Growing up in a small southern town called Washougal, theology teacher Lauren White has always been involved in the church.

Her faith began at a young age as she was surrounded by devoted Catholics on both sides of her family. Lauren believes that her family as a whole are the most influential people to her faith life. Being surrounded by this atmosphere as she grew up but also now, supports her and her faith every day.

“My husband and sister are especially close support systems,” said White, “they are people whose perspectives I really admire. They both continue to challenge me to be a better person and better Catholic.”

Ever since she was little, she attended mass consistently as her mother played the piano for their church and her father participated in ushering and was a Knights of Columbus member.

As she grew up it was always easy for her to attend mass, very few times has she ever missed a weekend mass, believing that this is an essential part of living out her faith.

Growing up, White participated in Sunday School, Youth Group, and leadership roles in Catholic youth organizations. She enjoyed taking part in these roles and decided to take them to the next level. Never having attended a Catholic school or studying a theology class, she knew that after college she wanted to take part in some sort of ministry.

But college was also the hardest point in her faith life. Just moving away from her small hometown, she experienced diverse and new people to who had very different lifestyles to her. Without a support structure, trying to live her faith on her own was very challenging which led to a lot of questions and a lot of searching.

After college, she put her other college degrees on hold to move to Seattle and become a youth minister. After about a year of youth ministry White started her master’s degree in theology. Six years of school and ministry passed and she took a new opportunity to be a substitute theology teacher here at Blanchet.

She began to learn that teaching theology embodied some of her favorite parts of ministry, including academic exploration of the faith, sharing it with others, and being with teenagers. She took the job as a theology teacher at Blanchet and is happy that she did.

Lauren White says that she should have seen this profession coming. As a child Lauren and her sister used to play “school.” White playing the teacher and her Barbies and stuffed animals as the students learning lessons. Many of her family members are teachers and everyone is very involved with their faith. It’s no wonder that she ended up in this form of ministry.

When asked about what she felt it meant to be Catholic, she responded by saying, “Being Catholic means being an authentic disciple of Christ, to have a relationship with Christ, to follow his ways, and to be like him in the world. To be a ‘missionary disciple’, as Pope Francis calls it, is to not just keep faith as something private and for myself, but to share it with others and allow my imitation of Christ to transform the world to bring God’s Kingdom.”