In light of National Teacher Appreciation Week, the Blue & Gold has decided to showcase a lesser-known part of the Carmel family: the academic specialists in the Pathways program! For those who aren’t aware, Pathways is a program in which students with learning differences are given academic support to help them reach their full potential. Originally known as the Academic Resources and Research Center, the 15-year-old program is led by numerous specialists who either assist students one-on-one or helm an advanced seminar. Next time you’re passing through their hallway on the church’s second floor, be sure to acknowledge at least one of the following individuals who make Pathways possible!

Mrs. Gunter

Kate Gunter has been at Carmel for the past 13 years. Before her current position as Director of Pathways, Gunter was an academic specialist and later Assistant Director for nine years. Born in Ohio, she moved to Charlotte from New Jersey when she was nine. Throughout school, Gunter enjoyed debate, theatre and playing the violin.

Gunter majored in Journalism and Psychology at ECU; she became a Christian her freshman year of college and became an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship small group leader. After graduating, Gunter was involved in advertising until the birth of her daughter, which caused her to become a stay-at-home mom and further involved in her church. Homeschooling her children led Gunter to discover that her oldest son had dyslexia, auditory processing disorder and ADHD, so she researched his disorders to give him better support. Soon enough, Gunter earned a graduate certificate in Special Education at UNCC, later beginning to privately work with homeschooled children with learning disabilities. Gunter came to work at Carmel when the opportunity became available; during her first year on campus, she worked with a Kindergarten student with special needs in the morning and gave reading and writing support to middle and high school students in the afternoon. Since this was her first time working in a school setting, Gunter wanted to learn and be available as much as she could. The Director of Pathways at the time noticed her willingness and offered her the position of Assistant Director. Gunter was offered the position of Interim Director when the former Director found an opportunity beyond Carmel; once she was certain she was comfortable with the position, Gunter became Director of Pathways.

Not only has Carmel allowed Gunter to continue learning how to support the needs of students in a family atmosphere, but it has also allowed her to help students reach their full potential. Gunter loves witnessing a Pathways student transform from feeling defeated to later having the definite tools they need for their success. “I think that we are very blessed to have such a strong team of people who want to support students outside of the classroom,” she said.

Mrs. Feus

Kim Feus is the Administrative Assistant of the Pathways program. She has been at Carmel for seven years, proctoring 99% of the average 1,500 tests taken per year.

Feus was born and raised in New Jersey and went to Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Virginia. After graduating, Feus worked as a product manager for Macy’s, meaning she would develop clothing from the ground-up and find vendors in Asia to produce and ship products back to the US. Feus later moved to Ohio to work for The Limited, but when she became pregnant with her daughter, the amount of travel Feus’ job required was not worth it. She moved back to New Jersey and stayed at home with her kids. Ten years later, Feus worked for merchandising for Donna Karan in New York for seven years. When Feus moved to Charlotte, the only person she knew in the city was the admissions person at United Faith Christian Academy; this was where Feus volunteered in her first school office job. After her time at United Faith, Feus moved to Carmel Christian.

Feus’ favorite part about working at Carmel is the grace people show to one another. “People aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves. If you make a mistake, it’s okay to admit it and maybe laugh about it, maybe not, but get through it together,” she said. Feus loves how the teachers and administrators whom she works alongside genuinely care about the students and employees. She believes that Carmel’s  is a great foundation for the rest of a student’s life.

Mrs. Cole

Brittany Cole has been a Pathways academic specialist for the past two years. Cole was born in Watseka, Illinois, a town so remote that her family had no neighbors and no real address. Cole attended the small high school where her mother worked and participated in every sport the school provided, especially softball.

Cole attended Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, where she earned her degree in Physical Education and met her husband through shared classes. The two of them graduated, married and moved to Charlotte. Cole’s first teaching job was at Carmel Middle School, but as CMS laid off hundreds of teachers the next year, Cole was let go, causing her to struggle looking for a new job. Cole ended up finding a position that gave her her first experience in special education: teaching students with profound needs and behavioral disabilities in a separate setting. In turn, Cole went back to school at Grand Canyon University and earned her master’s degree in Special Education, no longer having any interest in pursuing physical education. Cole taught in private education while in CMS and at numerous private schools before she attended Carmel. Cole had heard how great of a school Carmel is, so she reached out to Mrs. Gunter for a position in Pathways. Although she did not know her at the time, Cole respected Gunter and was eager to work for her.

Cole’s favorite part of Carmel is having these kinds of relationships. Having an excellent boss and coworkers has helped Cole grow both as a teacher and as a person. “When I was at a different school before here, it didn’t really feel like it mattered if I grew or was paid attention to. Here, I feel like it’s almost like I’ve regained who I was before,” she said. Cole is grateful to get to work with a group who not only works hard but has fun doing it.

Mrs. Arcidiacono

Michelle Arcidiacono is an academic specialist. She has been at Carmel for three years, firstly working as a substitute and currently teaching students in Pathways. She was born and raised in Clover, South Carolina until she moved to Charlotte to pursue and accounting job.

Arcidiacono attended Winthrop University with the goal of earning a B.A. in Elementary Education. She took an accounting course just for fun because she has always loved math—but when her professor noticed how naturally the math came to her, she encouraged Arcidiacono to continue with accounting as a more solid foundation. During her sophomore year, she changed her major to Accounting Business with a focus in Mathematics. Arcidiacono earned her undergraduate and later earned her master’s in Accounting through night school. She moved to Charlotte in order to pursue a position at a CPA firm at which she worked for eighteen years. However, Arcidiacono’s love for teaching resurfaced as she taught her children during the Covid lockdown. She felt led to once again become involved in education, and while looking for a quality school for her children, she found Carmel Christian. Her son and daughter became accepted, and Arcidiacono was hired as a substitute teacher. Now she has the opportunity to use her lifelong love of math to support students.

Arcidiacono is very grateful for the biblical influence Carmel has had on her children. “Both of my kids accepted the Lord here and were baptized here in the church, and it was all because of the teachers here,” she said. “[Carmel] reminded me a lot of my school growing up, and I love the family aspect of it, but more importantly that biblical influence. Having that consistent foundation at school was huge for us.” Arcidiacono has loved connecting with her students and watching them grow throughout this past year.

Mrs. Grammer

Cathy Grammer is an academic specialist and has been at Carmel for four years. Grammer was born in Germany, and because her father was an Air Force fighter pilot, her family would move to a new location every two years; she had lived in eight different places by the time she graduated high school. Her senior year was spent at a performing arts magnet school in Louisiana due to her passion for theatre and vocal performance. As Vice President of her senior class, Grammer was involved in several clubs and had a heart for volunteerism.

Although she had wanted to become a teacher like her mother since she was in second grade, Grammer’s mother advised her against working in the public school system, instead encouraging her to pursue fashion merchandising. Therefore, Grammer attended Louisiana State University, majoring in Fashion Merchandising and minoring in Marketing and French. After graduating, Grammer was recruited into the executive development program for Dillard’s; she worked as a buyer for women’s designer sportswear in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was where she later met her husband. Grammer and her family moved to Charlotte, causing her children to attend Charlotte Christian and Grammer to volunteer at their new school. The headmaster requested for her to become a permanent substitute teacher, which caused Grammer to at least enter the world of teaching. Although her family moved to Massachusetts for her husband’s job, she was met with an opportunity after moving back to Charlotte. In 2018, Grammer ran into Pathways specialist Victoria DeShazer at Carmel Baptist Church. DeShazer suggested for Grammer to ask the Director of Pathways for a substitute teaching job at Carmel, and once the position opened, Grammer applied for the job.

Grammer adores building relationships with her students. She gets to become closer with both the students and their families, and she sees her students as her own kids. Grammer loves supporting them academically as well as emotionally; when explaining how she celebrates her students’ joys and achievements, Grammer said, “I think one of my favorite things to do is to be someone’s ‘balcony person.’ It means that I’m in the balcony and cheering them on.” Grammer is also grateful for the fact that she is able to teach from a Christian worldview, free to pray with her students and counsel them when needed.

Ms. Kayton

Erin Kayton is an academic specialist and has been at Carmel for seven years. Before she worked in the Pathways department, Kayton coached Carmel volleyball while she was attending college.

Kayton was born and raised in Charlotte, and while she attended Marvin Ridge High School, she did an educational internship as a guidance assistant; she loved the position so much that she was set on becoming a guidance counselor.While her mother and sister worked at Carmel, Kayton attended Wingate University. She was hired at East Mecklenburg as a special education assistant, but when the pay was not enough, Kayton’s mother suggested that she should apply for a job at Carmel. She was hired to work in Pathways after she graduated, and she has now been working at the school ever since. Kayton also went back to school two years ago and earned her master’s in Autism.

“Carmel has impacted me in a way that I could never replace,” said Kayton. “It’s some of the best friends that I’ve made, some of the greatest families I’ve ever met. Being able to share the Word of God in a school setting is very rare.” Kayton also loved working with her mother, the fifth grade math teacher who retired two years ago, as well as with her sister who worked in the art department. The experiences and the friends Kayton has made are what makes her time at Carmel so special.

Ms. DeShazer

Victoria DeShazer is an academic specialist. She began her time at Carmel in 2015, left in 2019 and returned to Pathways in 2021. DeShazer was born in Roanoke, Virginia and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Her family constantly moved because her father worked in sales; she attended three different high schools before she graduated, and she spent the latter end of her senior year with her grandparents in Birmingham. Because her parents lived in Tennessee, DeShazer attended Memphis State University. Although DeShazer was adamant about working in education, she respected her father’s encouragement for her to pursue business instead.

DeShazer’s family moved to New Orleans her sophomore year of college, and she earned her degree in Management and Marketing at Loyola University. DeShazer’s first job was collecting money and repossessing cars for Ford Motor Credit Company; when she began to miss her mother who had moved to Charlotte, she found that Ford had an office in Charlotte and transferred. She stayed at the office until she worked for a marketing research company, and she later was the Engineering Services Investigator and Customer Service Coordinator for the Charlotte Department of Transportation. DeShazer decided to become a stay at home mother after the birth of her first child, which eventually led her and her mother to open a florist shop together. Her mother suddenly passed away four years after they opened their business, which caused DeShazer to sell the shop. DeShazer’s friend who lived down the street inspired her to homeschool her children for the next nine years; DeShazer eventually sent her children to school, and she came to work at Carmel Christian. While on campus, DeShazer happened to run into Mrs. Childers, her daughter’s first grade teacher, and Mr. Siftar, her son’s former assistant principal. DeShazer had been teaching and tutoring students for years until she had to leave Carmel; she could not efficiently use her talent and skills at her full time job at an ASM Research company and knew she was meant to return to Carmel. She and Mrs. Gunter had been friends, and DeShazer was, at last, offered a position in Pathways.

DeShazer’s most prominent highlights from her time at Carmel include riding a metal cart down the hallway with her co-workers, dressing up as Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” for Spirit Week and participating in a flashmob in the gym. Furthermore, Carmel has always been her constant after a lifetime of change. DeShazer adores using her gifts to nurture and build relationships with her students, and her “fortress of strength” comes from the fact that she can make a difference in people’s lives. “I genuinely believe that you try and leave the world a little bit of a better place and each person a little bit better for having just been around them. Just trying to live that out,” she said.

Mrs. Phifer

Jessica Phifer is the Pathways English teacher. Instead of teaching students one-on-one, she and Connie James teach full classes of students. In contrast to standard classes, Pathways classes are smaller in size, are flexible with pace and may feature additional lessons along with the curriculum. Phifer has been teaching at Carmel for the past nine years and was born and raised in Charlotte.

Phifer graduated from UNC Charlotte. She knew she wanted to work with children, but she was not sure what her outlet would be. After having worked jobs in education, Phifer eventually worked at a learning center for children and adults with learning disabilities, focusing on reading comprehension. After fifteen years at the center, Phifer felt as though she needed to do something different. She applied for four different schools, but when the doors of those opportunities closed, Carmel Christian’s door was wide open. The fact that she was meant to work at the school was undeniable; Phifer can say with absolute certainty that Carmel is where she is supposed to be.

Phifer loves the students she teaches and the people she works with at Carmel; she particularly enjoyed her 2024 J-Term experience, and her co-workers have become some of her best friends and she favors keeping in touch with her graduated students. Phifer also loves her freedom to teach from a biblical worldview. “Lately, I’ve just been thinking about how Jesus taught with stories, and that’s what I get to do,” she said. “He taught us parables to teach some biblical truth, and that’s what I try to do through the stories that I teach.”

Mrs. James

Connie James is the Pathways high school math teacher. She has been working at Carmel for 12 years, and she has attended Carmel Baptist Church since college. James grew up in York, South Carolina and had always wanted to be a math teacher.

James attended UNCC, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Mathematics. Instead of teaching, she later worked in the IT department for First Union National Bank. James left the bank after her children were born, and she tutored students as well as worked various part time jobs. James learned from specialist Kristi Grogan that Carmel’s Pathways program needed a math teacher. James not only liked the idea of working in accordance with a school schedule, but she also had the opportunity to embrace her love for math while being in proximity with her church. James taught students one-on-one until the program needed a math class; two years later, James taught her first Pathways math class, which consisted of a single student. The following year, James’ class consisted of two students, and the numbers of students kept growing as the years went on.

Carmel has impacted James through her relationships with the faculty and staff; she feels blessed working with great people both inside and outside of the Pathways program. “That’s been the biggest blessing, but the relationships with my students are the ones I treasure the most,” she said. Seeing her students grow throughout their time at the school and even after they graduate is something James will never take for granted.