Congratulations, Mr. Peri!

At Notre Dame Preparatory School, we are blessed with outstanding faculty. It looks like the world realizes this fact, too!

Last week, Mr. Tom Peri, NDP science teacher, received the Lead. Learn. Proclaim. Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), a professional membership organization that supports the teaching mission of the Catholic Church. The award honors teachers who demonstrate strong Catholic educational philosophy as well as exceptional ability, skills, and results. Mr. Peri is one of only 10 honorees from more than 152,000 individuals teaching in Catholic elementary and secondary schools nationwide. He will receive the award at NCEA’s Annual Convention in April in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This is the second consecutive year that an NDP teacher has received this prestigious honor. Last year, Mrs. Mary Agnes Sheridan, NDP Middle Level mathematics teacher and STEAM coordinator, won the award.

“Tom’s commitment to excellence, his care and concern for his students, his visionary leadership, and his deep Catholic faith make him a tangible expression of the NCEA’s Lead. Learn. Proclaim. Award,” said Sister Patricia McCarron, SSND, Ph.D., headmistress.  “We are proud of Tom and thank NCEA for this recognition. He is a gift to Catholic education, to the Notre Dame Prep community, and most importantly to our students.”

Mr. Peri has launched hallmark programs at NDP. Under his leadership, NDP’s Women In…(WIN) Science has experienced exponential growth since its inception in 2006. On average more than 150 NDP students each summer do science-related internships and shadow experiences with organizations such as Johns Hopkins Medical Center, The University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Whiting-Turner Construction, National Aquarium of Baltimore, and many more. In addition, he launched the Egg Drop Challenge which hosts area elementary and middle school students in an engineering skills competition. In his role as moderator of the Science National Honor Society, he has led groups of students on Operation Stream clean-ups of Loch Raven Reservoir and other service activities for more than 10 years.

Before coming to Notre Dame Prep, Mr. Peri was the principal and headmaster at St. John’s Prospect Hall and Towson Catholic. He also taught at Mt. St. Joseph High School, John Carroll School, and Archbishop Spalding High School. His other awards include being named Intel Teacher of Merit (2007), a Teacher of Excellence by the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Program of the University of Maryland (2011), and an Archdiocese of Baltimore Teacher of Excellence (2015). He also traveled to New Zealand in 2009 to study the country’s unique biological phenomena as the recipient of NDP’s Sister Ellis Denny Faculty Enrichment Grant.

Mr. Peri is a Baltimore native. He earned his B.S. in Biology from Loyola College; his M.A. in Instructional Systems Development from University of Maryland Baltimore County; and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Education (CASE) from Loyola College. He is a parishioner at The Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier in Hunt Valley and is a proud new grandfather to Molly.