to be around.
I have to be there.
Also, a lot of the other teaching programs gave you a lot of control over where you went. ACE was the only one that you didn't. Looking back, I think there was something really spiritually beautiful about that kind of radical availability. The trust that it took was really good for me,” said Emily.
Hailing from the East Coast, Emily admits she had to look up the exact location of her ACE placement: Jackson, Mississippi. She would never have chosen it and would never have changed it. Still close with her self-contained community, Emily remembers, “It was a humbling experience. There was something really special about navigating things together.”
After graduation, Emily joined ACE’s pastoral team for three years before returning to the classroom at Cristo Rey Dallas. A couple of her ACE classmates were in the founding faculty and staff there and had encouraged her to apply. Her interview with the principal resonated deeply in the belief that parents are the primary educators of their children and that the teachers are there to support the parents and the community..
“I had never really heard that explicitly. In a lot of urban schooling they use saving language like,’ How are we going to save this community or the school?’ My principal believed these students had everything they needed to be successful and that we're there to help them access it and hone it, which I thought was really beautiful. That doesn't take away from the structural inequities and the structural challenges that they face. The students have so many cultural assets, gifts, and talents. They're not at a deficit in the same way that we talk about low-income students, We speak about their assets. Similar to when I interviewed for ACE, I knew …
I have to be there."
So Emily went to Cristo Rey Dallas. She said, “We think a lot about young men and women of purpose. We care about you as a person and we want you to be a fully formed human being equipped with skills to hold on to your faith life and develop your faith life, but also to have success in a university setting and beyond.”
And Emily stayed at Cristo Rey Dallas. When asked why — in the face of all the headwinds — she perseveres, she said, “There’s so much joy there. Even when things are really hard, there's a lot of joy and humor and love — our students are so loving — and they're also really hardworking. I’m moved by students' kindness because it's a testament to how they were raised and what's being modeled for them. There's this disposition of love at Cristo Rey Dallas that really makes it easy to keep going.”
Emily sees teaching not as simply a job, but rather something even beyond a vocation. “It would be really easy to do something different for a variety of reasons, but when you really believe in something, it's really easy to not quit when you feel so inspired and you believe that what you're doing has deep meaning here,” Emily fights back her emotions, “But also eternally, do you know what I'm saying?
“I stay committed to Cristo Rey because of my belief that schools like this should always exist in the Catholic context. It's crazy that before Cristo Rey existed in Dallas, there wasn't a Catholic high school that was affordable for all kids. And in the Catholic school space, we try to emphasize the human formation piece first. I always come back to when you get to heaven, God will not ask you your AP scores, but he will ask you if you cared about other people. Did other people feel comfortable and welcomed around you? Did you stand up for people who didn't have anyone else to stand up for them?”
“There's never one day where I doubt that the work I'm doing is meaningful. There are definitely days where I think this is really hard. This is really complicated. I don't feel like I have the resources I need to do this well. But there's never one day where I doubt that the work I'm doing is deeply meaningful and important, and I don't think a lot of people have that,” A journey in education that began in earnest with ACE, Emily pauses and quietly considers her own thought:
“It's a gift. It's a gift to feel that way.”