For over 44 years, Sister Catherine Danielle LeTourneau ‘65 has taught mathematics and science in Catholic schools, reaching students in Pennsylvania and leading schools, and shaping curriculum used far beyond her individual classroom.
Her career includes teaching at the elementary and middle school levels, serving as a principal, developing curriculum, and mentoring fellow educators. Along the way, she has launched STEM programs, taught in numerous classrooms, and contributed to long-lasting math curricula that continue to support students today.
Throughout these varied experiences, a common thread has remained. Sr. Catherine believes that math and science are not abstract subjects confined to a textbook, but living tools meant to be used, shared, and passed on in the service of others.
“Education is about teaching children to use their gifts and talents to help others,” she says, “so everyone can become better, and the world can be made better, safer, and more as it should be.”
That belief now finds its daily expression at St. Charles Borromeo School in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where Sr. Catherine is in her 15th year of teaching honors mathematics. In her classroom, she helps students understand how what they are learning shows up in the real world through problem-solving, logical thinking, and perseverance in the face of challenge, connecting classroom lessons to life beyond the school walls.
At St. Charles, Sr. Catherine also led an after-school STEM program and provided resources for fellow teachers, curating and sharing activities that supported the integration of math, science, and technology across the curriculum. Her efforts helped pave the way for the school’s appointment of a full-time librarian who now teaches STEM from pre-K through eighth grade, a milestone she celebrates.
Seeing the Impact, Years Later
This dedication has had a lasting impact. Over the years, former students regularly reach out to share that they have gone on to careers in math, science, and related fields.
Hearing from them, Sr. Catherine says, is a reminder “that the journey on which you launched them as younger students has had an impact on their life, and that in turn, they are giving to others.”
“That’s what education is all about,” she reflects. “Teaching children to use their gifts and talents to help others, to make the world better, safer, and more like it should be. The gifts God gives us are not meant to be kept for ourselves. They are meant to be shared for the good of the world.”
Igniting a Love of STEM
Sr. Catherine’s love of math and science began early and helped shape her path forward. As a student, her favorite subjects were math, science, and religion, interests she carried with her to Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School. There, she was formed by dedicated IHM teachers and Sisters of St. Joseph who encouraged curiosity, perseverance, and confidence.
“Their steady belief in me left a lasting imprint,” she recalls. Even today, Sr. Catherine remains in touch with some of those teachers, grateful for the way they modeled both academic excellence and care for students, an approach she continues to carry into her own teaching.
Beyond the Classroom
Her professional journey has been wide-ranging, but always deeply rooted in Catholic education. From 1990 to 1997, she worked in Manhattan developing the Sadlier Math Program, Progress in Mathematics, helping update a curriculum originally created by IHM Sisters in the 1940s. She continues to support that work today, guiding curriculum development used in both Catholic and non-Catholic schools.
She has also served as a principal at Father Walter Ciszek elementary school in the Allentown Diocese and held other teaching throughout Pennsylvania, always driven by a commitment to students, faith, and learning.
Before arriving at St. Charles, she taught first grade at St. Matthew’s in Northeast Philadelphia, then moved to St. Eugene School in Primrose, Pennsylvania, a feeder school for both Archbishop Prendergast and Monsignor Bonnor High Schools, making the experience feel like a homecoming. There, she taught seventh- and eighth-grade math and science, sometimes teaching multiple siblings from the same family. In total, she spent more than a decade at St. Eugene across two assignments.
Teaching With Purpose and Faith
Sr. Catherine’s call to religious life was nurtured by example. As a student, she was drawn to the way sisters lived and worked together and to the sense of purpose they carried into their teaching. An eighth-grade teacher who later became her high school chemistry teacher at Prendie played a particularly influential role, helping her recognize that openness to God’s call often unfolds gradually through relationships, trust, and lived witness.
At the heart of everything Sr. Catherine does is a belief in the value of struggle.
“Even when students have gifts and talents, learning often requires more work, dedication, and challenge,” she says. “If things came to us easily, we would not appreciate the struggle. But that struggle makes us better.”
“We use whatever gifts God gives us to the best of our ability,” she adds. “Life is not always easy, but we do not waste the gifts we have been given. We keep trying. And we help one another along the way.”
For generations of students, especially young women discovering their confidence in math and science, Sister Catherine Danielle, IHM, has done exactly that. Through steady presence, deep faith, and a lifelong commitment to learning, she continues to shape not only future STEM professionals but thoughtful, grounded students ready to serve the world.