Building Community and Bringing Back Field Trips

When Christian Bollacke ’22 graduated from Gordon College, he wasn’t sure he would spend his career teaching in an urban school district.

In fact, after a challenging first year teaching, Christian wasn’t sure where he should head next. But when one door closed and another opened in Lawrence, he began to wonder if God might be leading him somewhere he hadn’t initially planned to go.

Today, Christian teaches fifth- and sixth-grade science at Gerard A. Guilmette Middle School in Lawrence, MA, where he has found a community he loves—and where he is putting into practice a conviction that took shape during his years at Gordon. In Christian’s words, “Every student deserves to belong.”

The 2026 Wright Alumni Award

For his commitment to community and to serving students in an underserved school district, Gordon College has recognized Christian Bollacke with the 2026 Margaret C. Wright Memorial Alumni Award. This award was formed in honor of Gordon alumna Margaret Wright, who graduated in 2017 with dual licensure in early childhood education and English as a second language and left a legacy as a Christ-follower and passionate kindergarten teacher in Washington, D.C.

As part of this recognition, the award provides $10,000 for Christian’s personal use and an additional $10,000 to support educational opportunities for students at Guilmette Middle School.

A Calling to Build Community

Christian’s path to Lawrence began at Gordon, when the late Professor Larry Kamp spoke to his education seminar about his experience teaching in urban schools. While Christian doesn’t remember all the details of Kamp’s presentation, he remembers how it made him feel.

“I still remember how I felt,” Christian recalls. “Professor Kamp not only explained, but demonstrated his conviction for creating a close-knit community by teaching with the whole student in mind . . . I wanted to be one of the people to help facilitate and foster close-knit community,” he says.

At Guilmette, that means approaching students as whole people. Nearly 60 percent of Christian’s students are current or former multilingual learners, and many come from families who have immigrated from the Dominican Republic. Some students arrive during the school year knowing little or no English. Christian has developed a tiered system of language support and adapts his lessons to meet students where they are.

But his work goes beyond academics.

“I desire to make my classroom a vessel for Christ even in a secular environment—a place where God’s love can be poured out to one another and to others,” Christian shared in his award application. “I want my class to be able to alter the lives of those in and out of it for the better.”

Learning Beyond the Classroom

For Christian, community also means giving students opportunities to learn and grow together beyond the walls of his classroom.

That is where the Wright Award will make a tangible difference.

After the Lawrence Public School District lost significant funding, field trips were one of the areas impacted. Last year, Christian’s fifth-grade class was able to schedule just one trip to the Lawrence Heritage Museum but only because the students could walk the one-mile distance, eliminating the cost of transportation. Other field trips were cancelled or limited because the school cannot afford buses. 

The school portion of the Wright Award will help bring those opportunities back for students through Guilmette Middle School.

“Everybody deserves to be able to experience things outside the classroom,” Christian shares.

Christian has already seen how transformative those experiences can be. During a previous trip to the Boston Museum of Science, he watched students connect what they had learned in class to hands-on experiences at the museum. He hopes future trips will do more than enrich their education.

His Continued Path Forward

As for his personal award. Christian plans to continue his graduate education at Gordon, where he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in education and working toward his professional licensure.

For a teacher who once wondered whether an urban school district was where he belonged, Christian now sees his path differently. What began as an unexpected next step has become a community he loves and a place where he believes he can make a difference.

“These communities will only continue to be underserved if we choose not to serve them,” he wrote in his application.