How Incarnate Word Academy built a growth-mindset culture and earned its STEAM designation
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The Ohio STEM Committee granted STEM or STEAM school designation to Incarnate Word Academy (IWA), a private school located in Parma Heights, Ohio in 2024. Established as an elementary school in 1935 with the motto “To Learn, Love and Serve,” the school has a long history of serving the greater Cleveland community. In 2017, IWA expanded to include a preparatory academy for grades 6-8. In both 2013 and 2023, IWA was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence—an honor given by the U.S. Department of Education to schools that demonstrate academic excellence and help close achievement gaps among student groups.
To find out more about Incarnate Word Academy’s road to becoming a designated STEAM School and its approach to STEAM education, we asked Principal Steffany Congelio the following questions.
Profiles of the 2025 schools will be coming soon. To learn more about STEM/STEAM designation, including upcoming webinars, visit this page: STEM designation
Q: Tell us about your school, its students, its mission, and the community that it serves.
A: Incarnate Word Academy (IWA) is a premiere, independent Catholic school located in Parma Heights. We are a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, and we opened our doors in 1935. The Sisters built the school with a commitment to delivering a superior education in an environment rooted in faith with the highest ethical values and conduct.
We serve 391 students from preschool through grade 8. The IWA student body represents four counties, 20 local communities, and over 50 places of worship. We have many families in which parents or children are first-generation Americans, and these families come from more than 25 different countries.
In addition to being a STEAM School, we are a Purple Star School, a designation that honors our commitment to supporting military-connected students and their families.
Q: Why did you seek the statewide STEAM School Designation? What was involved in seeking the designation, and, as principal, what did you learn from the process?
A: Receiving the STEAM School Designation was amazing. However, our intentions have always been about providing outstanding opportunities and experiences for our students so that they can live the Gospel values, become life-long learners, reach their fullest potential, and be engaged members of our Catholic community and world.
Seeking the designation required a lot of patience, determination, and reflection on the part of our administration and faculty. There is no “lesson plan” that outlines how to accomplish this goal. Through lots of trial and error, we learned what worked for us, although we continue to learn and evolve responding to the needs of our students, faculty, and community.
I knew that receiving the STEAM designation would be an outstanding accomplishment, but what I don’t think I realized was how profound the process would be on our community. By doing the work, we have learned to push the boundaries, exceeding our expectations. Our students have become great self advocates and engaged community members who want to make a difference. Our teachers step outside of their comfort zones, and our community partnerships have grown in ways that I would not have imagined.
Q: What do you consider your school’s “superpower” in STEAM education, and what could other schools learn from your successes?
A: Our teachers! I feel blessed to work alongside an amazing faculty that live our school mission everyday. They not only carry on the legacy of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word, but they continue to model being lifelong learners. They inspire me to be a better leader.
A critical component of a STEAM mindset is collaboration. At IWA, one of our root beliefs is Collaboration Makes Us Better. Our teachers embrace this thinking. It is what has helped us become better educators and a tight-knit community. We are stronger together than we are alone. Through the designation process, our STEAM Leadership Team (composed of IWA teachers and administrators) worked with the faculty to identify areas that needed to be strengthened. With input from all, they came up with a manageable, step-by-step course of action to help support the teachers. Continuous feedback from the faculty was collected through this process so that we could keep a pulse on what the teachers needed. This helped our faculty feel heard and respected. This collaboration made us better!
Q: The “A” in STEAM stands for arts. Can you share with us how arts and STEM programming at Incarnate Word Academy complement and enhance each other?
The arts have always been celebrated and valued at Incarnate Word Academy. Through the STEAM Designation process, we began to reflect on our practices more intentionally and found ways that we could enhance the learning in the classroom to include more art and design standards. This process has helped not only our students, but our teachers, as they have many opportunities to collaborate with artists and see firsthand how art impacts our world in a profound way.
We looked both internally and externally to find creative ways to strengthen the arts. One example is that we utilized the support of a parent and local artist, Bernadette Glorioso, to create our Metroparks Mural Club. Bernadette also organized a community mural that was added to our new library. Through Bernadette, our students, faculty, and families joined the Parade the Circle event this past June in University Circle. We helped create costumes and participated in the parade.
Jeffrey Grusenmeyer, local architect, has been sharing his expertise with our community for over five years. He has helped out with many problem-based learning projects that required adding a design element. He also works with our STEAM clubs.
Jeremiah Meyers, from the Cleveland Museum of Art, has developed a great partnership with IWA. Art to Go is one of the unique ways that Jeremiah and the Cleveland Museum of Art partner with schools to bring authentic artworks from around the globe to the classroom. When planning these visits at IWA, Jeremiah works with the teachers to develop meaningful experiences that are tailored to the needs of the students and the learning outcomes. The lessons he facilitates are hands-on and promote deep thinking from our learners. Jeremiah has also collaborated with our preschool families, offering an after-school tour of the museum, connecting arts and academics.
Our enrichment courses for our preparatory students include: a student-led course called Crochet Creations, Ancient Greek Triremes that utilize design and math to create life-size cardboard boats, and a course called Pickleball. This course allows students to learn about the form and function of a pickleball paddle, then design and build it. All of these electives rely on guest speakers and specialists in each of the art areas.
Lastly, we have had some artists visit the classrooms. In first grade, a grandfather of one of our students, visiting from China, stopped by to talk about his career as a painter, actor, and calligrapher. He also joined our families to demonstrate his work at our annual IWA Christmas Around the World and Other Traditions event. Also, Koby Sibony, a traveling artist from Israel, visited our 7th grade ELA course to consider the theme of “home” and what images it brought to mind. Koby, who specializes in metal wire art, shared his passion with the students. They were then able to explore using metal wire to bring their visions of “home” to life!
Q: Your school uses the Warrior Design Process in all subjects. Can you tell us more about how that works?
A: The Warrior Design Process is posted in every classroom and used by every teacher. The students have come to understand that this process can be applied to pretty much all learning! Rather than attempting something once, our students and teachers have come to understand that the end product is not as important as the learning that took place through the process.
The Warrior Design Process was created by our STEAM Leadership team, after many revisions were made. In fact, our first design was created almost three years ago. As we began to reflect on how to better support our faculty and students, we realized that the design was not as user-friendly as we thought. We went back to the drawing board and kept making revisions until we settled on the current design. Our team felt that by working through the design process to create the poster, we took a deeper dive into why the poster (and process) wasn’t effective in the classrooms.
This process led us to make revisions and ultimately end up with our current design. It has been embraced by all students across every grade level, but more importantly, it is being used to help students (and faculty) share common language and mindsets regarding their learning and growth.
Q: Your school recently renovated both its science lab and its “Fab Lab.” Can you tell us about these spaces and what opportunities they’re providing in terms of STEAM programming?
A: For many years, we have offered outstanding after-school STEAM clubs for our students in our technology center. However, these opportunities were not equitable, as some students could not stay after school. Another constraint was the size of the space, as the technology center could only allow for small groups to participate in the clubs at one time.
We are blessed to have renovated our preparatory science lab in 2021. Designed with functionality in mind, this space allows students to engage in hands-on learning labs. Then, in October of 2024, we opened our Innovation Center. This room was designed so that all tables and equipment can be easily moved around and reconfigured to provide more space, allowing an entire class to be present and working.
We also moved a faculty member, Mrs. Karen Micheli, into a new position as Director of Technology & Innovation. Karen now has the time to focus on maintaining all of the equipment and programs. Her role is to support the classroom teacher by collaborating with them to extend concepts, projects, and PBLs the students are working on in the classroom.
Our after school STEAM clubs are now built into the school day and offered for all. Students have access to 3-D printers, sewing machines, robotics, a laser printer, a cnc machine, a Cricut, tools, circuits, digital drawing pads, cardboard, and more. Karen also works with the students as they can apply to be STEAM club teacher/leaders. After earning certifications, students are able to lead STEAM clubs after school for those that may want more opportunities to grow in a specific area. The student-led STEAM clubs include opportunities such as Sewing for Service or Tech Club.
Q: Every year, the Ohio Academy of Sciences recognizes teachers who engage their students in scientific research and technological design and who offer experiential learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Last year alone, 27 teachers at Incarnate Word Academy received this honor via Governor’s Thomas Edison Awards for Excellence in STEM Education. Can you tell us about how your school recruits, professionally develops, and supports STEM teachers?
A: Our school community aims to have a growth mindset and a culture that supports that thinking. We look for ways to continuously engage with the community, which helps us develop a larger circle of like-minded people that see the value in STEAM education. You can feel this mindset when you walk in our building, visit our spaces and classrooms, or have conversations with our students and staff. It has become who we are.
One of our root beliefs is Learning is Intentional. We believe that God has given us all many gifts and talents to develop, but we have to show up and do the work. This applies not to just our students but to our faculty and staff as well. We place a high priority on professional learning opportunities for our community. We use Title funds and other sources to cover professional development, traveling expenses, and materials a teacher may need to learn. In addition, we have a fund that covers 75% of the tuition for teachers that want to obtain a graduate degree.
Two years ago, our faculty traveled to various STEM/STEAM schools throughout Ohio to learn from others. While our faculty had been learning and growing as STEAM teachers, we wanted to see what was happening in other buildings so that we could continue to improve our practices. We wanted to see how others implemented STEM/STEAM in their building. These trips were so valuable as we were able to visit classrooms and have professional conversations with their faculty and admin. It was also reaffirming to know that implementing this mindset and culture in a building is hard work!
Lastly, we invested in a STEAM Building Coach, Mrs. Anne Hribar, who acts as a thinking partner with our teachers. She helps to develop lessons, co-teaches, and infuses new strategies into their pedagogy. Mrs. Hribar also has established and maintained many community partnerships that support the student learning experience. This year, she developed personalized learning opportunities for our teachers, a process that allows them to identify areas they would like to develop with her support. Having Mr. Hribar in the building full-time has been instrumental, as the teachers know they have the support they need.
Q: The adage “it takes a village” certainly applies to providing students with a topnotch STEAM education. Can you talk about the ways that students, teachers, parents, alumni, and/or community members have contributed to the excellence of Incarnate Word Academy’s STEAM programming?
A: Through the designation process, we began to reflect on our current practices in a more meaningful way. We realized that everything we wanted to accomplish and offer our students couldn’t be accomplished by just our faculty and staff alone.
We spent time exploring partnerships with community organizations, parents, and alumni. This work started slowly, but has grown immensely. On any given week at IWA, we have students either visiting community partners off-site or community partners visiting our classrooms to complement what our students are learning in the classroom. Our partners have supported many areas of learning such as social emotional learning, art and design, history, mathematics, religion, writing, technology, computational thinking, entrepreneurship, career exploration, design thinking, and the development of leadership.
One partner in particular, parent and artist Bernadette Glorioso, has worked with our community in ways that have touched the lives of so many! Bernadette led a group of students through the process of research and design as they created murals for the pedestrian tunnel at the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Beach. She also created a community mural for our new library, which allowed students, faculty and staff, parents, grandparents, and the Sisters to participate. This collaboration not only helped beautify a new space on campus, but it also brought together the community in such a meaningful way.
Q: What advice would you give other educators interested in implementing a STEAM-based curriculum or in seeking the state’s STEAM School Designation?
A: My advice would be to start by considering if a STEAM-based curriculum aligns with your mission and vision. If so, then take baby steps, as the rubric can be overwhelming. Most importantly, implementation is best when it is a collective effort.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your school or the STEAM School Designation?
A: We are extremely grateful to OSLN for their support throughout this process. We had applied for the designation in 2021-22 and did not receive it. By failing, we were able to grow stronger as a faculty, working together to reflect and create a path for continued learning. We (administration and faculty) took advantage of almost every professional learning opportunity that OSLN offered.
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