Catherine Hahs Brinkley ’00, MAEd, EdD, chair of the Department of Teacher Education, has taught in a variety of schools from private to public and k-12 to higher education. “When you love teaching, the format, grade, and age does not matter,” she said. “I love watching students discover who they’re made to be in God’s image, and it’s a beautiful thing to see that transformation take place at any point of a learner’s life.” Although Hahs Brinkley didn’t foresee herself becoming a teacher, she felt God calling her to work in higher education to maximize the number of people she could positively influence.
Hahs Brinkley’s father was an alumnus of APU, so she grew up wanting to attend the university. She enrolled at APU as a global studies major with an education emphasis. At the time she had planned to participate in ministry around the world. After graduation, she needed a more stable job to pay off her student loans, so she applied to be a junior high English teacher at a local Christian school, but her first two years as a teacher were challenging. “I wanted to make a difference, but I wasn’t enjoying working with the students or their parents,” she said. “I prayed to God, and when I came back for my third year I fell in love with it. This was my calling, what I was made for, and I loved everything about it.”
Three years after graduating, Hahs Brinkley decided to complete her MAEd in Teaching and earn teaching credentials to become a college professor. “I realized that I wanted to teach teachers because it would have a greater impact and multiply my efforts,” she said. Hahs Brinkley went on to receive her doctorate before teaching as an adjunct professor at APU and as a K-12 teacher simultaneously. In 2016, she was hired as a full time professor. “This is what I was made to do,” she said. “When you find the spot that God has called you to, you don’t have to fight it because it’s so fulfilling.”
As part of her doctorate work, Hahs Brinkley focused on education in South Sudan. She wanted to turn her research into something that could tangibly make a positive impact. She visited South Sudan and cultivated relationships with the teachers there that have lasted to this day. Hahs Brinkley’s time in Africa changed her perspective on teaching and faith. “I am not the same person today as I was before I went,” she said. “The teachers have no electricity or running water; there were many times when they would not be paid; there were no textbooks; and the classes were made up of 60 to 80 students.” Hahs Brinkley had the opportunity to step in for a teacher who was out sick, and she said she had the utmost respect for those teachers after that experience. “Our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world do not have the resources that we often take for granted,” she said.
In her teaching, Hahs Brinkley focuses on reflecting Christ’s love through her actions in order to empower her students to make a difference on a global scale. “My faith informs everything I do, and I make sure that my students know they are loved through how I treat them,” she said. “Love comes directly from our Father God, and since we are all created in His image, we are all beautiful and unique.”
Hahs Brinkley’s passion for global studies and her love for others has made shaping educators to be difference makers on a global scale an important part of her teaching. Hahs Brinkley quoted provost Anita Fitzgerald Henck, PhD who says that besides the Gospel, education is the second most transformative power for individuals, families, and communities. “Education is the common thread throughout everyone’s lives next to God’s calling, so we have a great power and responsibility as educators to show students the love of Jesus and how to use that power in a responsible way that calls out the gifts in our students.”
For the first time, APU’s Department of Teacher Education will participate in a GO Term where graduate students will spend two weeks working at schools and orphanages in Zambia while completing summer classes. “I’m excited to see how God will use this opportunity to impact their lives and expand students’ worldview,” she said. “When students go on these trips, they experience an individual change of heart where they recognize they can impact and strengthen other people’s lives.” Hahs Brinkley continues to pursue her passion for global education and empowerment of all learners at every stage in their lives.