By Judy Porter

Bishop Dunne Catholic School Communications

Two new teachers at Bishop Dunne came from far away countries to teach here in Oak Cliff.

Stephen LaBrecque was born in South Korea and grew up in Massachusetts. Adopted by his parents, he was one of four children adopted from South Korea including his big sister, Sarai ,25, brother Jonathon, 23, and younger brother David, 18.

While at St. Mary’s High School in Westfield Massachusetts, LaBrecque played four sports: Soccer, basketball, tennis and baseball.

He graduated second in his class and went on to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study Engineering. He also played soccer for the school’s team but got injured in a game homecoming weekend. “I took a knee to the face and it knocked me completely out and broke two facial bones.” The injury happened during the second half of the first game his parents came to see. He ended up with two titanium plates in his face, and has since fully recovered, but ended up transferring to Notre Dame the following year and changing his major to English.

Accepted in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program, LaBrecque will be teaching English and freshman Theology at Dunne this year, his first as a teacher. After two years, he’ll have earned a second degree, a Master’s in Education.

LaBrecque has never been to Dallas, and is just finding his way around Oak Cliff. He’s rooming with another ACE teacher, second year pre-Cal and Theology teacher Greg Schettini, who will complete his Master’s in Education from Notre Dame next spring.

Maria Eugenio was born in the Philippines and grew up in the Bahamas. Like ACE classmate LaBrecque, she also graduated second in her high school class, from St. Augustine’s College inthe Bahamas. “It’s a relatively young British colony, so the secondary schools have names that sound like Universities.” And like LaBrecque, she played high school soccer, and then went onto Canisius College in Buffalo New York, a small Jesuit school where she majored in Chemistry, with a minor in Psychology, and played intramural soccer.

Eugenio will be teaching three different courses at Bishop Dunne: two sections of Sixth-grade Earth science, two classes of Eighth-grade Physical Science and one pre-AP Eighth grade Physical science. In addition, she’ll be an assistant coach of the soccer teams.

She’s also rooming with a second year ACE teacher, Keaton Van Beveran, who teaches English and French at Dunne.

“Actually, our apartment is one floor above Stephen and Greg’s, so we all get together and chat a lot – and car-pool to school.”

This is Eugenio’s first time in Dallas, and she loves it.
“I’ve never been to Texas!” she said. “It’s been so fun. The weather is very tropical – a lot like Barbados!”

Two years from now, as she graduates from Notre Dame with a Master’s in teaching, she may just end up staying as a transplanted Texan, if she doesn’t go off to Medical School.

Both first-year teachers have travelled thousands of miles across the Pacific to teach, but each feels right at home here in Oak Cliff.