Saint Theodora Excellence in Education Award winner

Teacher finds right chemistry with God and students in times of darkness and light

Amanda Horan shows the joy that teaching brings her as she works with students during a lab in the Honors Chemistry class she teaches at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis. Horan is this year’s recipient of the Saint Theodora Excellence in Education Award, the highest honor given to an educator in the archdiocese. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

Amanda Horan is in a self-described place of “contentment and happiness,” so it may seem unusual to start this story about her by focusing on what she calls “a dark period” in her life, a time when she was angry at God.

Still, that time offers a defining insight into Horan, who is this year’s recipient of the Saint Theodora Excellence in Education Award, the highest honor given to an educator in the archdiocese.

That dark period is such an important part of her faith journey that she shares the details of it with the students in her chemistry classes at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis—and with other students when she gives her personal testimony during their spiritual retreats.

“Every day, I start class with prayer. And there’s one or two reflections that come up every year that talk about how sometimes when God doesn’t answer your prayers the way you think they should be answered, he’s actually answering your prayers in a way you don’t expect,” she says as she sits in her classroom on a sunny March morning.

“Whenever that reflection comes up every year, I always pause to talk about the years I prayed that I would have a baby and I was angry at God because he wasn’t doing what I thought should be done or the way I thought things should be.”

She then shares with the students how that heartbreaking time of infertility for her and her husband of 16 years, Loren, led to their life-affirming decision to adopt two children who have added so much love to their lives.

“I tell them that now, looking back, I would go through it all again to be a parent to the two kids that I get to be a parent to. I share that they might be feeling like there’s something in their life that isn’t going the way they think it should. I tell them I hope that someday they’ll be able to look back on times like that—like I can now—and realize that God was answering their prayer and preparing them for something they didn’t even anticipate in their life.”

‘The coolest thing happened’

The study of chemistry is often measured in exact numbers, and numbers support Horan’s success as a teacher. In her tenure teaching Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry, she has doubled the number of students taking the college-level course. And the students in the course pass the challenging, comprehensive, end-of-year test at a rate of 89%.

The study of chemistry is also often touched by elements of wonder and beauty, and those qualities can also mark a different definition of chemistry—the relationships that connect people in a special way.

The chemistry between Horan and her Advanced Placement students showed when the class celebrated her selection as the Saint Theodora Award recipient by having a breakfast party in her honor.

“They had a griddle in here, and they were cooking pancakes,” she says, smiling. “They all contributed food and threw a party for me. Of all the recognition for the award, that breakfast meant so much to me. All of my other classes were very excited when they heard I won, too.”

“She makes all of her kids feel welcomed,” says Jackson Herrera, a senior AP Chemistry student and a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianapolis who has been accepted to Harvard University. “She knows the stuff we’re learning is really hard, and she is very good at explaining it to us in a comprehensible and understandable way.”

“She’s genuinely a highlight of everyone’s day,” says Maci Knoll, a senior AP Chemistry student and a member of St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis. “She helps kids realize what they’re interested in, and she cultivates questions and curiosity.”

“Chemistry is a class that is sometimes really difficult, and there are classes that when they’re difficult, they’re not enjoyable,” says Claire O’Gara, a senior AP student from St. Pius X Parish. “But she’s such an amazing teacher that I’m always looking forward to learning the material, and I’m excited to go to class.”

Horan approaches her teaching from a combination of caring about her students and challenging them—reflecting St. Theodora’s approach to “Love the children first and then teach them.” She has a special fondness for her sophomore chemistry students, especially the ones “who don’t have that confidence and belief in themselves.”

“My most significant accomplishment is the countless students who have entered my class believing that they are bad at science or do not like science, but leave loving science and believing in their own ability,” she notes. “I believe in my students until they come to believe in themselves.”

A moment later, Horan’s face glows as she says, “The coolest thing happened this year.” She then shares the story of a young woman who took Horan’s Academic Chemistry class as a sophomore, followed Horan’s encouragement to take AP Chemistry as a senior last year, passed the AP test, and is now taking a freshman chemistry class as a student at Purdue University.

“She sent me several notes saying she was so prepared, but the coolest thing was that one day the guest lecturer for her freshman chemistry class was another one of my students—a senior there doing chemistry research. I got some pictures that day. That was one of the coolest moments, seeing two of my kids being so successful.”

‘They have taught me so much’

Beyond the Saint Theodora Award, her impact as a teacher has also led to the recent announcement that she has been chosen as one of Indiana’s three finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education—with the winner from each state receiving $10,000 and a visit to the White House.

Still, fans of Horan believe there’s another part of her involvement at Bishop Chatard that is just as impactful as her teaching.

The two children that she and her husband adopted—Sybil, 7, and Collin, 4—are Black. That choice has led to another choice that Horan made five years ago when the teacher who served as the moderator for Bishop Chatard’s Black Student Union left the school. Horan, who is white, stepped into the role, motivated “by my faith and the love of my two children.”

“I want my kids to have positive Black role models in their lives,” says Horan, a member with her family of

St. Joan of Arc Parish in Indianapolis. “And I want the school to be a place that affirms the value, yes, of all people. But sometimes we have to be a little bit more intentional about affirming Black students. There’s no one they can look to and say, ‘I can be just like that person,’ because we don’t have any Black adults in this building.

“I want to give them a sense of community in their club. I want them to also feel it’s a place where they feel like their voice can be heard, and they’re the majority. They have taught me so much. We do things together as a club to learn about Black history here in Indianapolis. I love being part of the group. I love them accepting me and welcoming me into their culture.”

The appreciation is mutual, says Samantha Byrd, a junior who is one of the three presidents of the school’s Black Student Union.

“She understands that, being a white woman, she can never understand what it’s like to be a Black person. With having Black kids, she definitely advocates for us and uses her voice to try to advocate for Black people,” Samantha says. “Being a Black person in the world we live in, knowing there’s a person who’s willing to fight for your rights and fight for you is important. It means a lot.”

Another reason to smile, another nod from God

Horan never strays from being positive as she leads a lab experiment for the sophomores in her Honors Chemistry class on this morning.

As she flits from one station of students to another—helping them, guiding them, answering their questions—it’s hard to imagine she didn’t always set out to be a teacher. The story of how she became one leads to another smile from her and another nod to God’s guidance.

After graduating from Purdue with a degree in chemical engineering, she worked for five years with Eli Lilly & Co., doing good work and making good money. But there was always the thought in her mind about teaching—a thought reinforced by two moments of providence.

First, when she previously was a parishioner and a lector at St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis, she heard a homily that, she says, “made me think this was God speaking to me, telling me I should be a teacher.”

“Shortly after that homily, a man comes up to me in Home Depot and he says, ‘You lector at St. Monica, don’t you?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he said, ‘With a voice like that, you must be a teacher.’ It was like, “Whoa!’ It felt like God saying, ‘Amanda, you should be a teacher.’

“I gave my two-week notice to my bosses, which was terrifying because I was leaving this good-paying job to go to a not-so-good paying job, and it seemed like a crazy idea, but I did. Now I feel like I’m doing what I should be doing with my life. It gives me a lot of contentment and happiness.”

That contentment and happiness grows every time she helps her students overcome their fears and challenge themselves, lets them know she cares about them, and helps them move closer to an understanding of how God touches their lives.

Now, in her 12th year of teaching, she has found those touches of beauty and wonder—of a chemistry with God—in her own life.

“I would like to hope that God would look down and be proud of all the chances I’ve taken in my life and be proud of what I’m doing. Because I think I’ve responded correctly to all the calls in my life.

“I feel this sense that I’m where I’m supposed to be, that I’m doing what God made me to do.” †