New faces, new stories

When Cathedral Catholic High School hired Ms. Paula Kerby as an English teacher, two weeks of the school year had already passed. “The transition has been pretty smooth,” Ms. Kerby said. “We did a letter-writing activity in class today where I told my students all about me and they wrote me letters about themselves. I’m excited to read them to get to know my students and make up for the mi...

After serving as the Director of Athletics at Palo Alto High School for three years, Mr. Therren Wilburn felt a pull back to San Diego, where he was born and raised. “I knew I wanted to move back to San Diego,” Mr. Wilburn said. “I began poking my head around for jobs. During the first week of summer, I was informed about the position here at [Cathedral Catholic High School]. I took a leap o...

As a teenager in Argentina, Fr. Paul Sebastian de Soza had many life questions. “I wondered ‘Why do you die? Why do we suffer?’” Fr. de Soza said. “I started to dig deeper into my faith, and that is when I found those answers. I felt a call. I was being summoned by God to something more. I wanted to do something more radical.” After studying in Rome, Fr. de Soza was ordained a prie...

The number of Cathedral Catholic High School campus couples increased by one this year with the addition of Dean of Students Mr. Michael Wallace’s wife Mrs. Beatriz Wallace, who currently serves as Principal Dr. Kevin Calkins’ assistant. “First few weeks have been awesome,” Mrs. Wallace said. “Honestly, there’s a lot of information to take in, but as far as the relationships and the...

Before Cathedral Catholic High School hired Ms. Grace Hanshaw as a forensic science and academic coaching teacher for the 2019-2020 school year, she served one year as a park ranger for the San Elijo Lagoon in Cardiff, CA “It was, essentially, working as a janitor for the outdoors,” Ms. Hanshaw said. “It was the worst year of my life, and I hated it.”  Born in Maryland and moving to Ten...

After returning to the Cathedral Catholic High School campus only four years after her graduation, admissions associate Ms. Tierra Falo ‘15 never imagined she would share the workplace with her parents, study hall and learning center teacher Mrs. Stephani Falo and facilities worker Mr. Suka Falo. “Never in my years would I have thought that I was going to be in the same yearbook as my parents,”...

When Cathedral Catholic High School religious studies teacher Ms. Amy Gembara interned as a hospital chaplain at the University of Los Angeles Hospital in Santa Monica, working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and general medicine units, she knew God was calling her to the task. “God called me to meet with a lot of sick and hurting people,” Ms. Gembara said. “[He called me] to meet the...