Ms. Jennifer Marnul (otherwise known as Ms. Marnul or Ms. Beyonce) was born on November 29th, and attended Lane Tech High School. University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne was where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Language. One of her college semesters was spent at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, student teaching. After college, she applied for her first job at St. John Berchmans school in Logan Square, which is where I attend school pre-k through eighth grade. When I got into sixth grade, I was very excited to have Ms. Marnul as my teacher. She plays the ukulele and has an amazing voice! On the first day of class, I clearly remember that she sang a song dedicated to us. Half of the time I was actually paying attention, the other half was laughing at the jokes that my classmates were making. Since then, Ms. Marnul has become a huge inspiration to me.
COVID hit in March of 2020, as most of you know. We had to quarantine and go into E-Learning, but my mom was deemed an essential worker and I was going into the office everyday. Ms. Marnul always made sure that I was ok, that all of my homework was being completed (which it was), and she always made sure to put herself in my life as someone I could lean on. She made sure to make all of our classes engaging, fun and she made our classes a way to relieve stress. Her class was most definitely my favorite class of the day and I have prioritized her class since then.
In seventh grade, we had a teacher who wasn’t the best and never wanted to cooperate with the rules and regulations of the school. (COVID related and not.) This caused us to lose about 2 months worth of math that we were supposed to be learning. Ms. Marnul was always the one to check in on us. Her advice to us was to use our voice and that’s what we did. The teacher was fired just a few short weeks afterwards. In the fall of seventh grade was also when I was applying for the Daniel Murphy and Ms. Marnul was the first person I thought of when it came to recommendation letters. I was (and am) so grateful to have built a connection with her that was so strong, to have been able to trust her with writing my recommendation letter.
Eighth grade was my toughest year yet overall. In November of 2021, my mom was organizing a gala for the anniversary of her office. She was working crazy hours, and I had classes and homework plus her hours to manage and as you can imagine, we were both absolutely drained. Ms. Marnul was always the one to come and check on me. There were multiple times where she would take me into the hall and ask me if I was okay, and even though I tried to hide how I was truly feeling- she could tell that there was something off. She said I could come to her whenever, I was able to open up to her like I had never done before with anyone else. When I found out about receiving the Daniel Murphy Scholarship, she was the first person to tell me. Which- she told me in front of the entire lunchroom and caused me to get many weird looks from other classes and my peers but I was beyond ecstatic, I wouldn’t have wanted to find out any other way. On January 14th, I received an email from Trinity High School that I was going to be a Blazer. Ms. Marnul was the second person I told and let me say, she gives some of the best hugs ever. Ms. Marnul has been my favorite teacher and I wish that I could’ve gotten to spend more time with her.
Leaning away from academics, Ms. Marnul has told me before that I remind her of herself when she was younger. Although I don’t know much about her life I can tell that we have many things in common. We both share a passion for music, she was the choir director at my school during my eighth grade year. We both love concerts and have a passion for reading and writing. Well of course- that’s because she’s an English teacher. Some other things that I am very grateful for are that Ms. Marnul was one of my biggest inspirations in wanting to become an International Food Critic. She always loved reading whatever I would come up with and without her I wouldn’t have grown my love for the art of Literature and Journalism.
In conclusion, I want to reiterate how grateful I truly am for Ms. Marnul. I dedicated this blog post to her because she has impacted my life for the better. I am truly from the bottom of my heart, going to miss the wonderful Ms. Jennifer Marnul. Thank you so much Ms. Marnul, all of my love to you.
Cecilia Growney Moreno – Trinity High School – DMSF Class of 2026
Image credit: Jennifer Marnul