Office of Catholic Schools

Photo Caption: Kohl McCormick Award Winner
WGN Television personality Merri Dee (left) surprises Rosemary Mangosing with a 2005 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award for her outstanding work as a second grade teacher at Our Lady of the Gardens School in Chicago.

(CHICAGO — May 2005) Rosemary Mangosing, a second grade teacher at Our Lady of the Gardens School, 13330 South Langley Avenue in Chicago, was named as one of the five 2005 Kohl McCormick Award winners who work with children between birth and age eight.

Rosemary Mangosing, is the only Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic School teacher among the five winners selected from twenty finalists, all of whom are full-time teachers from the three county Chicago metropolitan area of Cook, Lake and DuPage counties.

Mangosing began her teaching career seven years ago at Our Lady of the Gardens as an Inner-City Teaching Corps (ICTC) recruit. ICTC is an education non-profit whose mission is to transform education in underserved communities and to empower children in urban schools through innovative people and programs. “Initially, I was going to pursue a career in writing,” recalls Mangosing. Instead, she found her calling. “I fell in love with the students, parents and community.” After completing her initial two-year volunteer stint, Mangosing has continued her increasingly innovative teaching career at Our Lady of the Gardens while pursuing her Masters Degree in Education at Northwestern University.

Her work in literacy is designed not only to provide her students with reading and writing skills, but also a firm sense of self-esteem. In a writing project for Black History Month, her second grade students wrote, “Black is captivating,” “Black is a part of God,” and “Black is anything it wants to be.” In creating their own African-American History Museum, students learned about the past and, in donating all the proceeds from the dime admission fee to a local shelter, they also learned compassion for others.

Mangosing has made herself an important part of the community outside her classroom by serving as an assistant basketball coach for the seventh- and eight-grade girls’ basketball team, and is also a mentor to new teachers. A few years ago, Mangosing began a minor scholarship fund that helps families with small monetary needs. With it, she has bought backpacks, paid for field trips, and helped graduates of the school pay for tuition and living expenses.

As an Award recipient, Mangosing will receive a $5,000 cash award, a $1,000 cash award for her school, a visit and workshop from the Kohl McCormick StoryBus, a field trip and workshop at the Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago and a graduate-level course at Chicago’s renowned Erikson Institute. Mangosing will also be inducted into the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators.

The Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards is the first awards program to formally recognize the contributions of teachers working with children from infancy through third grade. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Kohl McCormick Awards program has become a model for recognition of outstanding early childhood educators. The Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards program is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation. To learn more about the awards program visit www.kohlmccormickawards.org

The Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago play a critical role in the life of the community by providing academic excellence and faith formation for over 106,700 students of many races, faiths and backgrounds in the 276 elementary and secondary schools in Cook and Lake counties. There are more than 5,600 teachers in the Catholic school system who instill values, teach discipline and achieve strong, consistent academic results in the Archdiocese of Chicago’s 235 elementary and 41 secondary schools. Visit the Archdiocese of Chicago web site at www.archchicago.org