Saint Benedict’s Magazine Summer 2020

SUMMER 2020 MAGAZINE

Celebrating the amendment and looking ahead at what’s left to do Page 18

Can’t stop now Amazing gifts raise our total – but key goals remain unfulfilled. Page 34.

INSIDE 2 Saying goodbye to President Mary Dana Hinton 17 Remembering President Emerita S. Emmanuel Renner ’49, OSB 12 A strange semester under COVID-19

IN THIS ISSUE

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18 EDITOR’S NOTES: This issue was a doozy. In late January, we shifted our plans sadly to pay tribute to our beloved S. Emmanuel Renner (page 17). In mid-February, President Mary Dana Hinton announced her plans to accept the presidency of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. So our plans changed again.

Then came March. Responding to COVID-19 (page 12) has made this an interesting time at Saint Ben’s (or, more accurately, at home being safely socially distant from Saint Ben’s).

But what we hope doesn’t get lost in the chaos is the beautiful original focus of this issue: the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment. There’s wonderful historical content in here and thoughtful observations by some of your favorite faculty members. And, if you’re wondering about that cover, that’s the delightfully succinct directive sent by Mother Louisa Walz, the three-time prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery, to her charges.

The note is so short it seems anticlimactic.

But we choose to believe she simply knew her audience. Benedictine communities had been selecting their own leaders for 1,400 years, following chapter 64 of the Rule.

These women knew what they were doing and understood its impact.

Hope you enjoy it and you’re all doing well.

30 FEATURES 2 Lighting the Way Forward 6 Expressions of Impact 8 Mary Hinton in Her Own Words 12 CSB Responds to COVID-19 18 Remembering Complex Stories of Woman Suffrage

24 Voices of Reflection 30 So Where Are We Now? 34 Illuminating Lives

Campaign Update

DEPARTMENTS 1 Message From the President 14 News 38 I’m a Bennie 39 Class Notes 46 Bennie Connection 49 Generosity

The College of Saint Benedict Magazine is published three times a year by the office of Institutional Advancement.

EDITOR Greg Skoog (SJU ’89) ASSISTANT EDITOR Margaret Arnold CONTRIBUTORS Ellen Hunter Gans ’05 Catherine Helen Palczewski, Ph.D. Leah Rado Kate Westlund ’10 COVER PHOTO A note to the Sisters of Saint Benedict’s Monastery, courtesy of the monastery’s archives.

CONTACT College of Saint Benedict Magazine Institutional Advancement 37 South College Avenue St. Joseph, MN 56374-2099 For address changes, please call 1-800-648-3468, ext. 1 or email csbalumnae@csbsju.edu Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer The mission of the College of Saint Benedict is to provide for women the very best residential liberal arts education in the Catholic and Benedictine traditions. The college fosters integrated learning, exceptional leadership for change and wisdom for a lifetime.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Yours Devotedly

Dear Friends, Had anyone told me a year ago that all learning at the College of Saint Benedict would be delivered online, that there would be no Bennies on campus, that I would be working from home, and that this would be my final letter to the Saint Ben’s community, I would likely have laughed out loud and questioned their judgment. Each of those things would have seemed outlandish.

And yet, here we are. Over the course of two weeks in March, all learning moved online and our campus emptied of students. Our faculty and staff, per Governor Walz’s executive order, are working from home. And, this is my final letter to the Saint Ben’s community. So much change, uncertainty and transition all at once.

By the time this magazine goes to print, I have no idea where the world will be as it relates to COVID-19. The situation is far too fluid to even guess. I will say that I hope you and your families are well. For those who have lost family members due to this virus, please know that we have been holding you in our hearts and prayers.

I do know that when this magazine goes to print, I will only have a precious few days left in St. Joseph. What a wonderful journey it has been! I am so very proud of each and every one of the over 4,000 students I had the privilege to journey with over the past six years. I have met amazing alumnae, expanded the list of wise women whose counsel I seek and absorb through the sisters, and been the recipient of daily labors of love from our faculty, staff and administrators.

During my inauguration in 2014 I said, “In the Old Testament we find the verse, ‘Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.’

This verse is a familiar one in many ways. But it’s also complex, in part because it implies we don’t need our vision illuminated but, rather, we need our feet illuminated. And, in fact, when I think of the inaugural theme – Illuminated – that suggestion seems to make sense to me. We will – with great trust in one another – share a vision. But how do we know where and how to tread in pursuit of

that vision? In the dark, how do we know which step to take next?

How can we move forward and not be bound by, or frozen in, fear?

We need our path, our action, our grounding illuminated. This verse calls us to think about lighting our feet. The question I pose today is what path are we illuminating? If our task is to become illuminated, how do we walk in that light? I suggest we need to illuminate the foundational elements of our pathway: the liberal arts, women’s education, our past and our opportunities.”

Collectively, we accomplished all of the goals we set out to achieve in 2014. Without a doubt, we illuminated our path toward academic excellence in the liberal arts, the amplification of women’s voices, a celebration of women’s leadership, the strong and enduring legacy of the sisters, and the numerous opportunities we created and encountered along the way to make our community inclusive, engaging and worthy of your support.

For that, we should celebrate and express gratitude. Thank you for making that initial vision real and for accomplishing it with me.

As I excitedly look toward my new adventure at Hollins University, please know that I am taking with me many wonderful things from the College of Saint Benedict. The love, strength and courage of the sisters has truly transformed me as a woman and as a leader.

The dignity of work, as expressed daily by our faculty and staff, has informed how I think about what vocation truly means. The support, encouragement and kindness from each of you has made the College of Saint Benedict and me better.

As I said at the outset of this letter, the future holds many unknowns. What I do know is how grateful I am to have been a part of the College of Saint Benedict community. Thank you.

Mary Dana Hinton College of Saint Benedict President Summer 2020 | 1

the Way Forward A look back at the legacy of Dr. Mary Dana Hinton BY | ELLEN HUNTER GANS ’05 2 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

T

his summer, College of Saint Benedict President Mary Dana Hinton will step down after six years as she moves on to become president of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. So just how do you possibly articulate the impact of six years of her leadership?

The short answer: You can’t. Mary Hinton’s imprint is visible throughout campus, in tangible things like renovated and restored academic buildings and welcoming new facilities.

It shows up in black and white in our competitive rankings and the way we’ve significantly improved access to the full Saint Ben’s experience. It lives and breathes in the young women who heard Mary’s call for an ecosystem of inclusion and chose to help make it happen. It’s heard in the evolved dialogue on campus, where speaking up is encouraged and uncomfortable topics are increasingly, respectfully confronted head-on.

We won’t begin to try to list Mary’s myriad accomplishments.

We’d run out of ink. The six snapshots detailed on the next few pages reflect just a few of the ways Saint Ben’s is forever changed thanks to her advocacy, vision and energy.

Illuminating Lives: Campaign of the Century The Illuminating Lives campaign is the largest of its kind in the school’s history.

The nine-figure goal was incredibly – and deliberately – ambitious. And yet, the community has stepped up in a big way.

Our mission was to reach $100,000,000 in outright and deferred gifts by June 2020.

As of May 2020, we’d exceeded that goal with a total of $107,323,631.80.

(Every penny counts!)

Illuminating Lives is aimed at changing lives through three key objectives: • I mproving access to higher education for students from a variety of backgrounds; •G rowing current support for scholarships through the annual fund; and •C reating modern, functional learning spaces for curricular and co-curricular activities.

Less tangibly but no less importantly, Illuminating Lives echoes a sentiment that we’ve heard often from Mary: that educating women is not just important but essential, and that amazing things happen when we create a pathway for women to think critically, lead courageously and advocate passionately. Indeed, that’s a fitting way to sum up Mary’s tenure at Saint Ben’s. She thought critically about how to make Saint Ben’s second century build on and exceed its first. She led courageously, making difficult decisions and being steadfast in her willingness to lean into uncomfortable topics. She advocated passionately for the education of women and the inclusion of those who might not otherwise have access to this extraordinary place.

She created a dialogue and a space that attracted national and international attention and commanded respect, discourse and engagement. And it also resonated with the entire Saint Ben’s community – so much so that our community stepped up in a big way to meet the campaign goals.

Mary joined Josephine Zehnle Terwey ’39 last summer at her 80th Reunion celebration.

Thanks to Mary’s vision and direction, Saint Ben’s is equipped to not only continue acting upon the campaign objectives but expand the dialogue she started and become a leader for the next century.

Summer 2020 | 3

C ampus Renovations and Expansions: Building for the Future When she arrived at Saint Ben’s, Mary wasted no time learning and embracing Benedictine values, which resonated with her on a personal and professional level.

She appreciated the monastery’s shrewd use of resources and their stewardship of the campus facilities.

Under Mary’s leadership and encouragement, in 2016 the Board of Trustees authorized the largest bond to date at more than $34,000,000. The bond would cover a broad range of projects from respectful renovations to new construction. It would include improvements to academic spaces, residential life and athletics to ensure the best living and learning environment for our students. During her tenure, Mary refused to compromise pragmatism for the sake of “wow” factor. As Executive Director of Facilities Ryan Gideon put it, “Mary shows incredible attention to detail in these projects, maintaining interest in critical but lowvisibility aspects.” (Mary once joked that she “appreciates a sturdy cistern.”)

She has shown a commitment not only to responsible, resourceful stewardship of resources but also to honoring the women who started this extraordinary place. In lieu of building a new academic building on the south end of campus, Mary led the charge to repurpose the Main Building and the Henrita Academic Building (HAB) and transform Caedmon, Artisan and Wendelin (purchased from the monastery) to become Schoenecker Commons. All of these renovations were completed at a fraction of the cost of building an entirely new academic building, and these architecturally significant edifices will serve the college for the next 100 years.

L eading the Way in Liberal Arts: Whole-Person, Whole-Brain, Whole-Life Learning During Mary’s presidency, the College of Saint Benedict hosted two national summer conferences on the future of the liberal arts.

The success of these national conversations in central Minnesota stemmed from Mary’s passion for the liberal arts, her unique ability to bring the conference leaders 4 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

together and her authentic sense of hospitality and connection. For the first conference (“Liberal Arts Illuminated: Pathways, Possibilities, Partnerships”), held in July 2016, Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s opened the campuses to a national audience of faculty, senior college administrators, trustees and policymakers to discuss the challenges, issues and opportunities facing liberal arts education.

This conference attracted 215 participants representing 74 colleges, universities and other organizations from 25 states and three countries.

Many participants of the 2016 conference returned in July 2018 for “Liberal Arts Illuminated: Reframing the Narrative – Leadership Toward Inclusive Excellence.”

This conference gave participants the opportunity to address the challenges faced by liberal arts institutions, but also to affirm and celebrate the core values that underpin a liberal arts education.

Through Mary’s leadership, Saint Ben’s has emerged as a national and international leader in liberal arts education, demonstrating the incomparable value of a whole-person, whole-brain and whole-life approach to learning.

Strategic Plan: 20/20 Vision In her first year as president, Mary met with over 1,000 stakeholders – students, faculty, alumnae, donors, friends of the college – to hear about their vision for Saint Ben’s.

The result was Strategic Directions 2020 (SD2020), a collaborative strategic plan and dynamic vision to guide the college through 2020. The vision: The College of Saint Benedict provides a liberal arts education preparing women to think critically, lead courageously and advocate passionately.

Key advancements in each of the four SD2020 objectives include: Liberal Arts for Life: • Integrations Curriculum • First-Year Experience • New professional development opportunities around diversity and inclusion • Exercise and health science major • Investments in technology

Holistic & Transformational Development of Women: •O ffice of Experience and Professional Development • The Fleischhacker Center for Ethical Leadership in Action • Defined institutional learning goals • Curricular and co-curricular learning Inclusive & Engaging Catholic & Benedictine Experience: •C atholic and Benedictine identities remain central to who we are • P rogress toward inclusivity • New Integrations Curriculum includes two sequential courses in theology • Faculty now address Catholic and Benedictine traditions as part of their file for rank and tenure review Shared Future, Sustainable Future: A long-range economic model has been developed that continues to guide our budget planning.

Rising in the Rankings: Opening Doors on a National Stage In 2015, shortly after Mary’s inauguration, Saint Ben’s sat at #90 on U.S. News & World Report’s list of the top 100 liberal arts colleges. Under Mary’s tenure, we not only stayed on that list but worked our way up, landing at the #82 spot in the rankings for 2020.

This rise in the rankings coincided with our 2017 invitation to join the American Talent Initiative (ATI). ATI is an exclusive collection of institutions that aims to substantially expand the number of lowand moderate-income students at America’s undergraduate institutions with the highest graduation rates. Mary wholeheartedly embraced the spirit of the ATI and the outcomes speak for themselves.

spending on education-focused activities and compares that to the overall ranking it earns on the U.S. News & World Report list.

D iversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice: Talking the Talk – and Walking the Walk For those who have been part of Mary’s tenure at Saint Ben’s, it’s clear that diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) are not simply talking points or “add-ons,” but rather a natural and expected component of what it means to be in community – and what she’s asking of all of us who are part of that community. She has “demonstrated quite effectively” an expectation that DEIJ be at the core of who Saint Ben’s is even beyond her presidency, says Brandyn Woodard, director of Intercultural & International Student Services at Saint Ben’s. “One of the best ways we can honor her and her legacy is to keep moving in a direction of DEIJ that simultaneously empowers, guides and inspires future presidents, students and alumnae.”

“We are becoming a community where more folks are empowered (and encouraged!) to speak up, talk about systemic oppression, and rethink their approaches to engaging with others on campus and beyond,” says Brandyn.

There is more work to be done, but Mary’s vision and leadership have catalyzed an environmental shift with inspired possibility.

As we progress into the college’s second century, we are propelled forward by a six-year span that felt invigorating, inspiring and – in the best sense of the word – challenging. The path forward feels bright.

Illuminated, you might say. One of the greatest gifts Mary gave us has been her focus on the future. She is leaving us wellprepared to excel under the next leader, and we know she’ll be cheering us on. As the saying goes; once a Bennie, always a Bennie.

Among Mary’s many accomplishments in this arena: She was an integral part of securing the Becoming Community Initiative, a $600,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation that aims to create transformative inclusion among faculty, staff, monastics, students, alums and community partners at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s.

In 2017 CSB was ranked #41 in the New York Times’s College Access Index, which looks at colleges with five-year graduation rates at or above 75%, ranking these schools for the number of low- and moderate-income graduates and how much those graduates paid.

That same year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Saint Ben’s #1 (yes, that’s first) Most Efficient National Liberal Arts School.

The ranking looks at a school’s per-student

Summer 2020 | 5

In what seems like a very short time, Mary Dana Hinton has had a lasting impact not just on this college, but on the people who make up this community.

These are just a few of them.

threatened my drive to continue. I voiced my feelings to you, and you did what you do best. You listened with your heart; you empathized; you made me feel valued.

Most importantly, you helped me realize the significance of my role on campus in enriching our community. I attribute my achievements as a campus leader to having you as part of my strong support system. Your commitment to inclusivity has fostered the development of passionate advocates who are prepared to challenge assumptions with grace, perseverance and purpose.

Ashley Thompson ’19 Dear President Hinton, You have transformed lives. You have empowered women to become catalysts of change by thinking critically, leading courageously and advocating passionately.

Our community’s vision has become a personal mantra for many Bennies because your passion and devotion inspire us to reach our full potential. It was a privilege to attend Saint Ben’s under your endearing leadership.

Thank you for making the CSB/SJU community a more inclusive place for students, faculty and staff to thrive. Your welcoming presence and calming demeanor were instrumental in my decision to complete my four years at Saint Ben’s.

There were times of sheer frustration that 6 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

grateful for the six years you dedicated to us. Hollins University is blessed to have you and I’m eager to hear about all the ways you illuminate their community.

No matter the distance between us, you will always be my CSB Mom. I wish you every success in this next step on your journey.

I love you!

Ashley

When I reflect on my journey to the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program at the University of Pittsburgh, I recognize that Saint Ben’s has equipped me with a stellar foundation for the acquisition of specialized skills. With such a valuable background, Bennies are better able to appreciate diverse perspectives, engage in a global community and have the leadership capacity to transform lives and communities. Thank you for being an advocate for the liberal arts and for instilling that passion in our community.

President Hinton, you have surpassed every expectation I had of a college president and I’m incredibly proud of the relationship we’ve built over the years. The philosopher Epictetus wrote, “One of the best ways to elevate your character is to emulate worthy role models.” I can confidently say that I am a better person for knowing you. Your presence exudes warmth, which allows those around you to be their authentic selves. Your small acts of kindness are what I’ll always treasure, such as the quick hugs in passing or the emails reminding me to sleep. You will be sorely missed by your Saint Ben’s family, but we will forever be

Lois Liners ’46 Dear Dr. Hinton, my special friend, Now that I have accepted the reality of Saint Ben’s without you, I can put a few thoughts and feelings into words.

When three of us oldest alums attended a homecoming dinner in 2016, we were honored when you chose to sit with us.

Even though we graduated long, LONG before you were born, you listened as if

of the sisters who began the college, those who staffed it over the years and those who continue to serve. Your appreciation and affection for each of the sisters strengthened the bonds between the college and the monastery.

every word and every memory we shared was a treasure. At the time I had no idea that you would become a special friend whose letters bring me right to the campus I have loved. We became friends and that, in itself, is amazing since you have students, parents, staff and more responsibilities than I could ever list.

You rewarded all faithful alums by assuring us, with words and actions, that you understood our need to know that Benedictine values still defined life and learning at Saint Ben’s. Some of the sisters have made sure that I get copies, online, of your speeches and articles that recognize your many contributions to academic excellence and the development of strong, principled women. In my senior year, I spent a summer at Friendship House in Chicago, hoping to return to college with a convincing plea for racial justice. Your very presence on our beloved campus has brought that message full circle. There can be no question about Saint Ben’s being inclusive and welcoming now.

I join others in a prayer of gratitude to God for having directed you to our college (and into my life). For just six years you have been a mentor and great role model for the young (and not-so-young) women lucky enough to be Bennies. You have made an indelible impact on the many lives you have touched. We are grateful but sad to accept the end of your VERY successful “reign” over a place we love.

We wish you success and happiness in your new position. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, but right now there are many of us guilty of being envious of the students and staff at Hollins University in Virginia.

You will not be forgotten … you will always be a favorite Bennie to all of us.

Love and best wishes to a dear friend, Lois

The story you told of the sisters’ purchase of axle grease at Loso’s store so long ago exemplifies how deeply you immersed yourself in our history. Like that axle grease, you made everything between the college and the monastery move smoothly with respect, cooperation and ease.

S . Michaela Hedican, past prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery Dear Mary, Grace and dignity entered the room as you came to visit me for your interview in the winter of 2014. Your warm presence and kind smile set the tone for these six years of friendship, collaboration and support.

Your wit sparked many shared laughs and your humor brought lightness to countless occasions.

Your sisters at the monastery are proud of the ways in which you have deepened and extended the mission of the college, embedding Gospel and Benedictine values in all elements of campus life.

What a delight it was to have a family in Renner House! The sisters and I eagerly awaited your arrival and the opportunity to meet Robert, Hallela, Hillel and Hosanna.

The sisters treasure the memory of celebrating Hosanna’s birthday at your first meal with us. Please remember how well the children did – I know, like all mothers, you worried about their manners.

More than a partner, you have been a companion in sharing the Benedictine heritage with our students, faculty and staff.

You never failed to recognize the dedication

The values we cherish were evident in your encounters with students, faculty and staff, addressing them by name and remembering what was significant in their life at the moment. I, too, consistently experienced that warm, loving presence.

Your dedication to providing an education for first-generation students and students from diverse backgrounds brought many gifted young people to our campus. Beyond that you made certain they felt included in all aspects of college life. And you stood with them and listened to them when that sense of inclusion was compromised.

Your Benedictine spirit went beyond the campus as you reached out to those who needed support and compassion. I will always remember sitting next to you at the memorial service for Jacob Wetterling. You had reached out to the family to provide a place for the memorial and, shaken with sadness, you spoke from your heart as only a mother could.

As you take leave of us, be assured your legacy of love lives on in the spirit you have brought to the campus, the monastery and beyond. Know that our prayers and love surround you as you share your gifts with the people of Hollins University.

With affection and gratitude, Michaela, OSB

Summer 2020 | 7

MA RY

in her own words HINTON

8 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

HER AXLE-GREASE

legacy In her short six years at CSB, Mary Hinton impacted the culture,

community and campus of the college in an outsized way. How has she

been able to effect change so quickly? It has a lot to do with the fact that

Mary is a remarkably inspirational speaker. She is thoughtful and eloquent in the way she crafts her messages, and precise in the way she delivers

them. The thought, research and preparation that go into her remarks was on full display not too long ago when she spoke about the sisters’

1899 purchase of axle grease from Loso’s General Store. Enjoy a bit of that anecdote and some of Mary’s greatest hits right here.

Today, we buy axle grease: We are the benefactors of women who said, “Today, we buy axle grease.” I’ve begun saying to people that we don’t have luxury at Saint Ben’s. But we have something far more valuable. We have strength. The strength to defy every expectation that the world chooses to set for us. We have strength. The strength to compete as elite athletes in NCAA Division III. The strength to do the impossible in the face of daunting odds, declaring our strength, our worthiness and our certainty. We discern what we need and we move forward, always knowing that through our diligence, your gifts and support, and the grace of God we will be better and stronger as a result.

Summer 2020 | 9

MARY HINTON

in her own words TIAA Leadership Insights:

February 2018

There is widespread agreement that leadership in higher education is exceedingly challenging right now. To lead in this environment, a leader must possess an internal sense of mission that compels an organization forward when the journey is difficult.

Mission-driven leadership:

The Record:

January 2018

I truly believe we are all interconnected, whether it is within or between our campuses or with the local or regional community. Our fates, our success and our futures tie together.

So even if you do not see yourself among one of the groups targeted, your community is still targeted.

The fact that there are people who choose to sow division – who choose to believe that by virtue of their identity they are better than others, who choose to ostracize, who choose to live from a position of hate – is an issue throughout the world. We are not immune. It is an issue that we must decide how to address every day on our campuses. It is not that these things happen that will ultimately define us as a community; it is how we choose to respond to them that will matter most.

So, what do we choose? Do we choose to reach out to one another and say, “I see you, I hear you, I’m here for you”? Do we choose to advocate passionately for another? Do we choose dialogue and conversation? Do we choose to address these real and central issues of our time and then intentionally choose to be better? To do better?

TEDx St. Cloud:

October 2019

Look. I’m over here. I know you expect me to be at the center, but to be honest, I’m not built to be in the center. The world tells me I was made to dwell in the margins. Your inability to see me isn’t a new experience for me. It’s the very definition of being marginal. There are entire communities of people we fail to see because they dwell in margins. People whose humanity is doubted or, at best, questioned. People whose human value is defined by their race or gender or economic standing and, because we fail to meet a standard set by those in the center, we are left to the margins.

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Because of my early lessons, as a leader I cannot view my work or the world through a lens of what is lacking. I do not base what I have and what I have to contribute in comparison to what others have. While benchmarking can be important when measuring quantitative progress, I am steadfast in my position that I only compete against myself and that life is not a zerosum game. That, in fact, spending your time comparing yourself to others will leave you with either a tremendous inferiority complex or make you terribly arrogant.

Neither of those positions will support leadership. In order to be a mission-driven leader, you must consciously ask yourself how you are serving others.

President’s Dinner:

August 2015

As young women beginning your college experience at a liberal arts institution, you are being prepared both personally and academically to wrestle with those questions. Over the next four years you will further develop the critical and creative thinking, problem solving and communication skills to not only address those questions but to also help others address those questions. In four years, you will graduate ready to be leaders in not only asking, but solving, the world’s most complex questions and problems.

But I would suggest perhaps before you seek to find yourself at CSB, that you take a moment to lose yourself to CSB. While many will tell you to spend four years finding an answer to those major questions, I think you must begin by allowing yourself to bask in the questions and to lose yourself to the possibility of the answers.

in her own words MARY HINTON “ The imperative and promise of the liberal arts,” delivered to the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges:

April 2016

Never has it been more important that liberal arts colleges take back and more boldly assert their own value narrative. Our commitment as liberal arts institutions extends to the generative uses of knowledge for practical, ethical and even moral purpose – each more important than ever in our increasingly complicated world. The liberal arts, broadly construed to include all of the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences and the fine arts, educate toward liberation, toward the ability to excel within any context, toward the ability to expand one’s own world. We educate for transformation, leadership and community, not simply or exclusively for the development of instrumental skills.

We’ve met our match

Christmas tree lighting:

December 2019

Students, tonight as in years past, I light this tree in honor of each one of you. In honor of your hopes and dreams: may each one shine brightly in the darkness. In honor of your tears and fears: may this light illuminate your path forward. In support of your grandest aspirations: may you think critically, lead courageously and advocate passionately in order to achieve all you work so hard for.

Inauguration: Convocation:

August 2018

One of the great elements of CSB is the relationship we have with Saint Benedict’s Monastery and the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict. It was their vision that gave birth to Saint Ben’s and it is their spirit that sustains us. Their presence is an infusion of wisdom. In fact, I would like to use the words of one of the sisters to frame my welcome today. S. Mara Falkner – professor emerita and former member of the Board of Trustees – once wrote about two little words: “what if.” She wrote, “The ‘What if’ question gives birth to every work of art, story, scientific discovery and maybe creation itself. It makes us partners with our daring, hopeful God, who must have asked at the moment of creation, ‘What if I made a world brimming with possibility, and humans who are free to explore, to wonder, to choose, to love and to question?’ ” As we come together in community today to launch the academic year, I invite you to ponder what if?

September 2014

At this time, we celebrate a sharing of the torch of leadership. Indeed, this inauguration should not be about one person or one beginning. Today we inaugurate our community, our mission, our hopes and aspirations to light our second century and we rest in the knowledge that, collectively, we take these steps. It is at this moment – at this time in our history – that we reflect on what is on the horizon for the College of Saint Benedict.

Liberal Arts Illuminated Conference:

Mary’s sense of fashion has shown us that expressing style and challenging stereotypes can live together.

With flawless pantsuits and classic dress styles, paired with bedazzled heels, color-matching necklaces and chic eyewear, she always lets her light shine.

Mary taught us to embrace our personal style, whatever that means to each of us.

July 2018

Reframing the narrative is about leadership fearlessly facing discrepant outcomes.

Realizing that the data can hurt to examine, but that that’s an intentional and necessary experience of pain in order to transition your community to a better place. It’s not about being paralyzed or afraid; it’s about seeing the humanity behind the data.

No one can match their entire outfit to an event theme like her.

Summer 2020 | 11

Covid-19 Update CSB – and our whole community – responds “As we face a global health pandemic, we are reminded of the fragility of our world; of the need to balance thoughtful decision-making with an everevolving situation; of the need to proceed factually while never losing sight of the humanity of those impacted. Our goals are first and foremost to keep our students, faculty and staff safe, including those most vulnerable in this situation, while supporting course completion and graduation.

“We are keenly aware of the importance and power of dwelling in community, and our Benedictine values call us to not only do what we believe is right for ourselves but for our community as a whole. In order to help reduce the risk and spread of the COVID-19 virus, and to support our community’s common good, CSB/SJU will suspend on-campus classes and all events as of 5 p.m. today, Friday, March 13. Online classes will begin Monday, March 23.”

— Message to the CSB/SJU community, March 13

Dress to Destress

Student Emergency Fund For some students, leaving campus on short notice resulted in unforeseen expenses including airfare, food and more.

CSB quickly utilized a student emergency fund, and over 330 donors, friends and supporters (like the ones quoted below) rallied in the next few days and gave more than $64,000 that was distributed to students in need.

Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

On behalf of the entire CSB community, thank you!

On giving to the emergency fund: Catherine Burnett ’82 “If COVID-19 had happened when I was at Saint Ben’s, I would have had nowhere to go. Saint Ben’s was my home and the community was my family. We want to help students who have nowhere to go with the college closing.”

Abigail Ward ’19 “I don’t want any Saint Ben’s student to feel alone, trapped, stressed or resourceless during this unprecedented time.”

Communications and first-year seminar instructor Dana Drazenovich has been intentional in incorporating some light-hearted moments into online classes.

“I think it’s important to find ways to have some fun right now,” she says.

“This is a really stressful time for all of us and I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be college-aged and trying to deal with all this. So if you can find ways to make the process more fun, it helps get everyone talking to each other in this new format like they would before class when we were on campus.”

To that end, she has initiated dress-up days for her first-year seminar class. “We’ve had a neon theme, a USA theme, a pajama theme …” says Olayinka Fadahunsi ’23.

“That kind of stuff just makes you look forward to going to class even more.”

Valorie Jackson ’82 “It breaks my heart that students will not have the full experience of this school year. Benedictine values teach us to take care of each other. We are family.”

Maria Gathje ’14 “If this gift can help make one of their lives easier as they swallow this difficult reality, then I am happy to give it!”

Dinner is Still Served Ashley Delp Dittberner ’14, Shelby Spinner Wittenborg ’14, Allyson Holtz ’14, Cassie Cavello ’14 and Alexa Goetsch ’14 are “The Dinner Club.”

12 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

The Dinner Club, five Bennies from the class of 2014, has consistently gotten together at a different local restaurant each month since graduation – no matter where their “real worlds” have taken them. If you think a statewide stay-at-home order was going to kill their streak of gathering for dinner, you don’t know Bennies. In fact, they stepped up their game and began connecting online every Thursday. And every dinner still ends with their version of dessert: updates on their meaningful achievements and changes since the last meeting.

COVID-19 UPDATE

The Season That Might Have Been When head coach Rachael Click gathered with the Saint Benedict softball team on the day the NCAA announced the cancellation of spring championships, she wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

“I wasn’t sure if we should practice, do something different to take our minds off it or let them go for the day and process on their own,” she recalls. “At this time, we still thought we might get the opportunity

to play some games. We decided to play big base kickball. We were able to have some fun as a team and I think at the time it was exactly what we needed.

“That Friday the conference season was cancelled and, instead of practice, I had the team and coaches to my house for pizza.

We ended up singing some songs that were meaningful from our season and I think I can speak for everyone by saying that will be a memory none of us will ever forget.”

Nursing From a Distance Junior nursing students like Grace Gohman ’21 generally go through two six-week clinical rotations in the spring.

This year was to include a mental health rotation and a medical-surgical rotation at St. Cloud Hospital. With students sent home, “I missed out on the medical-surgical clinical rotation,” Grace notes, “the one I was the most looking forward to.”

One tool the CSB/SJU Nursing faculty used to compensate for that missed experience was scheduling two simulation days; each day with two time slots to which students were assigned.

By dividing juniors into four groups, the faculty was able to provide a more hands-on, collaborative experience for students. Prior to simulations, students reviewed patient history/medications

and faculty pre-recorded several different scenarios for students. Grace explained her preparations this way: “We are to do prep work and join a Zoom class with a faculty member, then play out a patient situation – this time we will be working on a patient with acute asthma exacerbation and trauma.

It should be a fun learning experience!”

A Matter of Degrees Senior Lee Stelten will still get her degree this summer.

But she certainly would have liked to have checked off more items on her CSB/SJU bucket list. She’s frustrated at missing out on Bennie Ball and Bennie Brunch and all the excitement around graduation. But she’s working on taking the long view.

“I think in the end, I will be able to see some positives out of this situation,” she says. “Yes, right now it stinks to have so many things taken away from me, out of my control. However, through this, I think it has helped us all grow individually to become more adaptable and learn how to react to unexpected situations. I also will look back and see how close this event brought everyone together. I have seen community members helping each other out, people getting closer to their family members and I have spent more hours on FaceTime than I ever have in my life. I will probably also be able to say that 10 years from now, my room will have been the cleanest it ever has during quarantine.”

Music Made Remotely Every department has seen its own challenges with the quick shift to distance learning.

And each has found its own solutions.

Music major Claudia Behrendt ’21 used a music stand to get the right camera angle with her iPad so her instructor, Jenya Trubnikava, could watch her fingering technique.

Summer 2020 | 13

NEWS

Largest Gift Ever Propels CSB Campaign Before the College of Saint Benedict even announced its Illuminating Lives campaign, LeAnne Matthews Stewart ’87 was onboard with her support.

As a longtime trustee of the college and an early member of the campaign steering committee, she saw the numbers. She heard the stories. She understood the need. And, as a proud alumna, she knew personally the profound impact a residential, liberal arts, Benedictine college for women can have.

In late January, Stewart and her husband John announced that they would be backing up that support with an incredible commitment of $11 million.

The gift is the single largest in the school’s 107-year history – as well as the largest gift ever from an alumna. The Stewarts created the gift from their estate plan in order to grow the college’s endowment by supporting scholarships, experiential learning and other programs.

According to President Mary Dana Hinton, “LeAnne is a Bennie who uses her voice in support of others, and who is generous in sharing her wisdom, experiences and financial resources to allow all women to receive the benefits of a CSB education.”

Stewart is chief financial officer for Axia Women’s Health, and has had a tremendously successful business career. “I believe deeply in the power of a college for women to develop and nurture the leaders of our future,” she said. “The College of Saint Benedict is a very important philanthropic commitment for us, and our gift is dedicated to providing access to the Saint Ben’s experience.”

This is a watershed moment for CSB. The Stewarts’ impressive gift brings the total raised in the Illuminating Lives campaign to over $107 million – exceeding the ambitious $100 million overall goal.

Learn more about the campaign and the unfulfilled needs that remain on page 34.

CSB Receives Grant to Fund Women in STEM The Henry Luce Foundation recently named CSB the winner of a Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Program grant for $242,128 in support of eight CBL Undergraduate Research Scholars in chemistry, computer science, mathematics and/or physics, over a period of three years.

“The plan is to identify eight Clare Boothe Luce scholars (this semester),” said CSB/SJU Academic Dean Barb May. CBL scholars will be selected based on interest in a science career, GPA and declared major in chemistry, computer science, mathematics or physics. Those selected will primarily be CSB sophomores, and the program will follow them through their remaining time at CSB/SJU. They will have paid research positions throughout the academic year (replacing 14 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

other work study jobs) for their junior and senior years, as well as a second paid summer research position between their junior and senior year (which can be completed off campus through internships or other opportunities). The program will culminate in a productive senior year capstone project. “Given these lengthy opportunities for undergraduate research,” said May, “these students will be more likely to publish their research successfully or present at national meetings.” In all, this

grant will provide each CBL scholar with over $30,000 in support, between stipends, allowances for materials and equipment, and domestic research-related travel.

“This grant will significantly support CSB’s ongoing efforts to develop and implement programming that addresses the educational and social needs of underrepresented students in STEM, including women in the physical sciences,” May said.

NEWS

Magooba ’20 Earns Pickering Fellowship Tracy Magooba, a senior political science major, has been awarded a prestigious Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of State. Chosen from over 800 applicants, Magooba was one of 30 recipients and will receive up to $37,500 annually for a two-year period to cover tuition, room, board, books, mandatory fees and a stipend.

Upon successful completion of a two-year master’s degree program and fulfillment of foreign service entry requirements, fellows have the opportunity to work as foreign service officers with the State Department in Washington, D.C., or at a U.S. embassy, consulate or diplomatic mission around the globe.

Magooba is the first student at CSB to receive a Pickering Fellowship since 2008, when Stephanie Wegmann Peterson ’10 received a Pickering Undergraduate Fellowship (the undergraduate fellowship has since been discontinued by Pickering).

Peterson is a foreign services officer for the State Department.

While Magooba is still exploring her plans for graduate school, she is interested in pursuing a career in international affairs.

“The Pickering Fellowship offers a pretty good track into a career I’m interested in, in the sense of offering professional development and access to an education,” she said. “On top of that, what better opportunity to become a foreign service officer? It’s a role where my passions encompass what I’m interested in, which is international affairs.”

CSB/SJU Continue to Lead in Study Abroad The 2019 report, which was released in November, found: • CSB and SJU are ranked No. 5 among baccalaureate schools with 318 students who studied abroad in mid-length study abroad programs during 2017-18, the most recent data measured by the IIE. The IIE defines mid-length study abroad programs as lasting one semester or one or two quarters (CSB and SJU operate under the semester system).

Study abroad continues to be a signature program for students at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

CSB and SJU are ranked among the top baccalaureate schools nationally for both mid-length study abroad and the total number of students who studied abroad according to Open Doors 2019, the annual report on international

education published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

• CSB and SJU are ranked No. 10 among baccalaureate schools with 443 students who studied abroad during the 2017-18 school year.

Before graduating, 54% of students who graduated in 2019 studied abroad at some point during their four years at CSB and SJU, and 10% study abroad more than once, according to figures from the Center for Global Education at CSB and SJU.

Summer 2020 | 15

NEWS

New Exercise & Health Science Major to Launch Fall 2020 In fall 2020, CSB/SJU will implement the new exercise & health science major. Exercise science is the study of why and how humans engage in and respond to physical activity, exercise and sport. The primary application of exercise science knowledge is to benefit human health, exercise or sports performance. This new major will place the emphasis on health as an application of exercise science knowledge, while still retaining sport performance and coaching components.

“We’re excited to partner with students in examining and understanding the human experience of sport, exercise and physical activity in an inclusive learning environment that fosters a culture of excellence and professionalism,” said Department Chair Don Fischer.

Rising health care costs and an increasingly important focus on wellness and chronic disease prevention have increased the demand for the exercise science and preventive health workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the job outlook for fitness trainers and instructors will increase by 10% between 2016-2026 (faster than average) and by 16% for health educators and community health workers (including those in hospitals, nonprofit organizations, government,

First Athletics Give Day Scores Big This February, Saint Benedict Athletics held our first-ever Athletics Give Day, and we hit our goal, because donors like you made the assist.

The impact a Saint Ben’s education can have on a woman is considerable.

Combine that with the leadership and self-confidence that develops in college athletics and there’s no telling where it could take her. So Saint Benedict varsity and club teams rallied their families, alumnae and fans to sprint toward our 24-hour goal of 449 donors in support of 449 varsity and club athletes at Saint Ben’s. The day turned out to be a big win for Bennies.

business and higher education). Job growth for exercise physiologists will rise 13% (much faster than average), athletic trainers by 23% (much faster than average) and physical therapists by 28% (much faster than average).

Current students may pursue the degree. However, students interested in switching their major to exercise & health science should consult with an academic advisor to determine whether the switch will affect their ability to graduate in four years.

466

Total Donors

$55,110 Total Dollars — TOP TEAMS

Cross Country/Track & Field 130 donors – $15,015

Basketball

62 donors – $9,626

Softball

60 donors – $7,573

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NEWS

Remembering Emmanuel Pauline B. Reeping ’64 “To have enjoyed a friendship for over 60 years is extraordinary. To have had a friendship with S. Emmanuel for over 60 years was a gift from God! Sister and I met in the late 1950s at Catholic University where Sister was pursuing her Ph.D. in medieval history. I was working on Capitol Hill and attending the university part-time.

“Sister was my introduction to the college and monastery and remained a friend to me and my husband, Jack, by her frequent visits to the Washington, D.C. area. We invited her to accompany us on a trip to Assisi, Italy, when she was 80, which she told us served as a refresher course in her love of European history.

S. Emmanuel shared a long-time friendship with fellow CSB president emerita, S. Colman O’Connell ’49, who died in 2017.

S. Emmanuel (Audrey) Renner ’49, professor emerita of history and president emerita of the College of Saint Benedict, died on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at the age of 93.

S. Emmanuel was the 10th president of the college, serving from 1979 through 1986.

She was a renowned scholar, educator, historian and a skilled administrator.

As president, she is most noted for her critical role in the development of the CSB/SJU joint core curriculum. She presided over the college’s first capital fund drive, raising $5.2 million for the construction of the Clemens Library. The construction and opening of Claire Lynch Hall also came about during her tenure.

After an impressive seven-year term, S. Emmanuel resigned her position on June 30, 1986. Then, after a one-year sabbatical, she returned to the History department to continue teaching.

S. Emmanuel retired in 1998 as professor emerita in the History department and later volunteered her services for 10 years in the CSB Archives.

She touched many lives and left behind many memories in over 70 years in this community. Here are just a few of them.

Noriko Kagayama Iriyama ’64 “‘Insight’ was one of S. Emmanuel’s pet words. She often said, ‘Use your insight!’ in class. Indeed, insight was needed in the historical topics class given in our senior year. It was an undergraduate-level dissertation where four students would spend the semester writing a more than 50-page-long paper, and later in the course we were to defend what we had written in front of S. Emmanuel and classmates.

I wrote ‘Analysis of Political Philosophy of Reinhold Niebuhr: Man as a Sinner.’

“My paper was never discussed in the class, however, because I caught chicken pox and was confined in the infirmary for two weeks during the last part of the semester. S. Emmanuel visited me there with the intention of giving me an oral test but we ended up talking most of the time. ‘It’s all right. I know what you know,’ she said with a wink.”

(Noriko’s reflections were printed in the Summer 2016 issue of Saint Benedict magazine. She agreed to reprinting this quote for the occasion.)

“She was a gracious and spiritual woman. May she rest in peace!”

Denise DeVaan ’75 “S. Emmanuel Renner, OSB, was affectionately called Emmy by Kellogg National Fellows in leadership. She was one of five mentors who walked alongside extremely gifted leaders in medicine, law, politics, business, academics and more.

She travelled with them to Auschwitz and many cities in the U.S. to learn from history and to explore strengths-based models for tackling poverty. She asked Socratic questions such as ‘What will you make of your life?’ and ‘How will you lead, ethically?’

“Emmy was a contemplative. Besides having an incredibly bright mind, she also held a stillness, a centeredness that was noticeable. Her capacity to build relationships with Native American, Muslim, Jewish, African American, Asian-Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ leaders endeared her to many whose life experience was different than hers. And, her Benedictine vows and lifestyle was counter to the average relationships these leaders knew. In the end, she said often, ‘It’s about love. It’s always about love. We must work hard to love. It is not easy, but it is necessary.’”

Summer 2020 | 17

Woman Suffrage Remembering Complex Stories of

BY | CATHERINE HELEN PALCZEWSKI, PH.D.

Dr. Palczewski

taught in the Communication Studies Department at CSB/SJU from 1991-94. Today she is a professor at the University of Northern Iowa. She was scheduled to speak at CSB on this topic in April, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re pleased to be able to share some of her presentation here.

A

s we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, it is important to think about what stories to tell about the struggle for woman suffrage. There are stories to tell about the tireless efforts of woman suffrage advocates, the violence they faced and their perseverance as they fought for sexual equality. There are also stories that must be told specifically about the tireless efforts of Black women (and men) voting rights advocates, the violence they faced and their perseverance as they fought for sexual and racial equality. A simple, single story of the struggle for the 19th Amendment is not enough to explain the struggle for equal suffrage.

Conversation Starters The struggle for women’s rights, including the right to vote, was not a monolithic movement. Nor did it begin with a single incident.

• I n the 1500s, women participated and voted in the council meetings of the oldest living participatory democracy – the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida and Cayuga nations.

•F rom 1776 to 1807 in New Jersey, both women and Black people were enfranchised.

• From 1831 to 1833, Maria Miller Stewart’s speeches to Boston’s AfricanAmerican abolitionists made her the first known case of an American woman speaking to a mixed audience of men and women.

• In 1834, 800 women mill workers in Lowell, Massachusetts went on strike for fair treatment and wages.

•A t the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, the “Declaration of Sentiments” was penned primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and signed by 100 attendees including Frederick Douglass and Lucretia Mott.

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

A woman suffrage amendment introduced to the U.S. Congress in 1878.

Native Americans, Black women, Black men, working women and abolitionists, as well as socio-economically privileged white women, fought for and enacted women’s equality.

The centrality of woman suffrage to women’s equality was not a given. At Seneca Falls, attendees debated 11 resolutions on women’s religious, legal, educational, familial, employment and civic equality. All passed unanimously except the one demanding woman suffrage. Yet, the demand for woman suffrage became a primary element of demands for women’s equality.

Woman suffrage activism in the United States was always about more than securing a legal right to vote. Given the persistent belief in separate spheres, with (presumably white) men controlling the public domains of politics and the economy and (presumably white) women relegated to the private domain of home and family, women had to fight for the social right to publicly argue for the legal right to vote.

Women had to become public.

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In the 1800s, the phrase public woman meant prostitute, literally. During the Civil War, when Union officers legalized prostitution during “The Nashville Experiment” in order to save the Union army from venereal diseases, they required sex workers to be licensed. The license in question was granted to a “Public Woman to pursue her avocation.”

This conflation of publicity with sexual availability carried into the 1890s. In December 1895, New York City police arrested young, white, working-class Amelia Elizabeth Schauer for engaging in disorderly conduct. Why? She was out in public at night and asked for directions from two men. The fact that she was a woman, alone and on a public street, was enough to charge her with being a public woman. Schauer was not released from the work house until she was examined by a doctor who affirmed that she was still a virgin.

The idea that the vote would make women public women was common in popular culture images that depicted voting women as hypersexualized women. Thus, suffrage activists had to transform the hypersexualized meaning of public woman.

And, at the same time, they had to contend with being desexualized. Other popular culture images caricatured suffragists as unwomanly, desexed, women.

Suffragists faced a double bind: Either suffragists were sexually alluring and promiscuous women who would use their attractive wiles to seduce men’s votes, or suffragists were mannish harridans who were too ugly to attract a man. Suffragists also faced a second double bind. Antisuffragists (antis) argued women were too feminine to withstand the pressures of public life, and public life, particularly voting, would strip women of their femininity. Thus, suffrage advocates had to argue both that women were strong enough to vote and withstand the coarse pressures of politics, and that the vote would not unduly coarsen women.

For example, the “Declaration of Sentiments” included demands for a range of social and political rights, but foregrounded voting rights. In words modeled on the U.S. Declaration of Independence, it declared “the history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman,” including “having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.”

A woman suffrage amendment would be introduced to the U.S. Congress in 1878, unchanged from the version eventually adopted: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Becoming “Public”

Declaration of Sentiments, adopted July 1848 at the first woman’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/ declaration-of-sentiments.htm

The dominant story about the procession is that it enacted a new way to see public woman. The organizers carefully choreographed the event to present women in public as respectable and feminine while, at the same time, making clear that women’s femininity did not disqualify them from the vote. Women’s bodies, dressed in white for purity, marching on public streets, refuted the idea that the only women in public were prostitutes. The crowd backlash against the parade made evident that women were not inherently weak, but made weak by the actions of men. This also refuted the argument that women did not need the vote because men would protect women’s interests.

Dunston Weiler postcard, copyright 1909.

Palczewski Suffrage Postcard Archive, University of Northern Iowa, https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ suffrage_images

Another story, though, needs to be told about Black women in the parade and how they are (or are not) remembered as part of the new public woman.

An important story appears in most histories: Black women from Howard University struggled to be included in

the parade and, when admitted, were segregated into their own section, and Ida B. Wells resisted this segregation by single-handedly desegregating the parade.

Numerous images exist of the parade, but only one exists of a Black woman who marched: a grainy image of Ida B. Wells standing at the side of the parade published in the Chicago Daily Tribune.

We need to work to remember Black women’s presence.

And, we need to remember not just Wells and the 26 Howard women.

According to the April 1913 issue of the NAACP’s official newspaper, The Crisis, after “telegrams and protests poured in” Black women “marched according to their State and occupation without let or hindrance.” According to Mrs. Carrie W. Clifford, who herself marched and provided a report, at least 43 Black women marched in the parade. But it was not only Black women who are important to the story of the parade.

The 1913 Parade Alice Paul and Lucy Burns (leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s congressional committee) planned a March 3, 1913, procession to follow the same route as the presidential inaugural parade and be followed by an allegorical tableau on the Treasury Department steps. Five thousand women participated in the procession as an estimated 100,000 people watched.

Its location, in Washington, D.C., foregrounded its focus on a federal woman suffrage amendment. Its timing, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, ensured a large crowd.

But the crowd turned into mobs that verbally and physically attacked the marchers, sending over 100 to the hospital.

The police failed to contain the mobs, and even though the women marchers fought back, the violence led to hourslong disruptions of the parade until Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson called in the cavalry from nearby Fort Myer.

The crowd violence led to a congressional investigative hearing three days later, and images of the violence filled the front pages of newspapers across the country, shifting sentiment toward woman suffrage.

Head of Suffrage Parade, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913, George Grantham Bain.

Library of Congress. LC-USZ62-22262.

Summer 2020 | 21

Another story about the parade needs to be told about the role of Black men. Marchers’ testimony during the congressional hearing about the violence committed against them made clear Black police officers, Black grooms (present at the parade in roles such as leading wagons) and (presumably white) Boy Scouts were the only ones who acted to protect the marchers. In other words, those males who were socially coded as “boys” at the time protected mostly white women from white men. This is particularly important to note, given that Black men were disenfranchised by Jim Crow laws.

Race played a central role in the debates over suffrage and, sadly, the 19th Amendment functionally only enfranchised white women, given the restrictions on Black, Asian and Native American voting rights that persisted not only into the 1960s, but persist into contemporary voter suppression activities.

The Silent Sentinels On Jan. 10, 1919, after President Wilson refused to see any more suffrage delegations, the Silent Sentinels began standing outside the White House with banners targeting Wilson. This was the first time any cause had picketed the White House. Pulling from a repertoire of 30 banners, and planning particular themes (e.g., Minnesota Day), they stood outside the White House, according to National Woman’s Party (NWP) records, six days a week, four weeks a month, 12 months a year, for 2 1/2 years, “in snow and rain, through cold and heat, holding up their shining suffrage banners.”

When the Sentinels continued to protest even after the U.S. entered World War I, they faced violence at the hands of unruly mobs of civilians and sailors, and also at the hands of the police. Prison officers chained them to their cell doors and, when they went on hunger strikes, forcibly fed them.

By the NWP’s own accounting: “137 American women have been imprisoned – sentenced 208 times to serve 4,916 days in jail – and actually spent 2,254 days behind prison bars …” simply for the crime of silently protesting at the White House gates. Nevertheless, they persisted.

22 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

Policewoman arrests Florence Youmans of Minnesota and Annie Arniel (center) of Delaware for refusing to give up their banners. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000073/

Women of Color & Suffrage The legislative debates about woman suffrage in the Congressional Record make clear that the debate over suffrage was as much a debate about race as it was a debate about sex. Repeatedly, antis detailed the negative impact woman suffrage would have on “white supremacy,” a phrase peppered throughout the debates as a universally accepted good.

Antis focused on the dangers presented

by Asian and Black women. In March 1914, Senator William Borah (Idaho, Republican) voiced concerns about the “oriental question on the Pacific slope,” “the negro question in the South,” recent immigrants, and the “Japanese question.”

Borah declared: “There are 10,000 Japanese and Chinese women in those States (of the Pacific Slope), and I have no particular desire to bestow suffrage upon them.”

In June 1918, Senator John Sharp Williams (Mississippi, Democrat) warned the “people out west of the Rocky Mountains” of their need to have “drawn the white line” and asked: “Are you going to arm all the Chinese and Japanese and negro women who come to the United States with the suffrage?”

In response, pro-suffragists argued that the same techniques used to suppress the Black men’s vote could be used to suppress Black and Asian women’s vote. Antis’ responses to this made clear white supremacists feared Black women’s votes more than Black men’s. In 1919, Representative Frank Clark (Florida, Democrat) worried that Black women would not be cowed as easily as Black men because they were “fanatical on the subject of voting” and would be “much more insistent and vicious” in their “demands for social recognition which will never be accorded them.” Although Clark condemned Black women’s fanaticism, it is something we should celebrate and commemorate.

This photograph is part of a scrapbook that was compiled in 1956 and 1957 by Frances Albrier during her term as president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). The scrapbook highlights the Chapter’s efforts to register voters and educate Bay Area residents on the importance of voting as a part of the Citizenship Education Project which was jointly sponsored by the NCNW and the National Urban League. https://www.si.edu/object/ nmaahc_2010.60.1.27

This Work is Not Done

Frances E. W. Harper, Library of Congress, 1898. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97513270/

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we need to remember that though the passage of the amendment was hard won, the work to enfranchise all women and all people was not, and is not, done. We need to remember the names of Maria Miller Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Hallie Quinn Brown and Mary Church Terrell, and the many other Black women who worked for women’s rights and woman suffrage in the 1800s and early 1900s. We also need to remember the names of Septima Poinsette Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Mary McLeod Bethune, Diane Nash, Prathia Hall and the many other Black women who also faced violence at the hands of mobs and police as they worked another 45 years to ensure Black people’s voting rights, culminating in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When we remember the struggle for suffrage, we need to remember the struggle continues. We need to remember that equality must always be actively sought and that voting rights must be actively defended. We need to remember poet, lecturer, abolitionist and suffragist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. In a speech delivered at the 11th National Woman’s Rights Convention in 1866, Harper offered this ethic of solidarity: “We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”

As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we need to remember we are all bound up together and our work is not done.

Our soul is not yet curse-free. W

Summer 2020 | 23

Voices of

Reflectio

CSB/SJU faculty and administration share thoughts from different perspectives on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the importance of women’s suffrage.

24 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

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Summer Summer Summer 2020 2020 2020 | |25 |2525

Best results from broad perspectives Granted the right to vote in 1920, women did not approach their voting strength until the presidential election of 1980, when the percentage and the numbers of women voting finally exceeded the percentage of men voting. At this writing, a full century following passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution …

• 23.7% of 535 seats in the U.S. Congress are held by women – 26 women in the Senate and 101 women in the House of Representatives.* • At the state level, 28.9% of 311 statewide elective executive offices are held by women – nine governors, 15 lieutenant governors and 66 other statewide elected officials.

Although they continue to be a majority of the population, women are represented by less than a third of their numbers in the seats of political power.

• Among 7,383 state legislative seats, 29.1% are held by women.

Although they continue to be a majority of the population, women are represented by less than a third of their numbers in the seats of political power, with the exception of the U.S. Supreme Court, where three of the nine positions are held by women. Yes, progress has been made.

And yes, there is still much more to be done. However, do these numbers tell the story that needs telling? Perhaps not.

We have learned that sorting policy challenges into “women’s issues” (or “men’s issues”) is a fool’s errand. Climate change, war, health care, immigration, education, child care, gun control and even abortion rights are all examples of issues requiring a diversity of best efforts and a spirit of respectful cooperation to resolve. Broadening the right to vote was a necessary first step, but has not been sufficient to forestall decades of partisan hostility. The current climate is hardly an environment conducive to the advancement of public policy.

In partnership with enlightened men, who face gender challenges in their own right, increasing numbers of women are accepting leadership roles with confidence and the growing support from voters seeking solutions rather than empty

26 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

rhetoric. I have hope for a better world to reflect the teamwork that emerges from a plurality of perspectives.

Moreover, I expect that there will be Benedictine values somewhere in the mix.

Kay Wolsborn Professor Emerita of Political Science CSB/SJU

*Numbers reported by the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.

Recommitting to civic responsibility It took almost a century of activism for women in the United States to secure the right to vote. Noteworthy from a Gender Studies perspective, is who was and was not included in that significant victory.

Long after “women” secured the franchise in 1920, women and men of color were regularly denied the right to vote.

Voting is a right reserved for citizens.

Yet Native Americans were not granted citizenship until 1924, while Asian Americans had to wait until 1952. Even with citizenship secured, significant obstacles remained. The U.S. Constitution grants states a primary role in determining who may vote, and it took over 40 years after the 1924 law for all states to grant this right to Native Americans. During this time, Native

Americans and African Americans were barred from exercising their right to vote by strategies that included poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation.

Voting rights activists brought national attention to these practices during the Civil Rights Movement. The violence with which these nonviolent protestors were met helped spur President Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Subsequent extensions to this act were passed, to better accommodate the voting rights of those with limited English skills.

The right to vote is still contested across the United States. Voter identification laws, limits placed on early voting, extreme gerrymandering and disenfranchising convicted felons (who, because of discriminatory and structural inequities, are disproportionately people of color) are examples of practices that have either limited access to the vote or

the power of the vote, particularly for people of color in the United States today.

As we, rightfully, celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage, Gender Studies would remind us that the struggle to secure equal access to the vote – and equal access to the political, legal and economic power it represents – is ongoing. Let us take this anniversary as an occasion to recommit ourselves to voting as an important civic responsibility. And let us, particularly those of us who have the right to vote, commit ourselves to the ongoing struggle to defend the rights of vulnerable social groups whose rights continue to be threatened by those with institutional power.

J ean Keller Professor of Philosophy, Chair of Gender Studies CSB/SJU

Native Americans and African Americans were barred from exercising their right to vote by strategies that included poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation.

Summer 2020 | 27

Now we can begin “I am quite well aware that in assuming this position I shall evoke more ridicule than enthusiasm at the outset. But this is an epoch of sudden changes and startling surprises. What may appear absurd today will assume a serious aspect tomorrow,” said Victoria Woodhull when she announced her candidacy for President on April 2, 1870 – 50 years before women gained the right to vote. In 1884, Belva Bennett Lockwood also ran for president, once proclaiming that “the glory of each generation is to set its own precedent.”

Trailblazing women, many of whom you have never heard, entered spaces that were closed to them so that future generations could come and go freely. I am humbled and honored to tell the stories of just some of these women to undergraduates in my classes. Women like Woodhull and Lockwood. Women like Ida B. Wells, Anna Howard Shaw, Hedy LaMarr, Patsy Mink and Shirley Chisholm. I find it a privilege to raise the voices of women like Barbara Jordan, Dolores Huerta, Malala Yousafzai, Nellie Bly and Alice Paul. Because having and using one’s voice is a hallmark of citizenship and a necessity of progress.

One hundred years after women were granted a right with which men were anointed 133 years prior, progress toward gender equality has been made. Thanks to the voices of bold women, most women can now go to school, go to college, earn an income, represent themselves in court, own their own property, serve in the military and hold political office – all things not possible for most women in 1920. Thanks to the minds of women we now have necessities like fire escapes, windshield wipers, medical syringes, central heating and WiFi/GPS/Bluetooth.

Yet 100 years after women were finally recognized as humans who deserved the rights of citizenship, women still encounter barriers that prevent equal opportunity, prescribe notions of leadership and leave them underrepresented in government. Women of color and LGBTQ women in particular face challenges to their human rights.

28 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

Trailblazing women, many of whom you have never heard, entered spaces that were closed to them so that future generations could come and go freely.

Just after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, suffragist Crystal Eastman said in a speech, “Most women will agree that Aug. 23, the day when the Tennessee legislature finally enacted the Federal suffrage amendment, is a day to begin with, not a day to end with. Men are saying perhaps ‘Thank God, this everlasting woman’s fight is over!’ But women, if I know them, are saying, ‘Now at last we can begin.’ ” When reflecting upon the centennial of the 19th Amendment, I find myself realizing that this was a prescient way to think about the fight for gender equality. Now we can begin. It is an eternal beginning.

An unending beginning. A hope that this time, just maybe, will be a beginning that will achieve an equitable end.

One hundred years after the women around the nation could all vote, I vote every election cycle to honor the centurylong struggle to win that right for me.

I vote so that my voice counts. I vote because it is my duty as a citizen. I vote so that now we can begin.

Emily Berg Paup Assistant Professor of Communication CSB/SJU

We should not forget The passage of the 19th Amendment was a watershed moment in the history of American democracy: an essential step in extending the promise of the U.S. Constitution to half of the nation’s population. In celebrating the 100th anniversary of the amendment, we should not forget that …

The fight was long and hard. The birth of the women’s movement in America occurred more than 70 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, with the first women’s rights convention in July 1848, and the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The architect of the national women’s suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, wasn’t even born until four decades later.

Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and many other suffragists had worked to build the foundation upon which Paul and the National Woman’s Party would fight and succeed, but Elizabeth Cady Stanton did not live to see her life’s work come to fruition.

America wasn’t the first country to extend suffrage to women. America embraced democracy early, but it was by no means the first country to extend the vote to women. New Zealand gave women the right to vote in national elections in 1893, and Australia, Finland and Norway all granted women the right to vote in the first decade of the 20th century. America still lags well behind other countries in terms of the number of women in its national legislature. We still have work to do.

The fight had allies. Although the backbone of the movement has always been women, men who were allies were essential to its success. The Declaration of Sentiments was signed by 32 men, including Frederick Douglass. The ratification of the amendment came down to a single Tennessee legislator, who changed his mind at the last minute because he received a message from his mother urging him to change his vote to support the amendment.

Alice Paul co-authored the Equal Rights Amendment and spent the rest of her life fighting to get it passed. And while the 19th Amendment guaranteed the vote for women, Black women in the South were nevertheless denied their right to vote for the next 4 1/2 decades, until the Civil Rights Movement fought for and won passage of the Voting Rights Act. The fight still isn’t over. Voter suppression is an ongoing challenge to American democracy. The right to vote is critical and the fight to ensure that all citizens can avail themselves of that right is the legacy of Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and their fellow suffragists.

C laire Haeg Professor of Political Science CSB/SJU

The fight wasn’t over. A mere three years after the ratification of the amendment,

The right to vote is critical and the fight to ensure that all citizens can avail themselves of that right is the legacy of Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and their fellow suffragists.

Summer 2020 | 29

SO WHERE ARE WE

N W BY | KATE WESTLUND ’10

VOTING KEY

Polls

Election Day

Ballot

Ballot Box

W?

Where do we stand 100 years into nationwide women’s suffrage? There are certainly encouraging signs, including at the College of Saint Benedict.

Last November, Saint Ben’s was recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge with the Champion Award for Most Improved Voting Rate, with 55.1% of students voting in the 2018 midterm elections.

To put that figure in context, the average voter turnout for schools participating in the challenge was 39.1%, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.

Of 588 participating institutions, this recognition was earned by a women’s college. Young women do take their right to vote seriously.

Summer 2020 | 31

M ’ I ING T O V “When I vote in 2020, I’ll be paying it forward to the many people who died and fought for my right to vote.

When I walk in the polling booth, I’ll walk with my head held high, knowing my ancestors would be proud. “ Cindy Umana ’20

“I want to celebrate the 19th Amendment by exercising my federal right. I am excited because I will be honoring the work of strong women before me, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who paved a way so I could have this opportunity.”

Laurel Poole ’21

“This anniversary is a celebration of women’s political power, but also an important reminder to critically engage with the movement’s history to make feminist politics more just and intersectional.”

Flannery White ’21

“I am excited to vote on the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. It’s empowering to take part in our democracy and use my voice and vote for change!”

Drew Wilds ’21

“I feel privileged to have the opportunity to vote in 2020 because I grew up in an immigrant community where many do not have the right to vote. My vote speaks for an entire community of people.”

Wendy Molina Zavala ’22

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A long way to go There is, of course, always more work to do. Christi Siver, CSB/SJU associate professor of political science, is on a mission to improve our statistics – and outcomes – even more.

Siver holds the Joseph P. Farry Professorship, an endowed position affiliated with the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement.

The McCarthy Center, with its commitment to fostering dialogue and involvement in politics and public policy, was the driving force behind the ALL IN honors, creating a voting coalition that conducted nonpartisan outreach across both campuses to increase voter literacy, examine candidates and issues, and get out the vote more broadly. (It’s worth noting that Saint John’s University was also designated a Platinum Campus in the ALL IN Challenge for exceeding 50% voter turnout.)

Discerning directions One goal shared by Siver, her colleagues in the Political Science Department and the McCarthy Center is to increase critical thinking and information literacy. With a background in competitive debate, Siver is particularly well suited to examining all sides of a given issue and identifying sources’ biases.

“It’s a skill that has atrophied broadly,” she says. “We used to know what we trusted – we had our publications, or we had our newscasters – and now there’s so much news coming from so many different directions, people kind of throw up their hands.

“There’s just so much information out there now,” Siver continues. “Students don’t know who to believe, and so they either reject politics altogether or they fall into one camp and stick there because it’s the easier thing to do.”

To help students make sense of an increasingly difficult-to-navigate

information landscape, and to complement the work of the McCarthy Center, Siver is giving shape to a debate initiative. This spring, she taught a class on public debate.

Eventually, if she secures funding, she will study how to promote debate more widely across our campuses.

Siver has also been a key voice in helping to develop programming to support the campus’ celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. (While spring events were cancelled in response to COVID-19, events are scheduled into November and organizers remain optimistic.)

structural sexism.” Siver says. “While we still see a majority of males in our intro classes, we’ve been very active, both inside and outside the classroom, in making sure that women know their voices matter in political conversations.”

This outreach includes collaborating with established campus institutions like the McCarthy Center, the Sister Nancy Hynes Institute for Women’s Leadership and the Washington, D.C. Summer Study Program, as well as colleagues across departments.

Siver also works with younger generations through the Women’s Debate Institute, a national nonprofit that advocates for a more

“We used to know what we trusted — we had our publications, or we had our newscasters — and now there’s so much news coming from so many different directions, people kind of throw up their hands.”

Christi Siver | CSB/SJU associate professor of political science

Let’s get everyone behind the wheel

gender-inclusive environment in debate and where she serves as the co-director of high school programming.

Turning the lens inward to her own department, Siver hopes to break down gender barriers in the field of political science. True as ever, much progress has been made and much more remains.

Two roads diverged …

“One of the things we want to focus on educating women about – and educating men about – is the pervasiveness of

“One of the important benefits of diversity is that, although it makes things harder, it makes things better,” posits Claire Haeg, CSB/SJU Political Science Department chair and associate professor. “The same is true of a college classroom: it’s much more emotionally and intellectually challenging to have a conversation with a diverse group, but the academic product – the learning that we all do – is better.”

Siver, warning against the dangers of simply listening to (and believing) the loudest voices in the room, adds, “It’s really important to empower students to vote, but also to help them recognize that they have a role and a responsibility in analyzing the information that they’re receiving.”

The 2018 midterms saw historic numbers of women and minorities running for office.

Congress, for example, now has about 23% female representation, according to Pew Research Center.

“One of the concerns that we have is that was primarily on one side of the aisle,” says Siver. “We want to make sure women know that there is a need for them across the board to be involved in politics.”

Looking ahead to the fall, Siver wants to see a dramatic jump in student engagement once again. Presidential elections tend to attract more voters, and for most of our young students, this will be the first presidential election in which they will be able to vote.

“Of course, our hope is that every Bennie who is eligible to vote does so. There’s really no reason not to expect all of our bright, thoughtful, and engaged young women to get out and vote!” concludes Haeg.

A politically diverse institution like CSB/SJU is no more immune to political polarization than the rest of the country. However, the difference between a liberal arts college campus and the country at large is a commitment to teaching critical thinking.

Summer 2020 | 33

ILLUMINATED Do you feel that? That is momentum. This year, Saint Ben’s has received the two largest alumna gifts in the school’s history, from LeAnne Matthews Stewart ’87 and Kathy Kurvers Henderson ’85 and their spouses. During this campaign, we have received 15 gifts of $1 million or more, nine of which came from alumnae. We nearly doubled the school’s endowment. We dramatically increased the availability of scholarships for deserving students.

We are deeply honored by this transformative generosity, which reflects astonishing foresight, vision and faith in the power and potential of women.

When we started this campaign, we wanted to illuminate lives. It has been awe-inspiring to watch a campaign ideal leap from the pages and translate into action. We have already exceeded what was an ambitious goal, but the net effect is so much more than numbers. You have stepped forward with your time, talent and treasure. You have moved us. You have moved mountains. You have illuminated the lives of the women here today and illuminated a path forward for the next generation of Bennies. You have said, loud and clear: Educating women is a smart investment.

Momentum is an incredible thing. Especially because once it gets going, it tends to pick up steam. We’re aglow with the light that this campaign has generated and we want to keep it illuminated.

There are more of you reading this who have light to bring forward.

Now’s the time. Make the investment and watch that light radiate outward as it inspires and empowers this extraordinary community of women. Thank you for being part of it.

Learn more about the campaign and how to participate at csbilluminatinglives.com.

APRIL 2020 CAMPAIGN UPDATE CAMPAIGN PROGRESS DEFERRED $35,506,466

OUTRIGHT $71,817,166

GOAL $100,000,000

ACTUAL $107,323,632

ILLUMINATING LIVES CAMPAIGN PROGRESS (BY PRIORITY) ENDOWMENT GIVING GOAL $63,000,000

ACTUAL $69,460,145

ANNUAL GIVING GOAL $25,000,000

ACTUAL $26,633,255

FACILITIES GIVING ACTUAL $11,230,232

GOAL $12,000,000

34 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

Actual (as of 4/30/20)

Goal

Goal Achieved

CAN’T STOP HER NOW We are celebrating the generosity of so many incredible alumnae, friends, family and supporters who recognize the incomparable value of investing in women’s education. Reaching our ambitious campaign goal has given us the opportunity to further enhance the Saint Ben’s experience and make sure we’re leading the way when it comes to educating, inspiring and empowering women.

Our current challenge: Make sure that this incredible experience is accessible to deserving students. We still must raise over $850,000 between now and June 30 to provide adequate scholarship support for the young women who are currently studying at Saint Ben’s.

We also must continue to strengthen our endowment. While the campaign had a dramatic effect on our current endowment, it’s still only a fraction of the endowment at peer institutions. In order

to provide access to the women who are here and the women who dream of being here in the future, we can’t stop now.

Perhaps you’re feeling inspired by the generosity of donors like LeAnne Matthews Stewart ’87 and Kathy Kurvers Henderson ’85. Perhaps you haven’t yet had the chance to participate, or are curious about more ways to help.

Perhaps you’re interested in getting creative with taxadvantaged donations, estate gifts, employer matching and donor advised funds.

The women here are dreamers and doers and changemakers.

Many of them face unimaginable obstacles on their road to Saint Ben’s, but they aren’t giving up. And we won’t, either.

Reach out today at csbilluminatinglives.com to make a plan for a donation that works for them and for you.

Summer 2020 | 35

THE (HE)ART AND SCIENCE OF GENEROSITY Kathy Kurvers Henderson ’85 has the phrases “Think critically, advocate passionately and lead courageously” written on a sticky note on her computer. But the way she lives her life – and prepares her legacy – suggests that she already had those ideals ingrained. This is a story of what happens when passionate belief in the power of women’s education comes in the form of a really good tax accountant.

Already longtime supporters of Saint Ben’s, Kathy and her husband Jim recently made an estate commitment with a total value of more than $5 million. Along with this estate gift, Kathy’s campaign commitments include funding for an endowed accounting scholarship that supports two Saint Ben’s students annually, naming of the Kathy Kurvers Henderson ’85 Math Skills Center in the newly renovated Main Building, and membership in the Presidents’ Circle in support of the annual giving program. Kathy has also served on the Board of Trustees for nearly a decade, a term that has seen Kathy raise the bar on what it means to serve with intention, curiosity and tireless engagement.

How does she do it? “Spreadsheets,” Kathy says with an infectious laugh from her home in Arizona, where she and Jim relocated after retiring several years ago. (They host the Saint Ben’s golf team for an annual spring break trip.) Leveraging her skills as a CPA, Kathy strategically plans and documents their philanthropic commitment – where each piece is coming from, where it’s going, and what the timing looks like.

36 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

The estate gift in particular “isn’t like writing a check,” says Kathy.

It’s a nuanced and forward-thinking commitment that lets Kathy and Jim “spread out the love.” Thanks to her deep involvement with the school through her work on the board, Kathy has really enjoyed identifying areas of importance to her and being able to react accordingly: “It’s fun to say, ‘Okay, now we’re going to make a difference here, here and here.’ ” Kathy and Jim also provide annual money with no strings attached so the school can support areas with highest need.

Kathy and Jim thought hard about how to “make the most impact while taking into account that we’re in our 50s.” In other words, how could they serve the school and its current and future students in a big way while still being smart about finances? The resulting plan leverages the power of employer matching (Jim’s former employer, Ernst & Young, matches educational philanthropic gifts for retired partners), donor advised funds and tax-advantaged timing.

Kathy originally chose Saint Ben’s because she “wanted to be in a place where women expected to be leaders.” She found it here.

And she also found a place where a woman could travel the world and immerse herself in a robust liberal arts curriculum. And while she left with academic credentials that would help her excel in her industry, Kathy says Saint Ben’s wasn’t about training for a job but rather about training for life. She gives back because she wants other women to have that experience. And thanks to her, many more deserving women will do just that.

SPEAK UP: BENNIE CONVERSATIONS Saint Ben’s exists to elevate and empower women’s voices. And that doesn’t stop when women cross the stage at graduation. Through the “How She Shines” initiative, we’re on a mission to record 500 “Bennie Conversations” – discussions among alumnae that touch on everything from life lessons to favorite campus memories. With just a few weeks left in the campaign, over 230 conversations have been recorded.

WELL(E) REMEMBERED Last fall, three members of the Welle family gathered at a family home in Bemidji, Minnesota: Sisters Kate Welle Canfield ’85 and Sarah Welle Anderla ’87 and their cousin Margi Welle Sitzer ’76. Margi, a Bennie Conversation volunteer, asked the questions and chimed in on the conversation as well.

They poignantly touch on the balance between priceless shared memories of the past and a conviction to continually move forward.

Here are snippets of their conversation: ON MEMORIES: “Memories and stories … that is what makes your life. And memories of our time at Saint Ben’s are something that we can share together. Those memories are fun to talk about.”

ON FAITH: “As we age, we’re now watching our children grow up in the faith and traditions of the Catholic church, and watching them carrying that into their education.”

ON BEING PART OF A SAINT BEN’S CENTENNIAL LEGACY FAMILY: “All our experiences are different, but we have the shared values and shared rich experiences.”

ON EMPOWERMENT: “I remember [at Saint Ben’s] being encouraged to use the word woman versus girl.”

“What has changed since I was there is that for a Bennie there now, there’s this real empowerment of women that you felt and sensed when we were there, but now it’s visibly encouraged, embraced and developed. That’s a beautiful thing about having these generations of women who have come before … looking at my daughter and her experience as a woman at Saint Ben’s in 2019, she’s really encouraged to be a strong woman. Those messages she’s getting – illuminating lives, let your light shine – she loves it all. Anyone who asks her, she’ll say how much she loves the sisterhood.

“I tell her, ‘there will never be another time in your life when you’re living in this community of women. When you’re 40 you might wish you were living in that community … (laughs) … but when you move forward, having been in that environment for four years … that stays with you.’ ” ON LEGACY: “You need to keep moving forward and keep transforming. Doing this (Bennie Conversation) makes you realize that you have to keep communicating this way to remind yourself about what you’ve done in your life. It’s a great thing that they are doing!”

Any Saint Ben’s alumna can volunteer to participate in this endeavor. Volunteers can tell their stories, conduct interviews or recommend friends. During this spring’s isolation, Bennie Conversations have become a way for Bennies to stay connected. You can learn more about how to conduct a self-guided Bennie Conversation by visiting csbilluminatinglives.com – under the How She Shines tab. You can also contact Abby Hansen ’12, CSB engagement officer, at ahansen001@csbsju.edu.

I’M A BENNIE

SHANNON ROERS JONES ’99 I KNEW HOW TO LEARN In 2016, Shannon Roers Jones ’99 was elected to the North Dakota State House of Representatives. It wasn’t a role in which she had pictured herself, but it’s one where she’s excelling. “When I was asked to run, I dismissed the idea immediately because I felt like I didn’t know enough to run,” she says. “When I got to the legislature, I realized that you’ll never know enough. I learn new things every single day. I learn about issues I already knew a little about and I learn about issues I had never even considered. It is an incredibly interesting job. My concern that I wasn’t prepared well enough was completely unfounded because I knew how to learn.” (A nod toward a liberal arts education!)

The North Dakota Legislature has sessions only from January through April of odd-numbered years. “So

38 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

during my first session in 2017, I didn’t introduce any bills and I tried to keep my mouth closed and my ears open,” Shannon recalls. “During my second session, I planned to introduce a few bills. But ultimately a few good ideas turned into a few more and I ended up introducing 19 bills. While I don’t know if I would do that again, it was very rewarding to work most of those bills to successful completion.

I worked on several issues related to criminal justice reform that were very close to my heart, and we repealed the antiquated Sunday-closing laws that mandated retail stores in North Dakota could not open before noon on Sundays. The Sunday-closing law was an issue that my dad* and I disagreed on and we had a lot of fun bantering back and forth on that issue. But the bill I feel the most pride in created a criminal record sealing process for those who had previously had

encounters with the law, but now had a period of time crime-free. It allowed them to petition the courts to have their records sealed so they didn’t continue to affect their ability to find jobs and housing in the future.”

Major at CSB

As she embarks on her first reelection campaign in 2020, we asked Shannon her thoughts on what it means to her to be holding an office that she wouldn’t have even been allowed to vote for just 100 years ago.

“I truly respect the Constitution and all of the thought that went into crafting our form of governing. But I struggle when some of my colleagues refer back to whether or not the Founding Fathers intended this or that when they drafted the Constitution. I find it hard not to point out that if we were to try interpreting the Constitution literally, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to serve alongside them.”

Favorite Bennie memory

Business

First-year residence hall

I transferred to CSB as a sophomore, so I started out in Lottie Hall.

Working through the night at The Record. It was a fun atmosphere with a lot of energy and camaraderie. *In that same 2016 election, Shannon’s father (former CSB Trustee Jim Roers) chose to run for the North Dakota State Senate. They became the first father/daughter pair to win Senate and House seats in the same district in North Dakota.

CLASS NOTES

| MILESTONES 1964

2 006 Colleen Neidermeier Porwoll received a

Mary Jo Hertel Smuda, Jane Hertel Campbell ’65, Carol Hertel Kluk ’72, Rosanne Hertel ’74 and Frances Hertel Tieman ’78 joyfully announce the beatification of their cousin, Br. James (Hermano Santiago) Miller, FSC, on Dec. 7, 2019, in Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Lisa MacKay Longpre published a book 1975

DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in Patient Flow, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Oct. ’18.

Corey Hickner-Johnson earned her 2007

Ph.D. in English and gender, women’s and sexuality studies from the University of Iowa in 2019. She is now a faculty lecturer in rhetoric at the University of Iowa.

Angela Guentzel was recognized 2010

as Greater Mankato’s 2019 Young Professional of the Year, Mankato, Minnesota, Nov. ’19.

titled “Scrooge’s Walking Adventures,” Oct. ’19.

Kathryn Hutchinson Majsak was 1987

selected as a member of the Pillars of the Profession Class of 2020 by the NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators) Foundation, Oct. ’19.

Margaret Cook Thickens was promoted 1988

to vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of ALLETE, Inc., a publicly traded energy company headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, in early 2019. Prior to this, she served as general counsel and director of compliance at ALLETE Clean Energy, a clean energy company that now operates in seven states.

While there she also served as project manager for the ALLETE Energy Corridor in North Dakota, and as the executive sponsor of Project Tundra, a carbon capture project in North Dakota that is now being led by Minnkota Power Cooperative.

Theresa Coskran is a senior HR business 1994 partner at Virginia Mason Medical Center, Sept. ’19.

Jennifer Nord Mallard is the principal and head of health care practice at The Vogel Group, Oct. ’19.

2007

Katie Million is the manager of Do It Yourself Fundraising Events at the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society, Nov. ’19.

Megan Woodruff Oertli received a Golden Apple Award for her work teaching 4th grade at Nicollet Public School, Nicollet, Minnesota, Jan. ’20.

’07

Anne Neubauer is a senior account 2012

executive at Padilla Speer Beardsley, Sept. ’19.

Megan Smith qualified in the marathon to 2013

ABBE COEN TO RYAN MCCABE, OCT. ’19

compete at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Denver, Colorado, Nov. ’19.

Elizabeth Camber Gibbons earned 2014

her Doctor of Physical Therapy from St. Catherine University, May ’19.

Precious Drew is the director of gBETA 2018 Greater MN-St. Cloud, Sept. ’19.

| MARRIAGES

2008

Catherine London to PJ Mitchell, June ’18

Michelle Melsen to Ryan Sufka ’08, Aug. ’19

2011 Stephanie Arel to Jesse Wenker, June ’19 Jennifer Josephs to Travis O’Leary, 2012 Oct. ’19

2003

Tracy Schuelke Kopetzki was named 1998 Waseca Teacher of the Year, Nov. ’19.

Kelly Grinsteinner is the marketing 1999 communications manager at Range Mental Health Center, Sept. ’19.

Kelly Murray is a senior accounts specialist at Padilla’s Finance Practice, Sept. ’19.

Anne Dotson Doepner is the director of 2001 inclusion & employee investment for the Minnesota Vikings, Sept. ’19.

2004

’03

KATE RITGER TO MARK ANEMA, DEC. ’19

’04

ASHLEY BROWN STEVENS

was inducted into the Edina High School Hall of Fame, Sept. ’19. Ashley remains the all-time leader in 3-point shooting for both the Edina and CSB basketball teams.

2004 2007

Lisa Kingsley to Adam Hrpcek, Oct. ’19 Dana Kaping to Jake Kramer, July ’18

’12

S IENNA KUHN TO JOEL CHERRICO ’10, SEPT. ’19

For complete news and notes from classmates and to post your notes, go to BenniesConnect: www.csbalum.csbsju.edu or email us at csbalumnae@csbsju.edu.

Summer 2020 | 39

CLASS NOTES

2014

Leah Christensen to Robert Sybrant ’14, 2014 Nov. ’19

Kendra Guck to James Koerner, Sept. ’19

Kirsten Bates to Joshua Smith ’13, 2015 June ’19

Emily Gebhart to Spencer Hanson ’15, Jan. ’19

2016

Madison Peitz to Scott Echternacht ’16, Dec. ’19

Rylee Pool to Andrew Lynch, Nov. ’19

Theresa Curwick to Christopher Madrill, 2017 Oct. ’19

Sarah Haas to Joseph Mahowald ’17, Aug. ’19 Maddisen Farver to Mark Falls ’19, 2019 Oct. ’19

ELIZABETH CAMBER TO PATRICK GIBBONS ’15, SEPT. ’19

Leah Koll to Kyle Schneider, July ’19

’14

DISCOVER FREEWILL Putting a will in place is a crucial step for the future – but one that always seems to get put off for another day. Our collaboration with FreeWill makes creating a will of your own QUICK, EASY and FREE.

KAYLEE MATHEWS TO DANIEL CAHILL ’14, OCT. ’19 40 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

’14

Visit freewill.com/will/ getstarted today!

CLASS NOTES

2015

’15

MARY BECHTOLD TO BLAKE BELLEFEUILLE ’15, JUNE ’19

| BIRTHS / ADOPTIONS Elizabeth Vogel & Lance Sellner, girl, 1999 Lucy, Nov. ’19

Katherine Preiss Flynn & Michael Flynn, 2002 boy, Michael, Dec. ’19

Adeline Rose Marquart & Matthew Marquart, boy, Solomon, Feb. ’19

2003

Alissa Keene Theis & Joshua Theis ’04, 2004 boy, Sawyer, Sept. ’19

Melissa Cambronne Broich & John 2006 Broich ’06, boy, Zachary, Aug. ’19

Laura Krippner Gorder & John Gorder, girl, Carolyn, Dec. ’19

Kathryn Kalkman & Gabriel Harren ’10, girl, Emerson, Sept. ’19

’03

HRISTINA ADAMS GUETTER & RODERICK GUETTER ’02, GIRL, C EVA, MAY ’19

2006 Kathryn Fogle Martinson & Adam Martinson, boy, Franklin, Nov. ’19

Dana Kaping Kramer & Jake Kramer, boy, 2007 Brooks, Nov. ’19

Tabetha Struzyk Skaj & Jesse Skaj, girl, Emma, Sept. ’19

’07

KIERSTEN GJERSTAD DOLAN & ANDREW DOLAN, GIRL, JULIET, OCT. ’19 Summer 2020 | 41

CLASS NOTES

Stephanie Deter Crane & Kevin 2008 Crane ’08, boy, Henry, Feb. ’19

Rachel Windsperger Evans & Daniel Evans, boy, Isaac, Aug. ’19

Kaelly Simpson Farnham & Matthew Farnham, boy, Isaac, Nov. ’19

Kaylen James Jackson & Jeffrey Jackson ’08, girl, Elizabeth, Dec. ’19

Jamie Johnson & Nathan Johnson ’08, boy, Benjamin, June ’18

Catherine London & PJ Mitchell, boy, Jack, June ’19

2010

’10

ASHLEY VER BURG SOUKUP & MIKE SOUKUP, GIRL, CLARE, SEPT. ’19

’10

L INDSAY HAVLIK WESSELS & BENJAMIN WESSELS ’10, BOY, HOLDEN, NOV. ’19

Emily Sandberg Mayerhofer & John Mayerhofer ’08, girl, Eva, Sept. ’19

Jenny Vuong Ng & Allen Ng ’08, girl, Kenzie, Nov. ’19 Erica Marsyla Benney & Adam 2009

Benney ’09, girl, Bianca, Dec. ’18

Jessica Hoeppner Donaldson & Gregory 2010

Donaldson ’10, boy, Isaac, June ’17 & girl, Adeline, July ’19

Ashley Theisen Eisenbeis & Britan Eisenbeis ’10, girl, Adeline, Sept. ’19

Stephanie Lahr Jacobson & Peder Jacobson ’10, boy, William, April ’19

Nicole Magedanz Morris & Benjamin Morris ’10, girl, Hazel, Sept. ’19

Megan Woodruff Oertli & Brett Oertli, boy, Jackson, Oct. ’19

Emily Miller Orr & Nathan Orr ’11, girl, Lily, Sept. ’19

’10

LISON CURRANS SIERSDALE A & ERIK SIERSDALE, BOY, MILO, JUNE ’19

42 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

’10

AMANDA BROWN BRUENING & ROBERT BRUENING, GIRL, JULIANA, NOV. ’19

CLASS NOTES

2011

Emily Dobesh Roscoe & Nicholas Roscoe ’12, boy, Wesley, Oct. ’18

Marie Walmsley & David Byrne Walmsley ’11, boy, Jonah, June ’19

Megan Schutz Norgren & Michael 2012 Norgren, boy, Luke, June ’19

Emily Tretter Walters & Charles Walters ’02, girl, Bailey, Sept. ’19

Kristin Donner Weber & Adam Weber ’12, girl, Isabelle, Sept. ’19

Emily Bendickson Gunderson & Ross 2013 Gunderson, girl, Mackenzie, Sept. ’19

Nicole Cariolano Olson & Michael Olson ’13, girl, Elliot, May ’19

Take a break from your regular routine to live and volunteer with us!

Benedictine Live-In Experience

is a residential volunteer program that offers an opportunity for women to refresh their lives by sharing in the prayer and work of a monastic community.

ReBeka Schwendemann Scepaniak & 2014 John Scepaniak ’14, boy, Ivan, Oct. ’19

Megan Voss Schulte & Mitchell Schulte ’14, boy, Mason, Sept. ’19

2015

Emily Gebhart Hanson & Spencer Hanson ’15, boy, Griffin, Oct. ’19

Amy Bechtold Gans & John Gans ’13, 2016 boy, Beckett, Sept. ’19

| DEATHS Ursula Sweeney, Jan. ’20 1938 S. Helenette (Odilia Veronica) Baltes, 1940 OSB, Jan. ’20

Patricia Murray McAllister, Dec. ’19 1946 S. Anne Malerich, OSB, Oct. ’19 1947 Alice Becker Myers, mother of Connie 1951

Contact Mary Catherine Holicky, OSB, coordinator, at liveinex@csbsju.edu or visit https://sbm.osb.org/ministries/live-in/

Myers Doman ’90, Dec. ’19

S. Roberta Werner, OSB, Oct. ’19 1956 Lawrence Liddiard, spouse of Helen 1957 Dignan Liddiard, Oct. ’19

Bonnie Kieffer Fiala, July ’19 1958 1962 Patricia Donnelly Ploumen, Dec. ’19 Anne Syverson Woolsey, Oct. ’19 1966 S. Doris Steinfeldt, OSB, Oct. ’19 1967 Ruth Stepan, mother of Eileen Stepan 1968

Farrell, Anna Stepan Vagle ’70, Susan Stepan Philipsen ’71 & Cynthia Stepan Sanchez ’73, Oct. ’19

S. Dominica Freund, OSB, Oct. ’19

Sandra Fuchs Sexton, Sept. ’19

Diane White, Dec. ’19 1973 Norman Bot, father of Sandra Bot-Miller, 1974 Oct. ’19

Lucille Jacobs & Gerard Jacobs, parents of Linda Jacobs, May/June ’19 Kathleen Haws, mother of Maureen Haws 1976 Callinan & Kathryn Haws Spooner ’77, Sept. ’19

Lyle Fogelman, father of Kathie Fogelman Christensen & Jodi Fogelman Olson ’89, Oct. ’19

THERE’S POWER IN CONVERSATION Bennie Conversations: How She Shines is an initiative to capture and preserve what it means to be a Bennie through hundreds of recorded one-on-one interviews.

Your stories – funny, sad, heroic, relatable – showcase the impact each of us has when we let our lights shine.

Contact Abby Hansen ’12 at ahansen001@csbsju.edu to learn more about …

• volunteering to tell your story.

• v olunteering to interview other Bennies.

• s uggesting Bennies with great stories to share.

• s uggesting Bennies who are easy to talk with to become interviewers.

Summer 2020 | 43

CLASS NOTES

Jeanne Dean, mother of Jennifer Dean 1977

1983

Valery Scherer Hansen, mother of Allison 1978

Delores Giroux, mother of Jacqueline Giroux Meyer, Janelle Giroux Hennen ’86 & Joan Giroux Bramble ’91, Dec. ’19

Dwyer, Nov. ’19

Hansen Schilplin ’03, Jan. ’20

Michael Garry, father of Kathleen Garry 1979 Boyle, Maureen Garry Maus ’84 & Annie Garry Betts ’89, Oct. ’19

Benjamin Meuwissen, father of Mary Meuwissen Nowak, Beth Meuwissen Snyder ’81 & Susan Meuwissen Ergen ’82, Oct. ’19 Mark Youngdale, spouse of Linda Hoppe, 1980 Dec. ’19

Edward O’Connell, father of Kathleen 1981

O’Connell Krebsbach, Maureen O’Connell-Lehman ’82, Colleen O’Connell Backes ’83 & Sheila O’Connell Roth ’85, Dec. ’17

Annette Kuehn Lynch, Oct. ’19

Marcella Maier, mother of Jeanne Maier, Oct. ’19 Clayton Rivard, father of Laurie Rivard & Suzanne Rivard Collins ’87, Jan. ’20

Charles Kajer ’82, spouse of Jennifer Settergren Kajer, Nov. ’19

Elaine Berge, mother of Donna Berge 1984 Davis, May ’19

Donald Woodley, father of Patricia

Woodley Billmeyer & Amy WoodleySpaniol ’86, Dec. ’19 Elizabeth Young, mother of Anna Young 1985

Cole & Jane Young Farley ’87, Oct. ’19

John Schwegman, father of Amy Schwegman Willard, Sept. ’19 Charles Skemp, father of Ann Skemp1986 Cook, Ellen Skemp Christoff ’88 & Patricia Skemp Page ’92, Dec. ’19

Kenneth Terhaar ’57, father of Andrea 1987 Terhaar Dalluge & Gretchen Terhaar Pyle ’92, Oct. ’19

J. Keith Connelly ’60, father of Jill Connelly DiSomone & Carol Connelly Ortega ’88, Dec. ’18

Eddie Ryshavy, father of Beth Ryshavy 1982

Judd Peterson, father of Kimberly Peterson Mullon, Nov. ’19

Olga Henderson, mother of Beth Henderson McCafferty, Dec. ’19

Leon Royer, father of Michelle Royer, Nov. ’19

Clarence Birk, father of Mary Birk-Gray, 1983

Thomas Murphy, father of Michele 1988 Murphy Barrett, Sept. ’19

Greenberg, Dec. ’19

Oct. ’18

1988 Eugene Brenny, father of Christine Brenny, Nov. ’19

Sylvester Knapp, father of Julie Knapp Gronholm, Oct. ’19 Norbert Hemesath, father of Amy 1990 Hemesath Schroeder, Dec. ’19

Elmer Ostendorf, father of Susan 1991 Ostendorf Heying, Nov. ’19

Regina Heid, mother of Janet Heid Krasowski, Nov. ’19 Adrian Ackerman, father of Ann Ackerman Segner, Nov. ’19 Ron Fess, father of Catherine Fess Zent & Jennifer Fess Regensburger ’93, Oct ’19 Virginia Paradise, mother of Elizabeth 1992 Paradise, Sept. ’19

Susan Rupp, mother of Julie Rupp, Nov. ’19 David Magnuson, father of Frances 1993 Magnuson Forse, Dec. ’19

Marvin Muyres, father of Jennifer Muyres Palmer & Julie Muyres McBride ’97, Oct. ’19 Eugene Ohmann, father of Amy Ohmann 1995 Hull, Oct. ’19

Gary Mohrenweiser, father of Melissa Mohrenweiser, Oct. ’19 Fredrick Hennemann, father of Lisa 1996 Hennemann Schaefer, Dec. ’19

Life is better when

BenniesConnect When Bennies connect, old friendships thrive and new friendships blossom.

Use BenniesConnect to submit class notes, update your address, check on a friend and plant the seed for more meaningful connections— both personally and professionally.

To register, go to www.csbsju.edu/csb-alumnae and click on the BenniesConnect link.

44 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

CLASS NOTES

Leroy Warnert, father of Julie Warnert 1998 Neuwirth, Nov. ’19

Jackson Pfister, son of Brooke Davidson Pfister, Oct. ’19 Eileen Zierden, mother of Abby Zierden 1999 Larson, Jan. ’20

Paul Bakke, father of Britt Bakke, Dec. ’19 2000 Mary Bassett, mother of Margo Bassett, Sept. ’19 Catherine Peterson, mother of Jessica Peterson Frazee, May ’19 Theodore Umhoefer III, father of Anne 2001

YOU THINK YOU LIKE SAINT BEN’S, BUT DO YOU

REALLY?

Umhoefer & Katharine Umhoefer ’04, Dec. ’19

John Radabaugh, father of Anne 2003 Radabaugh Darling, Jan. ’20

Kelly Gruber Schmidtbauer, Oct. ’19 2005 Mary Jo Nordstrand, mother of Amy Nordstrand Sik, Dec. ’19 Patrick Dolan, father of Lindsey Dolan, 2006 Nov. ’19

Susan McSherry, mother of Molly 2015 McSherry, Oct. ’19

Joseph Vaughan ’86, father of Grace 2016 Vaughan, Sept. ’19

Marguerite Baumer, mother of Erin 2018 Baumer, Nov. ’19

CSB and SJU on social media are great, but the CSB Alumnae Association has a whole stream of alum-specific content to keep you up-to-date and connected. Like and follow us everywhere!

facebook.com/SaintBensAlums linkedin.com/groups/64647 twitter.com/saintbensalums instagram.com/csbsju/

Your words have

POWER The Alum Referral Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship (renewable for four years, totaling $4,000) available to deserving prospective Bennies and Johnnies. And all it takes to qualify is your recommendation.

Give them a helping hand while you help us fill our campus with talented, ambitious students.

Visit csbsju.edu/alumreferral today to learn more.

ALUM REFERRAL SCHOLARSHIP Summer 2020 | 45

BENNIE CONNECTION

1 1. T eachers from Good Shepherd Catholic School in Golden Valley connected to celebrate Bennie Day. L to R: Shelby Nelson ’18, Carrie McConville Henningsgaard ’06, Amy Radue Halstrom ’93, Rachel Kelzenberg ’14, Colleen Koness King ’86, Catie Corken ’11, Haley Faust ’14 and Hallee Curtis Olson ’17.

2. Bennies who work at HealthPartners Institute in Bloomington, Minnesota, shared lunch together in celebration of Bennie Day. L to R: Elana Simonson Sour ’12, Sarah Wildenborg Toov ’07, Danielle Karp ’11, Jenny Melville ’89 and Christine Jasken ’07.

2

3. Bennie Day lunch celebration at La Casita in Waite Park. Among those in attendance were (in no particular order) Nicole Anderson ’04, Karen Sieben Backes ’87, Gina Koshiol Bartell ’95, Emily Tohal Chaphalkar ’07, Camille Marthaler Dye ’93, Michelle Kelash Hemmesch ’02, Tiffany Waverek Huffman ’08, Mary Leighton ’84, Angie Niehaus Mareck ’03, Patricia Nolan Meling ’06, Ellen Newkirk ’13, Colleen Cunningham Orne ’91, Anne Sumangil ’99, Amber Streff Walling ’04, Lisa Seeger Wolf ’03 and Lisa Miller. (Not pictured: Amy Anderson)

3 46 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

BENNIE CONNECTION

4. D uluth brought together many for a Bennie Day celebration. Back row, L to R: Clare Goossens Chopp ’84, Kelsey White Berg ’04, Tara Frisbie ’14, Toni Roberts ’06 and Kathryn Siebenand Kulas ’58. Front row, L to R: Sharon Kong Yung ’98, Jodi Carlson Grebinoski ’92, Mary Cherne ’16, Rita Rosenberger ’89 and Susan Kulas Higgins ’89. Not pictured: Heidi Myers ’82 and Theresa Smith ’81.

4

5

5.

On Dec. 2, Bennies and friends gathered at the home of Terri Giyan Kallsen ’90.

L to R: Stacy Coffey, Shannon Bassett ’13, Emily Tohal Chaphalkar ’07, Jon Webb, Amanda Taylor Webb ’07, President Mary Dana Hinton, Danielle Liebl ’14, Terri Giyan Kallsen ’90, Elle Kallsen, Tiffany Taylor ’05, Scott Kallsen (SJU ’89), Cameron Bounds, Christine Melsen Campbell ’85, Chad Marolf, Tom Billmeier and Kathy Hansen.

6. C lass of 2007 Bennies together to celebrate Abbe Coen’s wedding. L to R: Beth Miller Griffin, Megan Mastrian Young, Sarah Meyer Thompson, Abbe Coen McCabe, Jenny Gray Leppanen, Megan Peterson Christofield and Megan Kurtz Engelke.

7. A lex Schleper, CSB/SJU Director of International Admissions, had the opportunity to meet up with alumna Yee Kei (Amy) Zheng ’14 in Hong Kong, Oct. ’19.

6

7

8. Bennie Day celebration! Highland Catholic School in St. Paul is proud to have eight Bennies on staff. Standing, L to R: Kassy Kenney ’84, Susan Shea Kammueller ’94, Katie Commers ’19, Emily Boyle ’17, Sarah Broos ’15 and Linda Shea ’97.

Kneeling, L to R: Corrie Schmidt ’06 and Chris Theobald Peterson ’91.

8 Summer 2020 | 47

There’s never a bad time to give in support of scholarships for Bennies.

BUT “RIGHT NOW” JUST GOT …

$50 BETTER Sprint to the Finish Donor Challenge Our fiscal year ends on June 30. And, thanks to a generous matching grant, whatever you choose to give just got $50 better. We’re searching for 750 donors who haven’t yet given this fiscal year.

Your participation – at any level – helps in multiple ways:

1

Every dollar toward Bennie scholarships truly does make a difference.

2

Improving our donor participation numbers makes Saint Ben’s an even more attractive and viable candidate for major grants.

GIVE TODAY AND BECOME ONE OF THESE SPECIAL 750.

GIVECSB.COM

GENEROSITY

“I give what I can, how I can.”

BY | GREG SKOOG (SJU ’89)

Maria Stanek Burnham ’01 is very clear about the impact the College of Saint Benedict has had on her.

“Never in my life could I have imagined all that Saint Ben’s gave to me,” she says.

“It’s where I learned to think for myself, to feel confident in myself, and to realize my gifts and passions in life. It’s where I learned that it’s okay to change and grow.

It’s okay to not know all of the answers but rather to trust your heart along the way. The four years I spent there was the most transformative time of my life, and I am certain that I wouldn’t be who I am today if I wasn’t a Bennie.”

So staying engaged with the college and the community is important to her. And to Maria, that means giving back. “It means I can remember and feel gratitude for all that the college has given me, and I can hopefully help others feel that same sense of purpose. People will often ask me why I am so committed to CSB, and it’s because, for so many reasons, the world is a better place with CSB in it. I feel so much joy in the work I do for Saint Ben’s.

And who wouldn’t want to continue to feel that way?”

As a young alumna, Maria thought giving back had to mean money. That frustrated her because she didn’t feel able to make “significant financial contributions.” But when she moved back to the St. Cloud area, she found another way. As she recalls, “One day, when the email landed in my inbox calling for volunteers for the Alumnae Board, I answered. I wanted to feel more connected to the campus. I wanted to meet more Bennies, and

Maria and some fellow board members took time out to serve root beer floats to Bennie sophomores – because that’s giving too!

I wanted to make a difference in any way I could. The Alumnae Board has given me those things and so much more.”

Today, Maria is president of the board and as connected to Saint Ben’s as she’d ever hoped to be. And along the way, she discovered a trick that’s helped her support today’s Bennies financially in ways she used to think were impossible.

Maria is a Saint Ben’s Sustainer – making regular, automated gifts each month.

“The sustaining gift is perfect for my family,” she says. “We are a middle-class family – my husband and I have good jobs and two kids. And we are good at budgeting monthly costs. What’s great about the sustaining gift is that it’s planned, it’s automatic and we make it affordable. For example, this past year, the total amount of dollars donated over the course of 12 months added up to more than an amount I would be comfortable donating at one time.

“When I first started paying attention to the donation envelopes that would get mailed to my house, I was always so intimidated because the lowest amount listed to donate was more than I could afford to give at the time. So I wouldn’t give anything because I was too afraid to write in a smaller dollar amount. But now I know that every little bit counts. Monthby-month, we give a little to the greater cause knowing that someday those small amounts will add up to something big.”

Right now is a really spectacular time to become a Saint Ben’s Sustainer. You can find out more at givecsb.com or by calling Maggie Weber Utsch ’00, director of annual giving, at 320-363-5932.

Summer 2020 | 49

NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES, MN PERMIT NO. 93723

INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT 37 South College Avenue St. Joseph, MN 56374 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

CONGRATULATIONS! Valerie Doze ’21 TRUMAN SCHOLAR Congratulations to Saint Ben’s junior Valerie Doze of Grand Forks, North Dakota, on being awarded a prestigious Truman Scholarship from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Valerie is a biochemistry and German double-major. She will receive up to $30,000 for graduate study, priority admission and supplemental financial aid at premier graduate institutions (she plans to apply to Johns Hopkins University), leadership training, career and graduate school counseling and special internship opportunities within the federal government.

This year, the Truman Foundation received 773 applications from 316 colleges and universities and selected 62 scholars, representing 55 schools.

Valerie is the fifth Bennie to earn a Truman Scholarship, following in the footsteps of: • Rachel Mullin ’14 • Emily Dahm ’97

• Amy Hertel ’99 • Peg McGlinch ’95

You can read the story and learn more about Valerie on our website at csbsju.edu/doze.

50 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine