Scholarship recipients aim to uphold Mary Sweet’s legacy

Their wide eyes, gaping mouths, and vibrant smiles proved that the secrecy had been worth it. 

Sidney Bird and Elizabeth Kissling, the first two winners of the Mary Sweet Teaching Scholarships, rounded a corner in the hallway of Wichita’s Bishop Carroll Catholic High School on the afternoon of Thursday, April 17, to find a crowd of people – including parents, siblings, and grandparents – waiting. 

Suddenly, Holy Thursday 2025 became even more memorable.

“I saw a huge crowd, and wondered ‘What is going on?’” Kissling marveled a little later. “Oh my gosh, I still can’t believe it.”

Bird remarked that she almost hadn’t applied because she didn’t consider herself the sort of “scholarship girl” likely to receive such a major award. When BCCHS administrator Alan Shuckman emailed Bird an application, something prompted her to go for it. 

“I thought ‘There is no way I’m going to get that,’” she said. “But as I looked at it, I thought I should give it a try.’”

Like the other three 2025 Mary Sweet Scholarship recipients – who are to be announced later this month – Kissling and Bird will begin pursuing education degrees with plans for becoming teachers in the Diocese of Wichita’s Catholic schools. By so doing, they will follow in the footsteps of the woman for whom their scholarships are named.

Fun, firm, faithful

Capturing Mary Sweet’s mix of intelligence, approachability, work ethic, cheer, charm, determination, energy, toughness, air of authority, and wit in a single article is a fool’s errand. That extends even to attempts to adequately describe her deep affection for dogs – which may have been rivaled only by her enthusiasm for the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots – and comes off as relatively two-dimensional for such a lively personality.

Before she was an assistant superintendent for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Wichita, Kristin Schmitz was principal at Magdalen Catholic School in Wichita, and says Sweet took her under her wing. 

“I could count on her, always, to have a Catholic focus for all issues, a fabulous sense of humor, tips, and tricks from years of experience, and level-headed advice to calm a new principal’s nerves,” Schmitz said. 

First and foremost, Schmitz adds, Sweet always remembered that a Catholic school’s time horizon focused not on mere life trajectories, but eternal ones.

“Most importantly, she reminded me that our number-one goal in any situation was to help get the children to Heaven,” Schmitz said.

That was her motto, confirms Stephanie Warren, who succeeded Sweet after her 23 years as principal of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Wichita. “She always said that our mission as parents and teachers was to ‘get these little souls to Heaven,’” Warren said.

Describing Sweet without stressing faith is like discussing her beloved Tom Brady without mentioning football. As Sweet’s understudy, Warren worked as STA’s assistant principal for a few years and soon learned if the boss was missing, the best place to look was the parish’s Eucharistic adoration chapel. 

“She relied so heavily on her faith,” Warren said. “If she was torn on a decision, or if she had an upsetting conversation with a staff member or parent, she was in that adoration chapel praying and offering it up. The same was true if she was full of gratitude about something. If she needed time to think, she didn’t just sit alone with her thoughts. She went to Jesus. That was the best thing that she taught.”

“This lady is amazing”

Tough as it is to encapsulate Sweet, Warren’s favorite anecdote about her predecessor is helpful. 

Warren’s STA roots run deep. Her father was on the parish school council that hired Sweet, who was at the time an assistant principal at Wichita’s Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, where she also had taught physical education. Sweet was Warren’s principal during her seventh- and eighth-grade years at STA, and they continued to encounter each other at Mass as Warren embarked on her own career in education. 

At least once a year, Warren recounts, Sweet would lobby her about joining STA’s staff. For several years, Warren felt confident she was where God wanted as she taught at a public school in a low-income area in which more than 95% of the students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. 

However, as she felt increasingly interested in becoming an administrator, Warren pursued a master’s degree and, at one point, was assigned to shadow a principal at a school unlike the one at which she worked. Sweet was more than amenable to a request to watch her work for a day. 

The feeling of coming home immersed Warren as she and Sweet walked through STA’s hallways, offices, classrooms, and cafeteria. Even as recollections washed over her throughout the day, Warren paid close attention to Sweet. 

“Seeing how Mary did things and how she interacted with all the staff and students reinforced that feeling of ‘home,’” Warren said. “But my absolute favorite part of the day came at afternoon dismissal.” 

According to its standard safety practice at times in which students are navigating the parking lot on foot, the school had closed the gates with street access when a vehicle from an adjoining parking lot zoomed over. 

“The kids were dismissing as a car came flying out of the Walgreens parking lot,” Warren recounted. “Mary walked right out in front of it.”

As it screeched to a halt, Sweet extended her arm to point at the driver as if he were a rowdy student. “She walked to the driver’s side window and let the man behind the wheel know she was the principal of this school and would not have her students put in danger,” Warren said. “He was told to park his car in an empty spot and stay there until he heard the air horn. The guy pulled over, parked, and waited. At that point I realized ‘This lady is amazing and I really want to work here.’”

Risking her own safety to protect the young ones in her charge certainly pointed to a readiness to meet her maker, which Sweet would do a few years later in April 2023 after a battle with cancer. 

“I always want to call her when I’m in a jam, trying to figure something out, or to share some good news,” Warren said. “I ask for her intercession a lot, but I still miss her.”

But Warren says she strives to remember the culture Sweet set at STA. “We tell families new to the school – and remind our current families – that we are a not a private school, we are a Catholic school,” Warren said. “As Mary would say, ‘If you want a private school, it’s about a mile up the street.’”

And she adds that it is deeply fulfilling to see a scholarship created in Sweet’s honor. “Many of the other diocesan principals – even if they only began only a few years ago – know the name Mary Sweet. She was such a force and a servant leader to our diocese,” Warren reflected. “It will help people remember her and others will learn about her legacy going forward. It’s great to know that her name will still be out there in keeping the legacy of finding Catholic teachers and keeping them in Catholic schools.”

Future educators

Bird and Kissling have heard a little about Sweet’s devotion to Catholic education and agree that it is a high priority for their own envisioned career paths, which they say gradually became clear as they recognized their easy rapport with children and aptitude within BCCHS’ Teaching Academy.

“It’s really important how, at Catholic schools, we are able to openly talk about our faith without worry,” Kissling said. “My Catholic faith is really important to me and I definitely will want to be able to share it with my students.”

“That’s something I want to do as a teacher,” Bird concurred. “I want to be that nice teacher someone can turn to, and I want to talk about Jesus and what he has done for my life and can do for others.”

She said the requirements and commitments of her senior year largely felt like being compelled forward by a powerful current, while the impulse to apply for the scholarship had been subtle but firm. “God has a plan, and I have totally seen that,” Bird said. “God has revealed so many things to me and I am just so grateful.”

Kissling echoes that too, noting that her junior year of high school was full of challenges, frustrations, and disappointments. As her senior year nears completion, being accepted to teach Totus Tuus this summer and attaining the scholarship offer a bright contrast.

“It’s like I had my year of desolation, and now I am in my consolation,” she said.

The scholarship recipients also take some encouragement in the knowledge that they will begin their college journeys with at least one other familiar and friendly face that will be pursuing the same course of studies at the same college, Wichita’s Newman University.

“That was my fear,” Bird said. “I was like ‘I’m not gonna have anyone.’ So yeah, this is heartwarming. I love it.”