Nov 6, 2026 | News
“As a headmaster, you’re dealing with people, teachers, students, parents all day long. If you understand who they are as God’s creation, it just helps everything in your job.”
Stephanie Kaye first enrolled at Holy Apostles in the summer of 2020. After years as a music teacher and choir director, Kaye became a dean before accepting the position of headmaster at Great Hearts Archway Cicero in 2021. She served until 2025, when she took a sabbatical before retiring. Looking back on her theological studies at Holy Apostles, Kaye has no doubts about the value of her education. “It was the right degree, the right decision.”
Kaye believes God first drew her into teaching when the music teacher at her children’s parochial school quit midyear. Hired part-time to fill the vacancy, she discovered both an aptitude for teaching and a sense of calling. At 42, she returned to school to earn a
bachelor’s degree in music.
At Great Hearts, Kaye was soon asked to serve as a dean overseeing student behavior. After prayer, she accepted, eventually growing into a school leadership role. “God gave me that desire… even though I was very afraid to do it,” she says. In retrospect, she sees that her professional work also gave her a creative outlet as her daughters got older and it was a good transition at the right time for her family.
One of the things that Kaye noticed over her many years in education is the role of school culture in shaping a child. Having a virtuous school culture and intellectual virtue “are synergistic. That is what I really grew to learn through that work… saying ‘You better love Jesus,’ does not make anybody love Jesus. It’s the culture that they’re surrounded by.” Kaye became interested in studying graduate theology after hearing about Holy Apostles on The Patrick Madrid Show. After exploring schools listed in the Newman Guide, she decided to pursue a degree rather than take a single course. The M.A. in Theology with a concentration in Moral Theology offered a foundation for addressing student behavior, making disciplinary decisions, and discussing those topics with parents.
“What I would say to anybody in education is that philosophy and theology – when it’s properly taught and well-ordered – will inform everything else you do in your school. That is a base I wish I had before I got into it… If you’re educating the human person, you have to know what the proper end and purpose of the human person is, or you won’t be able to educate them.”
Returning to the classroom in an online setting was a natural experience. Kaye believes teachers and leaders should always remain students themselves. She found the professors very accessible and loved to partake in the occasional optional Zoom.
Kaye related an experience where she earned a C on her first paper from her professor, Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P., who has since passed away. “At first I was like, ‘Oh no, should I be doing this program?’ But then I was really happy because I knew this is someone who’s going to tell me the truth and I’m going to learn a lot. I got A’s in all of his classes, and his finals were probably the most difficult that I ever took. He just raised me to another level and I know that was love.”
Attending her 2024 graduation ceremony in person became one of Kaye’s most memorable experiences. She almost didn’t come because of the timing of the graduation and the demands of her work that year. However, she is so glad she made the trip from Arizona to Connecticut. She shared that graduation was “just this breath of fresh air that I needed, and I hope everybody knows it’s worth it… [E]verything exceeded my expectations. It was like a pilgrimage coming to a really holy place.” Meeting fellow graduates whom she had only known online provided a lasting sense of connection.
In retirement, Kaye is putting St. Teresa of Calcutta’s maxim into practice: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” She just launched a part-time Catholic classical homeschool called Sancti Futuri (Saints of the Future). She also has the desire to grow in her faith through learning about the lives of the saints and Doctors of the Church and through living a devout life. Most of all, though, Kaye describes her desire to get to know her husband better. As her vocation of marriage takes center stage, she enters this new chapter trusting in God’s providence.
Oct 6, 2026 | Feature, News
Enjoy a delightful evening of carefully selected wines, delicious pairings, wonderful company, and great conversation at Holy Apostles.
Sep 21, 2026 | News
Join Holy Apostles College & Seminary online on October 8 for the 2026 Cardinal Newman Society Virtual College Fair.
Visit our virtual booth to explore our faithfully Catholic, flexible, and affordable degree programs, ask questions about the Take Credit program for high school juniors and seniors, connect with Holy Apostles, and discover how you can pursue your education while growing in faith.
Visit the Holy Apostles booth! We’d love to meet you!
Register: Cardinal Newman Society Virtual College Fair
Sep 1, 2026 | Alumni, News
Renzo Ortega and his wife, Monica, started their podcast, Two Become Family, in 2022. In the wake of COVID-19 and virtual marriage prep, the Ortegas decided to launch their ministry after years of work as marriage preparation coordinators and facilitators. Their ministry is built around sharing the practical applications of authentic Catholic theology within marriage and family life. Besides their weekly podcasts, which aim to “restore confidence in marriage and family life” through accompaniment and their real-life experience of marriage, the Ortegas are also fellows at the St. John Paul II Foundation and travel nationally as speakers for the Together in Holiness marriage conference series.
Today, they have a wide audience in the Catholic sphere and have appeared on features from EWTN and the Knights of Columbus. They have also authored or co-authored three books, including Lovemaking: How to Talk about Sex with Your Spouse and the family devotional Go to Joseph for Children. Renzo is also the author of the forthcoming book Quest for the Male Soul: Discover What Your Life is For, which will be published by Ave Maria Press in January 2027. Their experience of living a Catholic marriage is not only relatable, but also authentically grounded in the perennial truths of the Catholic faith, where they witness the good and the hard coexisting. This hopeful dimension to their work truly makes them Catholic leaders in the New Evangelization. We were happy to sit down with Renzo, who graduated from Holy Apostles in May 2022 with a Master of Arts in Theology (Apologetics concentration), to hear more about his experience as a student and how that impacts his ministry with his wife.
1. How did studying theology and apologetics at Holy Apostles shape the way you think about communicating the Catholic faith—not just academically, but especially in the context of everyday marriage and family life?
Studying theology and apologetics taught me that communicating the Catholic faith is not just about having the right answer. The truth must be communicated clearly, but it must also be communicated in a way that helps people recognize how that truth speaks into the circumstances of their lived experiences.
Many Catholics know that the Church has beautiful things to say about marriage and family life, but they still struggle with the human, day-to-day reality of living out those teachings. There can be a real gap between understanding the theology of marriage and knowing how to live it around the kitchen table.
My education helped me become more confident in entering that gap, because it gave me the theological foundation to remain faithful to the Church while translating complex ideas without compromising their depth. That has shaped everything Monica and I do. We want people to encounter the wisdom of the Church, but we also want them to feel accompanied by people who understand that marriage is beautiful, sacramental, holy, and also deeply human.
2. You graduated from Holy Apostles in 2022, the same year you launched Two Become Family with Monica. How did your experience as a student intersect with or prepare you for the ministry you are doing today?
My studies and the launch of Two Become Family were deeply connected. Monica and I began the ministry because young adults we had previously served in youth ministry were entering serious relationships, discerning marriage, and beginning families of their own. They were asking important questions, and we wanted to remain connected with them and continue those conversations.
Holy Apostles gave me the theological framework to engage those questions responsibly. At the same time, our own marriage gave us the lived experience to recognize that people usually need more than information transfer. They need accompaniment, authentic relationships, and the witness of couples who are willing to speak honestly about both the grace of the sacrament and the very real human formation marriage requires.
That intersection has become central to our apostolate. We are not interested in merely repeating theological concepts, but we also don’t want to offer advice based only on our personal experiences. My time at Holy Apostles prepared me to do that with greater confidence, clarity, and fidelity.
3. For someone considering studying at Holy Apostles, what would you say they can gain from the experience beyond earning a degree, especially if they hope to use their education in ministry or evangelization?
Beyond earning a degree, Holy Apostles can give a person the intellectual and spiritual tools to continue learning long after the program ends. Ministry constantly presents questions you have never encountered before. No degree can prepare you with a memorized answer for every pastoral situation, but a strong theological education can teach you where to look, how to think, and how to discern whether an answer is faithful to what the Church has given us.
It can also give you greater humility. The more deeply you enter the treasury of the Church, the more aware you become of how much you do not know. My time at Holy Apostles did not produce insecurity but freed me from believing that ministry depends upon my ability to be the expert in every room.
For someone hoping to serve in ministry or evangelization, that combination of confidence and humility is incredibly important. You become better equipped to accompany people searching for God, meaning, and direction without making yourself the center of their journey.
