Spring 2021 Upon Reflection In the past few weeks, we have celebrated Holy A famous poet (T. S. Eliot) once wrote: “April is the Week and Easter and observed how the cycles of cruelest month.” But lately, I’ve been reading the the Church calendar connect to the natural world wonderful contemporary Irish poet Kerry Hardie, and to celebrate renewal and rebirth. And there are she has a different message. I find this short spring certainly signs of spring at Saint Mary’s College! The poem really speaks to the richness of the month and willow trees have their early green edges; the bulbs the season we’re in. are bursting forth in flower; the magnolias are at full NEAR LOUGHREA bloom, and the ubiquitous forsythia add a golden glow all around the campus. The lone bull red on an emerald ground. Today—just shy of 10 months into my presidency—I The ruined church, know Saint Mary’s is a place ready for transformation. through the gap-toothed wall. Its root system stands firm, but its branches continue to expand their reach. It can pass through a dormant Fields winter and prosper again in spring. Its twigs can bright with new grass, new lambs. stretch and blossom and leaf anew. Sky gone suddenly spacious and blue. There are so many lessons from my first year in office. Just over one year ago, the World Health Organization And the whitethorn breaking. declared the coronavirus a pandemic. I was actually in And the blackthorn making stars. South Bend that day, choosing finishes for the condo And one chestnut, standing holy, my husband and I would ultimately buy—and letting its birth-wet buds myself imagine what it would be like to join the held to the high, wide sky. Saint Mary’s community just a few months later. Like everyone else, I simply had no idea what lay ahead. This is a poem of regeneration! It opens with a lone In fact, before I could get back to Boston that week, bull and a church ruin and closes with the “birth-wet the whole world was shutting down, and I didn’t buds” on one chestnut tree sanctified in its very being. even have a mask to wear on my flight back east. Fast And the word that grounds the poem—solitary at the forward and here we are, a full year later. It has been a center of 13 lines—is “sky,” described as “spacious and painful and sobering year for our world; after all, the blue,” and later as “high” and “wide.” devastating impact of the coronavirus was unthinkable That’s the sky I see over Saint Mary’s too. Having only a short time ago. weathered “the winter of our discontent” Every day, I am thankful that we kept the campus safe. (Shakespeare, of course), we have journeyed toward In spite of the lonely and difficult demands of each the renewal, the renaissance, the resurrection of moment, this has also been an extraordinary learning spring. We remember the power of life in a quiescent journey, not just for me but for all of us—full of bulb, in a bare branch, in a buried root. Our sap runs problem-solving, experimentation, collaboration, risk with new energy and force. management, and communication. I have grown in my own understanding and practice of leadership, and I am so grateful for the hard work and the community spirit of every single person on campus. Katie Conboy, Ph.D. President TABLE of CONTENTS volume 96, number 1 | Spring 2021 8 16 14 12 6 10 The Saint Mary’s College Courier Courier Staff Contributors Alumnae Relations Staff About Saint Mary’s College IN THIS ISSUE is published three times a year Carrie Rulli Haleigh Ehmsen ’16 Kara M. O’Leary ’89 Celebrating over 175 years of by Saint Mary’s College. Editor Lisa Knox Executive Director of Alumnae empowering women to make Nonprofit postage paid at the [email protected] Melissa McNamara and College Relations a difference in the world, Saint A Roadmap for the Next Decade [email protected] 6 Post Office at Notre Dame, IN Art Wager Mary’s College is recognized 46556 and at additional mailing Photographers Creative Director Lexi Grady Haitsma ’17 as both a visionary pioneer 8 Improving a Sense of Belonging offices. Alonzo Fotography Associate Director of Mary Meehan Firtl and an enduring innovator in How Interprofessional Education Transforms Learning Experiences POSTMASTER: Send address Alumnae Relations the education of women. A 10 Art Director Illustrator changes to Alumnae Relations [email protected] Catholic, residential, women’s Saint Mary’s College Curt Sochocki Andrea Eberbach 12 Campus Briefs liberal arts institution in Notre ONLINE EXTRAS 110 Le Mans Hall Senior Graphic Designer Class News Dame, Indiana, Saint Mary’s Finance Presentation Yields Lifelong Returns Notre Dame, IN 46556-5001 Send alumnae class news 14 College offers more than 50 to:[email protected] Check out Courier online Copyright 2021 undergraduate academic 16 Thriving Through Ongoing Care and Connection Alumnae News Editor for sharable articles, additional Saint Mary’s College programs for women as well Notre Dame, IN 46556 110 Le Mans Hall Club News Saint Mary’s College as graduate degrees open 19 photos, videos, and more. Reproduction in whole or part These figurines Notre Dame, IN to all. 20 For the Record is prohibited without written by Lladró, 46556-5001 Take a deeper dive into many permission. on loan from 22 Class News of the stories and enjoy The opinions expressed are Carolyn Woo, are Letters to the Editor interactive content. those of the authors or their two of the newest Send letters to: subjects and are not necessarily additions to the [email protected] shared by the College or editor. College’s art Courier Editor saintmarys.edu/Courier collection. Saint Mary’s College Libby Gray Koultourides ‘93 Read more 303 Haggar College Center Interim Vice President for on page 12. Notre Dame, IN 46556 College Relations The Mark of On the Cover: Spring’s hope blooms all across campus. [email protected] Responsible Forestry www.fsc.org SGSH-COC-002249 A Roadmap for the Next Decade By Lisa Knox In this period of changing U.S. demographics and global connection, Saint Mary’s must renew its commitment to meeting the needs of the times—expanding the boundaries of who we are and imagining in fresh ways who we can be. By doing so, we will sustain and expand our mission, thus becoming more accessible, attractive, and hospitable to rapidly diversifying undergraduate and adult student populations. —Revere and Revise: Saint Mary’s College 2030 In December, President Katie Conboy unveiled Revere and Revise: with faculty, staff, students, alumnae, Sisters of the Holy Cross, Saint Mary’s College 2030, a strategic plan, approved by the donors. It was a breakneck endeavor that included masked walks College’s Board of Trustees, to guide Saint Mary’s over the next on campus, Zoom meetings at dawn, evening conversations, decade. Revere and Revise provides an ambitious framework for numerous phone calls, and email exchanges. the College to meet the needs of an evolving student population. The result of these sessions, however, is a strategic plan with both Many will be the first in their families to attend college. More short-term and long-term goals that will make Saint Mary’s a will depend upon substantial financial aid. It is possible, Conboy more robust institution. Multiple committees made up of faculty wrote, to understand the aspirations of these new audiences and staff will provide oversight, implementation guidance, and and “respond differently than peer institutions. Our core values, regular review of the plan to monitor its progress. combined with our historical identity, are at the heart of how we will differentiate our approach.” In the following pages, two stories describe how Revere and Revise is already coming to life. How Interprofessional Education Conboy has assured the community that this strategic plan is Will Change Healthcare illustrates how Saint Mary’s is preparing no theoretical exercise. Revere and Revise is meant to be a true our health sciences students for today’s careers in healthcare—at roadmap—a strategy that is both boldly futuristic and both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Improving a Sense of disarmingly feasible. It includes four principal commitments It is hard to imagine a more complex and challenging time Belonging, chronicles how the first of the plan’s commitments is and 24 tactical recommendations that bring the commitments already impacting students through the creation of the Office for to be accomplishing our mission at Saint Mary’s, but I am surrounded to life, as well as an implementation timeline. Student Equity. “ by a team that rises to the challenge every day. Though she is a prolific writer, Conboy admits even she was “It is hard to imagine a more complex and challenging time to be humbled by how quickly the plan came together. “Of course, —President Katie Conboy, Ph.D. accomplishing our mission at Saint Mary’s, but I am surrounded I also could not have foreseen almost anything about the by a team that rises to the challenge every day,” Conboy wrote circumstances of 2020,” she wrote in a letter to the College ” last October in the midst of the planning. “Every day, I count my community. blessings, and high among them is that I am here—in the right Much of the credit for the accelerated planning effort, she says, place, trying to do the right things.” is due to the planning work that happened under the leadership of previous presidents, including the published strategic priorities developed by Interim President Nancy Nekvasil.