By Fabvienen Taylor
           MADISON — “A little awkward, at first” is how Susan Prince, 25, felt last year when she started teaching at her high school alma mater.
           “I was teaching with teachers who had taught me,” said Prince, a 2000 graduate who now teaches art and journalism at St. Joseph Catholic School.
           “But everyone treated me like an adult and I felt very welcome,” Prince said.
           A graduate of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) with a bachelor’s degree in art, Prince worked as a graphic designer in Nashville.
           Prince is one of three recent St. Joe graduates who have returned to teach at the school.
           While working in Nashville, Prince stayed in contact with her high school art teacher, Kay Gecewicz.
           “I like doing hands-on work and I like working with kids. It’s something that stayed in the back of my mind. So I would call Mrs. Gecewicz and ask about any available art teaching positions in the area and she told me about St. Joe.”
Prince teaches a full load of classes and is working on a master of arts degree at Belhaven College.
           “I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else,” she said. “I love the atmosphere at St. Joe and being able to pray with my students. Prayer is very important to me.”
           Returning to St. Joe as a teacher was a little awkward for Prince’s fellow classmate, Marie Harkins, 25, who is teaching English this year.
           “The first day of school was unusual because when the bell rang I felt like I should be going off to class like I did when I was student here.”
           Like Prince, Harkins too graduated from Ole Miss. She earned a bachelor’s in English.
           Harkins had taught in Arizona but moved back to Jackson last December and was rooming with Prince, who alerted her about the teaching position at St. Joe.
           “I am now a co-worker with the teachers who taught me,” she said. “It’s close-knit and the student body is small.”
           As a student, Harkins felt comfortable talking to her teachers. “Now I feel comfortable going to them as a teacher, having a support system.”
           Rachel Gray-Lewis, 27, who graduated with a degree in theatre from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, had applied to teach drama at St. Joe several years ago.
           “The timing was not right,” said Gray-Lewis, a 1998 graduate. Before coming back to St. Joe, Gray-Lewis was selling ads at Clear Channel Radio.
           “And then this job just fell into my lap,” she said. “It was perfect timing and it’s the perfect place for me to be. I’m familiar with how the school runs, the curriculum and the morals, which is a plus. It is such a welcoming, nurturing environment.”
           A difference Gray-Lewis notices is that today’s St. Joe students have more on their plates, more concerns.
           “They just seem to multi-task more and they are more socially aware of things,” Gray-Lewis said.