Highlights of 2009 Reunion

Just click on the Highlights you would like most to read about:

• Thursday night -- St. Catherine Alumnae Awards
• Friday morning -- mini classes: Spiritual Journey, Holistic Health, Memoir Writing, and Everyday Ethics, luncheon,
• Friday afternoon tour of campus innovations and chapel architecture presentation (Our Lady of Victory and St. Trophime in Arles, France), class parties
• Saturday -- 50 year class Mass, pinnings, Myser Faculty Awards, faculty reception, 25 year pinning, ice cream social, barbecue dinner
• Sunday -- Dew Drop Dash, Mass, brunch

THURSDAY EVENING, June 18

Impressive Alumnae -- St. Catherine Alumnae Awards!

Vice President for External Relations Marjorie Mathison Hance '70, and Special Assistant to the President, welcomed the Reunionites, sharing with them how "electric" things had been with the transition to St. Catherine University. The St. Catherine Alumnae Award, as the highest award presented by Alumnae Association, is the ideal symbol of the legacy of the College, now University, and of the founding Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

Each year since 1979, the College of Saint Catherine Alumnae Association has recognized outstanding graduates who demonstrate leadership, service to humanity, and support of the ideals of St. Catherine University. Recipients of the Alumnae Awards are nominated by colleagues, friends, and family members for such qualities as excellence in their chosen fields of influence and service to others. In a special reception with appetizers, beverages, and desserts, these awards were given out in the presence of all the reunion alumnae. For a description of the amazing accomplishments of all the award winners:

Each recipient of the Saint Catherine Alumnae Awards received a citation and a specially designed silver pin in the shape of the Catherine Wheel, one of the unique symbols of the University.




The Alumnae Association first honored two long-standing friends of the Alumnae Association -- Catherine Pribyl Lupori and Peter Lupori -- who were named honorary alumnae at the 2009 Annual Meeting. The Luporis have both given time, enormous talent and intense friendship to the St. Catherine community and it's Alumnae Association. Their breadth of the vision of has expanded Alumnae Association programs and art product offerings. Each has also extended personal friendship and expertise to a wide number of former students, calling these alumnae friends and colleagues. For a description of their contributions and achievements:

Upon receiving the awards, Peter said for them both: "We have loved it all -- every bit of it!"



The Board of Directors of the Alumnae Association also presented awards to five strong, outstanding, faith-filled leaders who have excelled in their areas of passion to achieve goals. Their acceptance speeches were as inspiring as their achievements, and it is a shame that one cannot capture all their comments:

• Virginia Binet Berg SP’54 was honored for her leadership in education and the Church, being a member of the National Advisory Board for the National Council of Catholic Bishops. For 20 years, she has served as the Title I Private School Specialist in the U. S. Department of Education, working to offer opportunities and support for struggling students in nonpublic schools. "This is not just my award, it belongs to everyone who has made a difference in my life." She thanked her parents, the Sisters of St. Joseph -- "the female ladies Sister Nuns" -- who taught her at Derham Hall and at St. Catherine's (and Father Emmens too), her colleagues in ten years of politics, all of those who guided and nurtured her, especially her husband, "my soul mate, John," and her four sons, who had to learn to cook for themselves, and her African American sisters "who taught her a different culture and what it's like to be a minority in a majority." She also acknowledged with gratitude Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington and her co-members on the Bishops' Advisory Council. For more on her work on the Council . . . She had once considered retiring in some restful, isolated place in Wyoming, but her soul mate saved her from dying of boredom -- "I'll give you two weeks; no, one week, and you'll be driving to town and stirring up the pot!" Binet Berg concluded that "God isn't done with me yet and I don't know what God has planned for me for the next ten years, but I promise you, it's not in the wilds of Wyoming!"

• Bernadette Foss Hughes SP’59 admitted that her professional career in education was short, but her dedication to education has been long through her vocation of motherhood. Foss Hughes is the mother of eight, two of whom have special needs, and these special needs have made all the difference. When her eldest, Steve, was born with severe handicaps, it was nearly overwhelming for her and her husband Frank, she admitted. They were young, inexperienced, and the educational system in 1964 had no places for disabled children or the needed medical services. So together the Hughes couple had to transform their anger and bitterness into acceptance and positive action. Bernie became a full-time mom and caregiver as well as a developer of special needs curriculum and a political advocate for handicapped students, their parents, and schools. 'I loved my children so much and I believed that if the world knew them, they want them. We are all one body, and if one part is neglected, delayed, or ignored, the whole body is." In the last years of his life, her husband, who had been her helpmate and friend, needed assistive care in the last years of his life too, and Bernie began to advocate for elder care as well. She said that this award belongs to all those who are or have been caregivers: "any one of you could have gotten this award, and I share it with you." She thanked her eight children for being so unique and life-giving. "I am so proud to be their mom. I couldn't have done it without their help." She added that "I have always been very blessed. I never knew anything but love and then I came to St. Kate's where I was trained body, mind, and spirit to take this important role."

• Sheila Clifford Lind SP’69 quipped that "reunion years bring reflection and after 40 years, it gets easier to connect the dots." The Alumnae Award recognized the voluminous and varied service Clifford Lind has offered in her parish and in the AAUW to further educational opportunities for girls and women. She talked about learning at St. Catherine's how to say "Yes" to volunteering and to do it often. These yeses led to immensely enriching her own life, opening doors to "new experiences, new people, new challenges." She learned to lead meetings, build consensus, and even oversee complex building projects, among so many other things. Clifford Lind explained how she had been a day hop at St. Kate's and this had led to strong friendships in the carpool, Smoker, and on campus. In her sophomore year, she took a bus excursion to St. John's, which she met her husband of almost 38 years. It was he who supported her in the luxury of multi-tasking and volunteering. She thanked him, her classmates, family, and the Association for this great honor.

• Mary Dee Hacker SP’74 is vice president of patient services and chief nursing officer at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She was introduced by her close friend and college classmate Martha Peaslee Daniel SP 74. After graduation, the two planned to travel to California. It was going to be a quick trip. "We were young, single, and starry-eyed, wanting to make a difference. And she has." Peaslee Daniel noted that another vice president from the Children's Hospital Los Angeles said that Mary Dee Hacker is the "heart and soul" of the hospital and for her "it has always been about the kids." Dee Hacker herself noted that she learned about the power of friendship at St. Kate's and that "a full and rich life has three dimensions": a professional career, volunteerism, and a personal life, all of which she has worked on developing through her life. "I have not always enjoyed the jobs I've had," she observed, "but I've ALWAYS loved my career -- nursing!" She also learned about "the power of friendship" and that "no matter how full my life is, there is always a bigger world of need out there, ... and in reaching outside myself, the rewards I receive exceed what I put in." She thanked her husband and children for "a life of joy," her classmates and the "Lunch Bunch," the Alumnae Association, and St. Kate's "for the wisdom and guidance I received here."

• Melissa Reuter Brechon SP’77, MLIS '95 entered St. Kate's as a nontraditional student, pregnant with her fifth child in Weekend College in 1975. This child ended up being one of the daughters who nominated their mother for this award because of her devotion to and accomplishments in library and information science. After working as a librarian, Brechon returned in 1995 for her MLIS with St. Kate's and Rosary College, now Dominican University. " I have a never-ending, deep sense of gratitude for St. Kate's and my profession, in which I continue to learn, and for my classmates and peers. I see how libraries make a difference in the lives of the community, and it is a great privilege, indeed, a calling." For over thirty years, she has lived out this calling in varied leadership positions in a number of libraries in the region and library associations. She is now a professional library consultant and has been working with the St. Catherine Friends of the Libraries group and with the Library and Information Science Department on its ALA/MLIS accreditation. She thanked the Alumnae Association; the Friends; her book club members "who have been with me every step of the ways since the early 70s -- all bright, thoughtful, and well-read"; her husband, Ed, and their five exceptional daughters, who have careers and have excelled at their professions "beyond expectations, with ten degrees between them"; "the terrific people they married, all nice guys"; and her dear friends at St. Kate's. Melissa added that one friend since high school had written to her about the award: "And to think I knew her when she was Alvin the Chipmunk, and sometimes she still is...."

The Award Presentations were followed by a buffet of hearty appetizers and desserts, with refreshments. Alumnae spent the time getting reacquainted and sharing memories.


FRIDAY MORNING, June 19

The Mini-Courses!

8:15 to 9:10 a.m.

SPIRITUALITY: Where am I on my spiritual journey?
Mary Treacy O'Keefe '74, MAT '02, stepped up to the plate to teach this class. She is the co-founder of the Well Within Spirituality Center: A Nonprofit Holistic Wellness Resource Center and the author of the book Thin Places: Where Faith Is Affirmed and Hope Dwells.

In addressing the concept of spiritual journey, she challenged participants to be more aware of the "thin places" in the world and in their lives, and to take advantage of them by asking for spiritual signs along to way to serve as comfort, guiding lights, and confirmation of where we are and where we are heading.

Treacy O'Keefe defined thin places as geographical spots where the veil between physical and spiritual realities, this world and the next, seem "thin" and more easily breached. She gave examples of monastic sites in Ireland, or places of extraordinary beauty. She also explained that we can have times in our lives that are thin places, such as when we are in illness, crisis, or dying, or when we are watching those we love die, helping them to the other side. She talked about the "time before, during, and after my parents' deaths, who died in three months of each other." That was the focus of her book, the stories that surrounded the spiritual signs her family received during this period which reassured them "that something else is going on."

Spiritual signs, she said, are not about a specific religion but about these questions:
"Where is God active in my life? Why are these things happening in my life and what do they mean?" She quoted Teilhard de Chardin: "We are spiritual beings living in a physical world."

Treacy O'Keefe told the participants that it's "about paying attention to the signs, and once you start living like this, you start to see things happening all the time, that you are being guided toward a life with meaning and purpose."

She then told thought-provoking stories from her own life and challenged the reunion attendees to think about the signs in their own lives and share them with each other. One of her stories was about how after her mother's death, her brother was mulching her garden, preparing the house for resale. Their mother was a great believer in St. Therese Lisieux, who is known for sending signs from heaven in the form of roses. The next morning, which was their mother's birthday, the brother returned and found a full-blown rose blooming where he had just mulched, where no rose had existed. He took a photo of it and emailed it to all the brothers and sisters. "But my mom didn't trust us to be that smart. That day someone else found an old photo of my mom no one remembered seeing before. It was of Mom kneeling in that same spot in the garden among the inpatients holding a full-blown rose."

When interpreting signs, one needs to ask: "What are the fruits?" If they lead to things good and of God, then they can be trusted. Treacy O'Keefe described times when a friend and her family had sung their father into a peaceful death and how that helped the survivors. Double rainbows are often seen as special signs -- and what was seen that Friday night after Treacy O'Keefe's presentation? The double rainbow pictured here, photographed by someone who had attended her class.

There are four steps she advised participants to follow:
1) Pay attention to the world around you and its possibilities and thin places
2) Reflect on these kinds of stories and their meanings
3) Ask for spiritual signs, from those who have died, saints and soul mates, God
4) Yes! Say yes to what you discern and listen to the inner voice of guidance if the fruits are good

Then tell your stories of spiritual signs and guidance to others, to encourage them to pay attention and seek deeper engagement in the spiritual dimension to life.

For more on Treacy O'Keefe and her book, click here; for more on the Well Within, click here.

A participant mentioned the "Thin Places" newsletter of Westminster Presbyterian Church that is an ecumenical newsletter that focuses on the contemplative journey and Twin Cities opportunities for growth. For more, click here.


9:15 a.m. to 10:10 a.m.

HOLISTIC HEALTH: Overview and recommended readings

As life begins with breathing, so did Janet Dahlem. MA, Associate Professor of the Master of Arts in Holistic Health Studies.

Slow, deep breathing and breath control can relax the body, cleanse the body of a majority of waste by-products, lower blood pressure, improve long-standing patterns of poor digestion, decrease anxiety, improve sleep and energy. When the body is heavily oxygenated, it is difficult for viruses and bacteria to grow. Good breathing also purifies the blood and supports muscle growth. Attentive breathing also nurtures a positive relationship between the body, mind, and spirit.

Professor Dahlem offered two particular techniques to try:

Three-Part Breath -- the easiest and most profound, and can be done anywhere, (*as written by Tony Robbins):
1) Get comfortable seated or standing, take a deep breath into the abdomen, through the nose, so that it expands out like a balloon.
2) Next, continue the inhale to now expand the rib cage with air.
3) Continue the inhale further to now expand the chest all the way to the upper chest like a balloon.
4) then reverse the procedure by exhaling out first from the chest, then the rib cage, then the abdomen.
5) Pulling on the abdominal muscles at the end of the exhale, getting out all the air. Then reverse the process by breathing in again.

Imagine that your torso is a glass and that glass fills up from the bottom to the top and then empties from the top down to the bottom. Do this for 15 minutes.

Bellow Breath-- great for charging up with energy or to release stress
1) Best if seated and not driving, spine straight.
2) Imagine that you are blowing a piece of dust out of your nose by sharply pulling in on the abdomen and at the same time blowing air out the nose.
3) Relax and a natural inhale will occur to fill the lungs again.
4) Again, sharply blow air of the nose by pulling in on the abdomen. Continue with the cycle so that your abdomen is functioning like a bellows, blowing air out.
5)Do this for 22 cycles, stop, take a big breath and rest. Do three rounds of 22.

Participants tried breathing techniques and received more in-depth information about simple, everyday ways to be more holistic in approaching their personal health. For connection to the Holistic Health Department, click here.

For Janet Dahlem's advice on health and humor -- "Ho, Ho. Ho, Holistic Health, click here.




10:15 a.m. to 11:10 a. m.

ETHICS IN EVERYDAY LIFE: Guides to Making Sound Decisions and Helping Those Around You to Do the Same

This course was taught by Monica Greenwell Janzen SP '97, a full-time mother of three children and adjunct professor of philosophy. Monica teaches courses at St. Catherine's, the University of St. Thomas, and Hennepin Technical College. She received her PhD. from the University of Minnesota in Political Philosophy and Ethics in 2006.

She described her class in this way:

I thought we could discuss ethical dilemmas that we might face in our everyday lives. However, when I solicited the topics for our discussion from the students, they threw back my "small fish" ideas and took on the big ethical dilemmas of our time. We framed our first discussion around the question: "What should we do when a person is in a persistent vegetative state?" In particular, we talked about the cases of Karen Quinlan and Teri Schaivo. What was the morally right thing to do?
 
The second question we looked at is: How much compensation should executives receive? How do we balance the good of Wall Street with the Common Good?
 
To answer these, we used some principle moral theories: Kantian's and Utilitarianism. We didn't have time to discuss everything, but I also included a handout of other prominent ethical theories, including Natural Law theory, which is the ethical theory that guides Catholic ethicists in their discussions of these types of questions.
 
Philosophers use these theories as ways to weigh out different ethical principles and decide what aspects of a case are more important than others. Philosophers attempt to use rational discourse to build an well reasoned argument for their conclusions. So our class focused on looking at the different types of reasons one may have for a position held.
 
My students discovered that they are all natural philosophers. To be a philosophers, one simply has to have a love of wisdom -- to have a desire and commitment to seek the truth through reason and experience. All alumnae who participated were engaged in this struggle for wisdom and truth.

Here is the outline Greenwell Janzen provided to give background on possible ethical approaches to questions and some of their strengths and pitfalls.

The reunion participants found these discussions so engaging that they continued conversing on the questions throughout the weekend.


10:15 a.m. to 11:10 a.m., 11:15 a.m. to noon

MEMOIR: Finding the Plot in One's Life or Someone Else's

Author and editor Marybeth Lorbiecki SP '81 guided participants into new thoughts about memoir and how to face the blank page.

Reunionites came to the class looking for help on getting started, organizing materials, surmounting procrastination, etc. They sought assistance for different kinds of memoir:

• Family histories
• Memoirs of beloved people, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, friends
• Personal history memoirs
• Thematic personal stories

Lorbiecki presented some modes of overcoming procrastination:

• Believe in the worth of the project and honor it by scheduling time for it.
• Give oneself small assignments with due dates, and commit to three months, six months, or a year of doing regular small assignments (i.e. three pages per day or week, or one hour per day or week, etc.).
• Build a network of people who will check up on your progress -- nags, cheerleaders, editors, fellow writers, writers club, email network, etc.
• Cut the project down to size -- focus on small bits, a little at a time, not the whole project.
• Deletions are as important as inclusions! Don't write about the uninteresting stuff.
• Leave a sentence unfinished so it's easy to pick up the project and start again the next time you sit down.
• Separate the writer in you from the editor, and let the writer write without editing!
• Do free writing (writing without stopping or editing for 5-10 straight) on a theme, object, or first sentence, etc. Then find the most intriguing parts and circle them to do more free writing....
• Look for themes, characters, situations, etc., that start to recur and be of interest.
• Give your work a tentative title, and if needed, change it as the project changes. This helps to offer focus and sense of purpose and substantiality to your work
• If stuck with writers' block, try free writing on these assignments:

1. List some road signs that would be appropriate for this situation or character (such as Stop, Yield, Go Slow, Construction Zone, Deaf Child Area, Watch for Pedestrians, Deer Crossing, Watch for Falling Rock, School Zone, Slow Children...). Write on the significance or symbolic value of each.
2. What Fairy Tale or part of a fairy tale, movie script, song title, etc. would fit this situation or character and why?
3. Make a list of the first things that pop to mind when you think of this situation or person. Then write separately on each element listed.
4. Make a list of significant items in a scene or that a key person wears or carries or keeps on the desk or in the bedroom, and write separately on each item.
5. Consider a symbol or metaphor that represents a person, place, or situation and write the significance.

Participants tried free writing techniques and surprised themselves with how much writing poured out of them onto the page and what they found they were really interested in, instead of what they thought they were. One woman had come in thinking she wanted to write about her husband and discovered through writing that she was really interested in other topics!

Participants shared some of their writing pieces and great conversations ensued that continued long after the class.

For more information on memoir writing and a more extended class on the subject by Lorbiecki (taught through the Alumnae Association's Lifelong Learning Classes), click here.

There is a growing need, especially with aging Baby Boomers, for professional memoir writers to assist the elderly, sick, non-literate, and more left-brained individuals to write down their memoirs. So St. Catherine University is developing a Memoirist Certificate Program in the School of Professional Studies. This is a holistic health profession as it can be a healing or comforting activity for those in acute, paralyzed, or hospice care. The program is tentatively designed to include classes in literary nonfiction, psychology of adulthood and aging, communication and interviewing skills, communicating across cultures, business entrepreneurship, and a practicum for this profession. We will keep you posted on this.

Finally, some people are looking for options that combine memoir writing with scrapbooking to capture family histories, honor special events, or memorialize people. There is a virtual scrapbooking company online that assists memoirists in writing, designing, and assembling eye-catching books that can then be purchased in multiple bound copies like regular books. This self-publishing scrapbooking process can also be done or assisted by representatives of the company. Kelly Hocks, who lives close to St. Kate's, has presented herself and her services to Lorbiecki and the Alumnae Association, and Lorbiecki liked the samples she saw. For more information, alumnae can visit the site of Kelly Hocks, Certified Independent Personal Publishing Consultant, at www.storybookcoach.com . This company is no way affiliated with St. Catherine University, the Alumnae Association, or Lorbiecki. It is just a resource that may be of use to some.


FRIDAY AFTERNOON

LUNCH -- this included the option of a noon to 1:15 Books and Reading Discussion Group, for alumnae to share their favorite book choices!



1:15 p.m. to 3:15

 

ACADEMIC TOUR OF NEW CAMPUS ELEMENTS

COEUR DE CATHERINE LIBRARY

The library is now part of the Coeur de Catherine complex which is an extension of the former St. Joseph Hall. With a first floor entrance across the sunlit indoor commons from the dining hall, the library opens up to a reader-friendly lounge area, with rooms for computer-based classes and studying. The original structure of the St. Catherine Library of the 1960s-90s has been renovated and still contains the majority of the book resources. It is the southern wing of Coeur de Catherine, with the archives in its basement.

Many library resources are now online, and alumnae can now access historic articles from The Wheel and Artiston from home. The editions have been digitalized. So you can now plug in the name of yourself and other classmates to pull up some fun history of your college years. To have some fun trying this out, click here.

For a description of the St. Paul Campus's Library collections, research resources, and services, click here. For information on how alumnae can take advantages of these resources, click here.

Alumnae will also be happy to learn about the environmental collections and initiatives of the libraries -- Green Organization of the Library (GOL). For more...



THE NEW RESIDENCE HALLS



Alumnae visited the Henrietta Schmoll Rauenhorst Hall and Susan Schmid Morrison Hall, the newest residence halls at St. Kate's. The buildings offer four-person suites to 150 upper-class students and are connected by Visitation Commons, which features a fireplace, seminar room, kitchen, reception desk and a spacious lounge. For more on the amenities of these halls, click here. For information on their learning communities nurtured in them and the article in the Pioneer Press, click here.


FONTBONNE HALL

Family, Consumer, and Nutrition Sciences (formerly Home Economics Department)


The Test-Class Kitchen for Nutrition, Dietetics, Consumer Science Courses

Reunion participants were led through the university's state-of the-art kitchen by Debra Baron Sheats SP '75, who is chair of the Family, Consumer, and Nutrition Science Department. An expert in dietetics, she has a Masters in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. For more on this alum, click here.

In Dietetics, the students work on three courses in this kitchen: Food Science, Nutrition, and Intercultural Foods. They experiment and do taste tests in food science and chemistry, such as developing gluten-free versions of common foods (such as a gluten-free version of a Chicken Nugget-like product). They work on food costing, such as how to make simple nutritional meal plans and recipes for low costs. They also try to create cultural foods with available American ingredients or in low-fat versions. Other courses that students may take that center around food and kitchens include: Sports Nutrition, Leadership in Foods and Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Management, Food Service Operation Management, Experimental Foods, Research in Foods and Nutrition, Current Issues in Foods and Nutrition, Advanced Nutrition, Medical Therapy Nutrition I and II, etc.

Students with a family, consumer, and nutrition science major are prepared not only for careers that flow from the courses noted but also for advanced study in consumer affairs, family therapy, human services, financial advising, parenting education and library science.


Fashion and Apparel/Fashion Merchandising Area
The tour then moved on the area for fabric design. Students' course work includes: Textiles, Apparel Construction and Analysis, Sociocultural Aspects of Clothing, History of Costume, Pattern Making I and II, Advanced Construction, Fashion Illustration, History of Fashion, etc.

They work on CAD design software in the computer lab and print out their life-size patterns on the full size printer. Some students taken on community service projects where they design apparel to special needs of individuals, such as children at the Children's Hospital who need clothing to fit around medical devices. For more on this, click here.

Every spring the fashion design and merchandising students have a fashion show called the Katwalk. For a glimpse of some of their creations, click here. Many also participate in the Minneapolis Voltage Design event; for more...


Business Administration



Assistant Professor Mary Unger Hendersen SP '80 led the tour of the Business Department, which includes the majors of Business Administration, Accounting, Information Technology, and Sales. For more...

With an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and as a doctoral candidate in their educational leadership program, she teaches "Advanced Sales: Strategic Account Management" and the "Business Internship Practicum" courses. Unger Henderson has 18 years of executive experience at corporations.
She explained with professional zeal some of the unique aspects of the Business Department at St. Kate's. The Business Administration option include specialties in Marketing and Management, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Healthcare Management. The Sales Department offers concentrations in both Business to Business Sales and Healthcare Sales. The department also provides certificates in these two areas. These particular areas of focus are cutting edge and may the Healthcare Sales programs may be the only in the country at present. The Department includes global studies programs and corporate ties.

Mary Unger Hendersen was delighted to find one of her former students, Cynthia Phimmasone Shasky SP' 05 among the tour participants. Another alum asked about corporate governance and ethics, and Mary affirmed that there is a strong emphasis on ethics in all classes, and especially in the business law and business policy classes. Unger Hendersen herself did her dissertation on women whistleblowers in the work place.


Other Changes to Fontbonne HallAs the reunion participants walked around the Fontbonne Building, they noted the loss of the pool. It is now a storage space, as all pool and fitness facilities have been moved to the new Butler Sports and Fitness Center. For information on Alumnae/i use of the Center, click here.




The Green Roof


On top of Fontbonne, not viewed by the reunionites on this tour, is the Green Roof. In a student-driven project, five different native prairie species are being tested in various plots of differing amounts of diversity, from plots of five species down to plots with one. Since the plots with a single species have roots of the same length competing, these plants are struggling most. The student scientists are the caretakers through the summer and school year, noting growth pattern and charting data for their scientific hypotheses. The benefits to St. Catherine University are measured in terms of water run-off prevention, energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction from the insulation, and plots for student biological projects.


MENDEL HALL

Chemistry


The tour then proceeded to Mendel Hall where the changes had been progressive over the many years. Professor John Dwyer said that his office had once been the College's radio station broadcasting booth. In 1992, the biology department had spread out throughout the basement and the Occupational Therapy Department now resides on the Fourth Floor and in the Tower offices.

Professor Dwyer was most excited that in that the new $300,000 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer, which was purchased in part through grants, had been installed. It will allow students to identify and study the molecular structure of chemical components. It is used in chemical research, biochemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, polymer science, petroleum research, agricultural chemistry and medicine. For more...


Many alumnae remembered having classes in the Mendel Auditorium, and they were happy to have cushier seats than they had had as students.


WHITBY HALL

From here the tour progressed to Whitby Hall. It is more than just a residence hall — it is the home of the Liberal Arts on campus, housing the English, Spanish, French, Classical Languages, history, philosophy, political science, economics, and theology departments (the core of the School of the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences). Whitby also hosts the nursing laboratories in the basement.

While the tour of 2009 was going on, so construction on the Third Floor, changing residence rooms to offices and classrooms for the Nursing and the Respiratory Care Departments. Fourth Floor will remain residential housing.



English Professor Geri Chavis and Dr. Alice Swan, the Acting Dean of the Henrietta Schmoll School of Health, answered questions about the changes to Whitby Hall in Jeanne D'Arc Auditorium, which alumnae remembered well.

Professor Chavis explained how the English Department, in addition to offering its traditional courses in language and literature, also offer professional writing courses. English majors are encouraged to complete an internship as part of their course of study, available throughout the Twin Cities at publishing companies, major corporations and nonprofit institutions. St Kate’s English majors have interned at KTCA-TV, the Minnesota Zoo, Graywolf Press, Coffee House Press, Milkweed Press, The Guthrie Theater and 3M. Professor Geri Chavis, a writer and editor herself, was selected by reunion participants for a Myser Award for Faculty Excellence. For more on Professor Chavis...

Dr. Swan fielded questions about the nursing department and commented upon how grateful she is for the new classroom spaces upstairs that can hold 25 to 30 students and "an office with a window." Two huge classrooms in Whitby will have a ceiling projection screen so students can observe what is happening on the hospital bed on the classroom floor. The classrooms will also have movable furniture to make them into more flexible learning spaces. In labs, an eight-to-one student-to-faculty ratio occurs to allow the faculty to work closely with the students.

Dr. Swan described some of the aspects that make St. Kate's unique in its nursing training, with its emphasis on the liberal arts, interdisciplinary studies, partnerships, ethics, community health, and leadership in nursing. Also, at St. Kate's, all levels of nursing students are encouraged to receive higher levels of education and they are offered the opportunities through the programs. Dr. Swan announced that to maximize the opportunities for nursing clinicals, the School of Health will be creating partnerships with community clinic in areas of the country that have nurse and/or nursing education shortages, such as in Kentucky and Colorado.

In the Twin Cities, the students have opportunities to work in varied areas including medical-surgical, maternity, pediatric, psychiatric and public health nursing. They have practicums at several Twin Cities healthcare facilities including Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Ramsey County Nursing Service, Children’s Hospital-St. Paul and the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

Dr. Swan was particularly proud of some of the nursing research projects the students are undertaking, such as exploring cross-cultural nursing issues in caring for Hmong women with diabetes, elder care in assistive living, and in health care systems for improvements and reform. St. Kate's is working closely with members of Catholic Health Association.

One alum asked about how the nursing department was addressing some of problems with the overworking of nurses, given unhealthy schedules and expectations. Dr. Swan said, "We work with students on self-care and setting boundaries." The school encourages them to create strategies to place limits and to become more involved in the health care systems in their workplace, community, and state and work with a shared voice for better conditions. "The present systems may be good for business, but they don't work for the patients or the nurses."

After questions, Geri Chavis led the tour out to the English Garden and Gazebo behind Whitby Hall to the west. Many alumnae was surprised at the charmed spot and Peter Lupori's sculpture of St. Francis along the circular stone path.



The tour ended with iced tea refreshments in Derham Hall before proceeding to the chapel for the architecture presentation.

 

Our Lady of Victory Chapel, Church of St. Trophime in France, and Mother Antonia's Vision

In a fascinating presentation, Social Work Professor Mary Ann Brenden gave attendees insights into the vision and messages Mother Antonia wanted to pass on to future generations through the architectural details of Our Lady of Victory chapel. The chapel was closely modeled on the Provence Romanesque Church of St. Trophime in Arles, France.

By comparing the St. Kate's chapel to its model and seeing where Mother Antonia both imitated and modified the details, one can see what she valued. For instance where one set of Arles statues honor Apostle Bartholomew, St. James the Great, and St. Trophime, Our Lady of Victory's statues honor Saints Rose of Lima, Anthony of Padua, and Teresa of Avila. The statues on the Right Portal Flank show St. Therese de Lisieux (before she was even named a saint), St. Joseph (of course!), and St. Agnes.




Mother Antonia definitely adds more women to the mix of figures portrayed, and one particularly telling modification she made is in the portrayal of the "damned" and the "elect" at the Last Judgement scenes that wrap around the top of the portals. In Our Lady of Victory, as opposed to St. Trophime, women are among the saved. But at both Our Lady of Victory and St. Trophime, all of the damned are men.

At Our Lady of Victory, wheat and grapes and other symbols of Eucharist abound, as well images of the abundance of creation, and the delight of music and the arts. Fish and phoenixes (signs of rebirth) are also recurring images. In the frieze of St. Catherine's life, which journeys in stone across the chapel facade above the grand door and around the corners, we see St. Catherine giving her riches to the poor, protesting pagan human sacrifice, being imprisoned but consoled by St. Michael the Archangel, converting the empress sent to persuade her to give up her faith, confronting the pagan priests without fear, having the wheel break, facing the executioner and his ax, and finally, we see the angels taking her head to heaven.

Though the St. Catherine chapel so closely resembles St. Trophime, Mother Antonia did not see St. Trophime before the building of Our Lady of Victory. Mary Ann Brenden did extensive research (she had a faculty sabbatical for this purpose) in the construction notes, diaries, and letters in the archives. It is still a mystery why Mother Antonia picked the Church of St. Trophime for her model and how she came to have exact replications of the architecture and architectural details on which to base her construction in St. Paul. One theory is that in 1908 when the artistic CSJs Sister Anysia Keating and her sibling Sister Sophia Keating traveled with Sister Marie Teresa Mackey to Europe to study the works of art, they made detailed sketches. Or perhaps they had an art book that they used.

During construction, Mother Antonia called in the best tilemakers and artisans available for both the interior and exterior, and she oversaw even the smallest details and the funding, praying while donors considered their options in her midst. She had her own chair to sit and watch the workmen. The tiles in the stonework on the exterior and on the interior are both patterned and consistently irregular.

When faced with Mother Antonia's proposal to build Our Lady of Victory Chapel, Archbishop Augustine Dowling was not in favor of it, fearing it would compete with local parishes. When it was complete and he first saw modern-Byzantine Romanesque building on the hill, he said "Sister Antonia asked to build a chapel, but she built a cathedral!" He dedicated it in 1924.

Brenden's presentation was so captivating that alumnae asked when it would be written down or available in book or online form. Brenden said that there would be a story in the fall SCAN, and she would be looking into publication options.

FRIDAY EVENING:


Class Parties

Each reunion class had a separate place to meet, eat, and talk, and these parties gave classmates a chance to reconnect, look at old photos, compare memories, and catch up on each other's lives.



SATURDAY MORNING, June 19


The Class of 1959 Joined for Their 50th Year Mass, Pinning, and Photo


 

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Lunch -- Senior Vice President Colleen Hegranes welcomed all the classes and thanked them for their ongoing leadership in their communities and professions, and for support of St. Kate's. She presented them with words from President Andrea Lee, IHM, on St. Catherine University and its mission and structure. For more on Sister Andrea's vision, click here to the address she gave at the Alumnae Association Annual Meeting...


At this luncheon, the alumnae-selected winners of the Myser Awards for Faculty Excellence were presented to:
Dr. Geraldine Chavis, English; Dr. Larry Collins, Professor Emeritus in Spanish; Azela Gohl-Gies, Class of 1959 and Professor Emeritas in Occupational Therapy; and Dr. Carol Ann Tauer, Class of 1954 and Professor Emeritas in Bio-ethics.




Reception with Current and Retired Faculty and Staff

Alumnae were able to chat with some of their favorite professors.

Class of 1984 Class Pinning

Ice Cream Social



SATURDAY EVENING

All-Class Casual Buffet and Barbecue Dinner with classmates and family

Class of 1959 Dinner



SUNDAY, June 20


Dew Drop Dash

For the highlights....




Mass of Remembrance for Deceased Reunion Classmates; Special Alumnae Choir



Continental Breakfast and Good-byes....