Karen Beerbower - Heart of Penn-Mont Honoree 2025

Penn-Mont Academy is delighted to announce Karen Beerbower as the 2025 Gerald P. and Aline D. Wolf “Heart of Penn-Mont” Honoree. Each year in honor of our founders and Montessori leaders, Gerald and Aline Wolf, Penn-Mont recognizes an individual considered a true champion of Penn-Mont and Montessori education by virtue of their leadership, dedication or philanthropic support.

What makes Karen’s connection to Penn-Mont so special is that it began not as a leader in the classroom, but as a young parent searching for the right first school experience for her children - an experience that would ultimately shape the next chapter of her life in ways she never expected.

In the late 1980’s as a mother of two young toddlers, Karen was looking for a preschool to enroll her children. She selected Penn-Mont and shortly after the school year began, she accepted a position as an assistant teacher in a Children’s House classroom. The longer she watched the children move about their day, she wanted to know more.

With her education background, she wanted to know how to become a trained Montessori teacher. Fortunately, a Children’s House teacher training was going to be offered at Penn-Mont Academy. Many of her fellow co-workers and she were fortunate to enroll in CMTE’s Children’s House training, allowing the school to offer teachers who were accredited by the American Montessori Society. For the next few years, she was a lead teacher in a Children’s House classroom.

A few years later there was a group of parents who were interested in expanding Penn-Mont to provide elementary education. As a person who loves to learn, Karen shared her interest in taking elementary training. In 1992 she began her journey to learn Lower and Upper Elementary methods. For the next 2 summers she attended CMTE elementary training in New Rochelle, NY to become both a Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary trained teacher. As the elementary grew, she became the Upper Elementary teacher and remained there for the rest of her career with Penn-Mont. The parents were very influential and supportive in helping to establish the elementary program there were no existing materials or lead teacher to serve as a role model.

Over the years she developed an Upper Elementary program that included attending Outdoor School at Shaver’s Creek and extended field trips that included places such as New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC and Williamsburg, VA. With the support of administration, the Upper Elementary students also began organizing and collecting donations of food items and personal care products for the St. Vincent de Paul Society Soup Kitchen.

During retirement she has continued to use her Montessori knowledge to tutor children. As she is taking care of 4 of her grandchildren, she continues to teach them with Montessori materials she has acquired over the years.

Please join us with a gift honoring Karen in support of the Penn-Mont Academy Montessori Professional Development Fund. Your gift will express what words often cannot. This fund supports the professional development of our teachers. Your gift will shape the future of our school and enable students to continue to benefit from a Montessori education; a method that Karen embraced and lived each day. It will also enable Penn-Mont to recruit, train and retain the very best teachers, ensuring an extraordinary Montessori educational experience. The enclosed form will assist you in defining your gift to The Montessori Professional Development Fund.

Penn-Mont will recognize Karen at a reception planned for Saturday, January 31, 2026.

On behalf of those whose lives have been enriched through Karen’s commitment to our school, as well as teachers now and in the future who will benefit from your gift to the Montessori Professional Development Fund, THANK YOU!