Debbie Heaverin and I started our careers at Trinity together in 2002. She was the veteran teacher who was teaching at Holy Rosary Academy until its closure. I was brand new to teaching. We both shared a passion for teaching and championing students who learn differently. Debbie helped make me the educator and person I am. Her impact on the 19 years of Trinity sophomores she taught and her impact on the quality and reputation of the Traditional Program is immeasurable. I am blessed to call her my dear friend. Her students are blessed to have had her as a teacher. Trinity is blessed for her to be a part of our community. She has left a legacy.
-Lucia Simpson
Debbie Heaverin never took a lunch with the faculty, and one day I asked her why? “I’ve got to be here if one of my guys comes by and needs me,” she said. This anecdote was Debbie. ALWAYS there for anyone who needed her help. She was a great help, too. Think of all the students she guided through her years of teaching. She was an advocate, a cheerleader, a task master, a coach, an intellectual, but most of all, a true person of faith and character. Trinity lost a giant in you, Debbie. Hats off from me for being an embodiment of what we are trying to shape the students of Trinity High School to be.
-Bernie Schum
As a counseling intern at Trinity in 2012, I learned what it meant to be an educator from Debbie Heaverin. Sitting alongside her while she worked with struggling students, I witnessed a master teacher who had nearly perfected her practice. Exceptionally patient, she commanded a room full of rambunctious boys with ease despite her small stature. Somehow she was able to attend to all her students simultaneously, giving them encouragement and confidence to tackle challenging tasks. Debbie went out of her way to make sure her students’ needs were met, treating them like an extension of her family. Her mentorship and friendship made me the educator I am today, and I will never stop striving to live and teach like Debbie did. It was one of the greatest honors of my life to work with her, learn from her, and call her my friend.
-Emily Waford
Debbie Heaverin is the essence of a teacher, friend, colleague and mentor. I hesitated when I was offered a teaching position at Trinty in the Traditional Department. I knew the reputation of the program that Debbie helped build and was anxious I would not be able to live up to it. Knowing my hesitation, Debbie called me, listened to my concerns and shared her own wisdom and experience. She helped me to gain the confidence to take the position. This is what Debbie did for her students and colleagues every day. She would be a listening ear and then push you to do what you needed to do. She had the perfect balance of kindness and insistence to make everyone around her better. She not only made her students better scholars and people, but all the teachers she worked with through the years. Each day I will strive to be a bit more like Debbie.
-Shannon Barr
