OLPH 5th-grader takes faith, school, and The East Tennessee Catholic to heart
By Bill Brewer
Genevieve Moy wants to change the world—one book report, poem, notebook drawing, math problem, violin piece, school play—and newspaper—at a time.
The fifth-grader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga isn’t just about change for change’s sake. She wants to make the world a better place.
Inspired by her faith and some of her storybook friends like Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, Harry Potter, and Miss Penelope Lumley, Genevieve—with pencil and notebook in hand—is out to solve some of life’s mysteries.
The first one?
Why aren’t there any stories and pictures for kids in The East Tennessee Catholic newspaper?
Great question!
So, Genevieve set out last fall to find the answer.
Sitting at her bedroom desk in the Moys’ Cleveland home, she composed a letter to The East Tennessee Catholic on notebook paper to make her question official.
Not content simply to raise a question without supplying a solution, Genevieve included in her letter articles about her Catholic faith that she had written. She offered them for publication in case the newspaper takes her up on her idea.
There were her stories about the 2025 Jubilee Year and Catholic virtues, and her movie reviews of Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality and Sleigh Ride.
The Moy family of Cleveland includes mother Charlotte, father Richard, Genevieve, Matthias, Rosaria, and a little sister on the way. (Photo Bill Brewer)
She also shared some information about herself and her family.
Genevieve, 10, is the oldest of three children of Dr. Richard Moy and Dr. Charlotte Moy. Her brother, Matthias, is 6, and her sister, Rosaria, is 5. And there is another sister on the way.
Matthias and Rosaria also attend Our Lady of Perpetual Help School with Genevieve.
The Moy family are members of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish in Cleveland, where they have lived for more than seven years. Dr. Richard Moy is a professor of mathematics at Lee University in Cleveland and Dr. Charlotte Moy is an author who taught history at Lee before deciding to stay at home with their children.
The Moys said they have been very happy with OLPH School and are glad they made the decision to enroll their children there. They feel the same about St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Genevieve emphatically supports those feelings, saying she really likes Father Arthur Torres and Father Andrew Crabtree (“He’s really funny!”) at OLPH School and Father Mike Nolan and Father Mike Creson at St. Thérèse.
She wrote that she especially enjoys going to school and learning.
“My favorite subjects in school? I really like math and art. I really like art because I like drawing and stuff. And everyone tells me I’m really good at drawing. The thing is I just look at a picture and I copy it. So, I think I’m really good at copying pictures. I really like writing because I like writing stories,” Genevieve said. “For Halloween, Mr. (Jim) Zidan, our teacher, told us to write a Halloween story and that was really fun.”
One of her favorite pastimes is reading, which has inspired her to write in different ways. She admits that her spelling is a work in progress.
The more books she has read, the more interested she has become in writing, as well as investigating, just as in her favorite sleuthing stories. Those have piqued her interest in news and reporting.
“In some of the books I read there are some things about reporters who have notepads and stuff. There is Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown. I like reading books. I love fantasy books. That is my favorite genre,” Genevieve shared.
Authors of the Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown book series were actual newspaper reporters, helping to fuel Genevieve’s interest in writing—and in helping The East Tennessee Catholic reach a new, untapped demographic.
Genevieve is confident her newspaper idea, if embraced, will be popular with her peers throughout East Tennessee. In the meantime, she continues to write.
Genevieve Moy writing at her desk. (Photo Bill Brewer)
“The other day I started writing a story. But I haven’t gotten that far yet,” she said. “It’s going to be like a fantasy, since that’s my favorite genre. It will have real places and like not real places. I’m not entirely sure yet, but it will have like a magic animal-riding school and stuff.”
Her parents watch with joy as Genevieve practices her elementary interests.
“Genevieve has always been pretty expressive. First, it was in art. She really likes drawing. Whenever they have the Knights of Columbus Keep Christ in Christmas contest, she draws for it,” her father said. “And she really likes writing, too. She’s quite creative.”
The Moys credit Genevieve’s fourth- and fifth-grade language arts teachers at OLPH, Aimee Passavant and Mr. Zidan, for her interest in reading and writing.
During a recent interview with the diocesan newspaper, Genevieve emphasized her love of learning and school, excitedly describing Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 25-31) at OLPH. Despite challenges from snow and ice, the fifth-grader and her classmates made the most of the annual week that celebrates Catholic education. Since joining OLPH School as a fourth-grader, Genevieve has put her own stamp on vocations day.
“Wednesday (Jan. 28) was USA Day, so we wore uniform bottoms and like a red, white, or blue shirt. Thursday (Jan. 29) was my favorite day. We had vocations stations, so you could dress up like your future career. I dressed up like a writer. Last year I was an artist. I wore an artist smock with paint on it, and my momma got me a palette. I colored on it to make it look like I had paint on it, and I brought a few paint brushes. This year, I wore my green sweater, which I like, a shirt, and my jeans. I put a pen and pencil in the pocket and a mini pencil sharpener, and I brought a notebook. And I wore fake eyeglasses. I said they were my reading glasses. They didn’t have any lenses,” Genevieve said giggling, describing her best impersonation of a newspaper reporter.
While confident in her likes and dislikes as a 10-year-old, Genevieve isn’t certain what she wants to be when she grows up.
“I’m not really sure because there are so many options. I’m like, what do I choose? But it would be cool to be like a writer. There are so many options; it’s hard to choose,” Genevieve said.
Her mother said Genevieve also has talked about being a teacher. Both parents are intrigued by Genevieve’s interests.
“I think it’s really exciting. Her getting interested in reading and writing has been really fun. Every stage of parenting has things that are fun about it, but as your kids get older you see them develop their own interests. And then when they have some that are in common with you, and you can talk to them about the books they’re interested in or ideas they have for things; it has been really fun for me,” Dr. Charlotte Moy said.
“She has always loved school. She has always loved learning. She is very internally motivated to learn things. It’s a very natural interest for her,” Genevieve’s mother added.
The Moys take a hands-on approach to their children’s education and interests.
As Genevieve reminded that her favorite books include the Harry Potter series, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, and the Chronicles of Narnia, her mother discussed with her how some of those books include faith and religious themes in their content.
“Does your guidebook to Narnia talk about religious meanings of the books?” Dr. Charlotte Moy asked her daughter.
“Yeah, it talks about … like the first book is the beginning; the second book is like Easter and stuff; the third book is, I forgot; and the last book is like the end of the world,” Genevieve responded.
“And some of the books are really funny. I like the funny parts,” the 10-year-old added.
When she was asked what are some of the important aspects of writing to learn to be a good writer, Dr. Charlotte Moy told her daughter, “I feel like one of the biggest things, and this was hard for me, is getting used to going back and editing your work. Because so often you finish writing something and you want to just feel like you’re done with it. But then maybe you get feedback from somebody or maybe you just have to take a break from it and go back yourself and fix parts of it. Sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself at that stage to go back and change it.”
Genevieve had her own take on the question.
“Spelling is hard,” she confided. “Like, it’s hard to decide if you do a ‘ph’ or an ‘f.’”
As part of her interest in writing, the Moys said Genevieve also likes writing letters and mailing them, as evidenced by her letters to the newspaper.
“In class, Mr. Z has been teaching us to write in letter form,” Genevieve advised.
Genevieve described how she looks forward to getting The East Tennessee Catholic in the mail at her house, and she likes seeing the pictures and reading the “Sister Regina” comic, which is created by Sister Rose Philomena of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood religious order in New Market.
“I really like the comic they do each time because I like reading that stuff,” Genevieve said. “I liked the one around Halloween with the friar, who was asked, ‘What are you doing? Halloween is over!’ And then the friar said he was celebrating All Saints Day. I also liked the one about Mary’s birthday party and with the nuns asking if they still get the cake. That was funny.”
Genevieve’s reading habits extend beyond comics and photographs.
“She likes looking at some of the news, especially if it’s about Our Lady of Perpetual Help,” Dr. Richard Moy said.
Genevieve added, “And St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I looked at the story about the Three Kings Feast (December edition). I helped with that.”
Dr. Richard Moy said the family also read other Catholic publications, noting that he and his wife like Magnificat and the kids like MagnifiKid!
“So, Genevieve said there should be something like that in The East Tennessee Catholic,” he noted. “That was the only idea we offered up, that there should be more things for kids.”
“I think my friend Arden would really like that, and also maybe some of my friends at church,” Genevieve said. “And also, if there can be pictures, too.”
Far be it from The East Tennessee Catholic to ignore an excellent suggestion from a faithful, young reader.
As stories, pictures, and word games for kids begin to appear in the publication, thanks to Genevieve’s interest—and persistence, she may be giving the Diocese of Knoxville newspaper some competition.
Her father noted that she has published a classroom newsletter in her spare time that she distributes to her classmates.
Genevieve explained that she creates the newsletter on notebook paper using her pencil, and she looks forward to lending her artistic flair to brighten it up.
“It was hard to get it (newsletter) going since you have to get people to write articles. Like, sometimes they would get home and then forget to bring them back,” Genevieve pointed out.
After each edition of the newsletter, Genevieve announces to her classmates, “Who wants to read the newspaper?”