Saint Benedict's Magazine Summer 2018

SUMMER 2018 MAGAZINE

Declaring

“I’M A BENNIE” to the world

INSIDE • What’s in a Name? p. 10 • We Are One Team p. 16 • It’s Time to Shine p. 20 • 2018 Reunion Recap p. 24

IN THIS ISSUE

It Will

Be Done

FEATURES

10 What’s in a Name?

16 We Are One Team 20 It’s Time to Shine 24 2018 Reunion Recap

DEPARTMENTS

1 Message From the President 2 Worth 1,000 Words 4 News 26 I’m a Bennie 27 Class Notes 34 Bennie Connection 37 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 Courtney Sullivan CONTRIBUTORS Ellen Hunter Gans ’05 Sara Mohs Tommy O’Laughlin (SJU ’13) Leah Rado Kelly Smith ’08 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

The following is adapted from Dr. Hinton’s remarks at 2018 commencement. You can watch her complete remarks at bit.ly/csbgrad18.

This spring, a moment I’ve anticipated for the past four years came to fruition as I presided over the commencement ceremonies for the first entering class of students I welcomed in 2014. The class of 2018 graduated on May 12, and we’ve launched another amazing group of Bennies into the world.

As I reflect on the past four years, the most vibrant recurring memory for me is Aug. 21, 2014, when we sat in Sacred Heart Chapel as S. Michaela Hedican (then Prioress) told the story of the chapel dome. It was a powerful moment for all of us. The story goes that in 1913 the sisters commissioned the building of the chapel, and S. Priscilla informed the builder that the chapel was to include a dome. I can so clearly picture the sisters, in their habits, addressing the builder in their melodious tones indicating that they wanted a domed chapel.

He replied to them, in my mind with great confidence, less melodically, and perhaps with a touch of condescension, that it could not be done. They lacked the resources. There would be no dome.

“

As each class of graduating Bennies goes forth, they are continuing a legacy. A legacy in which women have defied so many odds.”

Now remember, this is happening in 1913. Women could not vote. They didn’t have the technology we have today to design and build buildings. And there were no other domed buildings in central Minnesota. The sisters, thought the builder, lacked the wherewithal to build a chapel with a dome.

But the sisters, whose soft tones and careful language can be misread as weakness, as I’m sure this builder learned quite quickly, essentially replied (following prayerful discernment, I’m sure) with the words: It. Will. Be. Done.

As I looked up at the dome in Sacred Heart Chapel on my first Friday evening with those students, I thought about the sacred nature of our campus and our work. And I realized that the most important welcome I could deliver at my first convocation, and now, four years later at their commencement, was a message that is 100 years old: It. Will. Be. Done.

As each class of graduating Bennies goes forth, they are continuing a legacy. A legacy in which women have defied so many odds. A legacy in which strong and courageous women charted a course and trod a path together. A path we smoothed a bit over the past four years for future generations. A legacy that is the flourishing of a dream that began with the thought and the belief that it will be done. That women will go out into the world as critical thinkers. Courageous leaders. And passionate advocates.

It. Will. Be. Done.

You see, being a Saint Ben’s student is not only about successfully completing courses, going to meetings and ticking off boxes. It’s the living manifestation of the hope, courage and strength of our founders, our faculty and staff and the 24,000 alumnae who journeyed with us. During their time here, young women are equipped to transform the world and, as liberal arts graduates, they leave assured that they have the skill, capacity and habits of mind to be leaders. In fact, they are charged with ensuring that when we are told something is impossible, we make it possible.

It. Will. Be. Done.

These are complicated and challenging times in our world.

But no more so than when our founders came to central Minnesota, with very few resources. It was their faith, their courage and their resilience and strength that built Saint Ben’s and that allows today’s Bennies to thrive and to leave prepared for whatever life offers. It will be done now because we are the heirs of courageous, strong and faith-filled women. It will be done because we care for one another. It will be done because our work ethic is as diligent as our faith. Our courage as strong as our compassion. Our hope as powerful as the world’s challenges.

On May 12, four years after I welcomed my first firstyear class, I heard the melodic yet defiant voice that says, although it has never been done, it will be done. It will be difficult to get done, yet it will be done. At times we may struggle, but it will be done. And, it will be done with grace, with rigor, with power and with passion.

To me, fulfilling that destiny is what it means to be a Bennie. We have done so much, so well, Bennies. I look forward to all that is ahead of each of us. It. Will. Be. Done.

Mary Dana Hinton College of Saint Benedict President

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WORTH 1,000 WORDS

PICTURE THIS! Homeruns this season were celebrated in style by the Saint Benedict softball team with a pack of pretend paparazzi and some fabulous poses. Claire Boatman ’19 was too excited to pose after her fourth-inning homer in the MIAC championship game. We think her teammates will give her a pass. Read more about the team’s special season on page 8.

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Photo Credit: BJ Pickard

NEWS

Students Receive Fulbright Awards Cwikla graduated with a degree in psychology and in the pre-professional program for medicine. She’s from Fargo, North Dakota, and will teach in Indonesia.

Durbin is a St. Cloud native who earned her degree in environmental studies. She will teach in Sri Lanka.

Fadahunsi is a political science major from Maplewood, Minnesota, and will teach in Taiwan.

From left to right: Kelsey Tatarek ’18, Morgan Durbin ’18, Allison Cwikla ’18, Olayemi Fadahunsi ’18, Maya Hermerding ’18 and Daniel Yang (SJU ’18)

Six CSB/SJU students received Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) awards this spring, continuing an impressive run of 29 CSB/SJU Fulbright ETA awards since 2013.

CSB’s Allison Cwikla, Morgan Durbin, Olayemi Fadahunsi, Maya Hermerding and Kelsey Tatarek, and SJU’s Daniel Yang received awards from the Fulbright

U.S. Student Program, sponsored by the Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. All six are 2018 graduates.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as record of service and leadership potential in their respective fields.

Hermerding will teach at the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Villaviciencio, Colombia. The Brainerd, Minnesota, native is a political science and Hispanic studies double-major.

Tatarek is a double-major in Hispanic studies and natural science from St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She will teach in Spain.

Yang is a communication major from St. Paul, Minnesota, who will teach in Thailand.

CSB’s Kuhl Named 2018 Newman Civic Fellow Mackenzie Kuhl ’19 was named a 2018 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, a Boston-based nonprofit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional and civic growth.

Through the fellowship, Campus Compact offers a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

Kuhl is a political science major from Dubuque, Iowa. In January 2017, she traveled to Hong Kong with the Extending the Link student documentary team to document

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electronic waste. She also assisted physically and mentally disabled residents of Sanitorio Maritimo in Viña del Mar, Chile, while studying abroad.

In addition to her international experiences, Kuhl served as the student coordinator for the Bonner Leader Program at CSB and SJU, and she has advocated for Bring it to Table, an organization that encourages civil dialogue.

“Through all of this, I continue to learn the importance of compassion, honesty, respect and vulnerability within the

engagement I share with those around me,” she said.

Kuhl completed internships with the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, and HealthEast in St. Paul, Minnesota.

NEWS

Caps and Gowns

Saturday, May 12, marked graduation day for 505 Bennies – the third largest class in school history – as the college held its 103rd commencement ceremony.

Beth Dinndorf ’73, former president of Columbia College, delivered the commencement address and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Maranna Gunnerson, a senior biology major from Annandale, Minnesota, delivered the student commencement address.

Congratulations to our new Bennie alumnae!

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NEWS

New Cohorts of Inductees for Honor Societies

Sixty-two students (38 from CSB and 24 from SJU) were inducted this spring into the Theta of Minnesota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society.

The inductees were selected by CSB/SJU faculty who are members of Phi Beta Kappa. The liberal arts and/or sciences majors were chosen based on their grade-point averages (3.85 for juniors, 3.65 for seniors). The selection committee also looked at the breadth and depth of each student’s program and other achievements, such as a thesis or other research, interest in other cultures or languages and extracurricular activities.

In addition, 19 students from CSB were inducted into the Omega Chapter of Delta Epsilon Sigma (DES), a national Catholic Honor Society that recognizes academic accomplishments, dedication to intellectual activity and service to others.

The junior and senior DES inductees met a series of distinguished criteria, including maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average or higher and being involved in the community through volunteer and extracurricular activities.

Joining these inductees were 23 students (11 from CSB and 12 from SJU) who were inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, the highest national recognition a business student can receive at a college or university. To be eligible for membership, students must rank in the top 20 percent of the junior or senior class and be invited by the faculty officers. CSB and SJU have made the society more elite by requiring inductees to have a minimum 3.75 GPA.

Students Present Experiential Research at Mayo Clinic Four students from CSB and SJU participated in this year’s prestigious Mayo Innovation Scholars Program (MISP).

CSB’s Morgan Craig ’19, an accounting and finance major from Alexandria, Minnesota, and Kristina Rudin ’18, a biology major from Maple Grove, Minnesota, along with SJU’s Donovan Inniss ’18 and Matthew Miller ’18, were part of the program that provides research opportunities to undergraduates from Minnesota private colleges. The program, now in its 12th year, focuses on the intersection of science, medicine and business.

The students worked on the project throughout the 2017-18 academic year and presented their findings in March in a written report. On average, each student put in roughly 175 hours of work.

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From left to right: Morgan Craig ’19, Donovan Inniss ’18, Kristina Rudin ’18, Matthew Miller ’18

CSB/SJU faculty members Lisa Lindgren, associate professor of global business leadership, and Jennifer Schaefer, associate professor of biology, served as project advisers. Lindsey Gunnerson Gutsch, program assistant in the Student Success Center at CSB and SJU, provided administrative support.

“This year’s team did a great job of taking a project that was especially undefined and constructing clear criteria for evaluating and suggesting improvements to the product,” Schaefer said. She pointed out the impact of the program’s interdisciplinary and ambiguity aspects, both of which “challenge students to become better academically, professionally and as people.”

NEWS

CSB/SJU Selects Nathan Dehne as New Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid After a nationwide search, CSB/SJU have introduced Nathan Dehne as the new vice president for admission and financial aid. “I’ve been passionate about enrollment management for nearly 23 years,” Dehne said. “I consider it a great privilege to serve two of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.”

Dehne brings a strong history of change management and dynamic leadership. He has dedicated his career to higher education and consistently risen to top positions in enrollment management, new student recruitment, retention coordination, strategic planning, financial aid, student development and athletics.

“Nathan brings a tremendous range of experience to this position, having served at three different institutions and been exposed to many different admissions markets,” said Michael Hemesath, SJU

president. “His quantitative orientation and his exceptional people skills are the right combination for Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s at this time in our history.”

“The energy, experience and enthusiasm Nathan brings to CSB/SJU are incredibly compelling,” said Mary Dana Hinton, CSB president. “During the search process, Nathan stood out, demonstrating a keen sense of community and collaboration, along with his broad experience in complex markets and systems. His proven track record of success will help CSB and SJU reach greater heights.”

Dehne most recently served as the vice president for admissions and enrollment

services at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, where he also provided executive leadership for strategic planning and athletics. Prior to that he worked at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and at his alma mater – Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

“I often say that I have chosen the best profession in the world because we can see the effect we have on the trajectory of a person’s life,” Dehne said.

Dehne succeeds Calvin Ryan Mosley, who announced his retirement earlier this year, after serving 10 years as vice president for CSB/SJU.

Link Debuts Collaborative Mural

One distinct Link bus has a new look thanks to a group of CSB/SJU students in a Latino/Latin American Studies course who set out to create a work of public art that answered the questions, “What kind of community do we want, and how do we get it?”

The driver’s side of the Link features a mural of a heart, eye and ear to represent the Benedictine values of “listening with the ear of the heart” and being awake in the world; a honeycomb

for strong community; an inverted map of the world to rethink our place in the world; monarch butterflies and footprints to symbolize migration and travel; and a candle to illustrate bringing one’s light into the world.

The curb side mural features lungs, a brain, speech bubbles and pages of design/writing to represent dialogue, thoughtfulness and solidarity across differences as important components for building an inclusive community;

a map of two campuses presented as one community; Interstate 94 as gold inlay, which references Japanese ceramics repair and the work of sealing breaks in the community; and a branching tree by water to represent a place of tranquility as well as the growing, rippling effects of local action.

The mural process was guided by faculty members Rachel Melis (Art) and Bruce Campbell (Latino/Latin American Studies).

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NEWS

Softball Establishes Home-Field Advantage There was much anticipation surrounding the College of Saint Benedict softball team’s 2018 season.

After a trip to the MIAC Tournament, a jump into the national polls and 27 wins in 2017, head coach Rachael Click knew her 2018 squad could be something special.

The team had a roster full of returning talent and some promising incoming players. And everyone had been watching since fall 2016, as the new softball field across College Avenue took shape, and waiting for the chance to play on the new turf field.

Thanks to the winter that wouldn’t leave, the team’s debut on the new field was delayed more than once, but CSB played three doubleheaders and went 5-1 on its new turf. Saint Benedict swept Bethel 7-0 and 2-0 on Saturday, April 21, marking the first win and sweep on the new field, and sophomore Kendra Swanson hit the first home run in that first game.

In its final game of the regular season, Saint Benedict beat St. Kate’s 3-2 and set the school record for wins at 32. It earned the No. 2 seed in the MIAC Tournament and made it to the conference championship game for the first time since 2004. That finish – coupled with a No. 13 ranking in Division III – helped CSB earn its first berth in the NCAA Tournament since 1994.

CSB went 2-2 in the four-team Decorah, Iowa Regional, and made it to the region championship game where its season ended with a 3-0 loss to host-school Luther College. The team finished the year 36-10, and several players earned postseason accolades, including first-year pitcher Ally Hjort, who earned MIAC Rookie of the Year, MIAC Pitcher of the Year, All-MIAC First Team and NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team honors.

Donations Requested for Bennie Career Closet Part of the educational experience at Saint Ben’s involves professional development opportunities and career-related explorations.

For many students, however, buying new professional clothing is a daunting and stressful experience because it’s an expense they simply can’t afford.

To support our students in their professional development, the Student Development Office has created the Bennie Career Closet.

Students are allowed to “shop” for business-appropriate attire and select a complete professional outfit for specific events they’ll be attending. Students do not have to pay for the clothing and can keep the outfit they choose.

Because the closet is stocked solely by donations from community members and Bennie alums, the Student Development Office is asking for

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professional, gently used/new items: blouses, women’s suits, pants, jewelry/ accessories, skirts, dresses, blazers and shoes. A seasonal section will also be added for winter coats, mittens/gloves and hats.

To donate, please mail or drop off your items at the locations below. If you have questions about the closet, email Sydney Robinson at careercloset@csbsju.edu.

Campus drop off: Murray Hall 155 Campus mailing address: College of Saint Benedict Career Closet Donations, Murray Hall 37 South College Avenue St. Joseph, MN 56374 Twin Cities drop off site: Click Media Team 1121 Jackson Street NE, Suite 143 Minneapolis, MN 55413 Ask for Dede Antonelli ’82

A Season to Remember BY | LEAH RADO

Niki Fokken

The realization that the 2017-18 Saint Benedict basketball team could be in for a special season came at different times for different people.

For Chelsey Guetter ’18, it was a win over Simpson over Thanksgiving. For head coach Mike Durbin, it was a few big nonconference wins and a close win over Bethel to start MIAC play.

No matter when the realization hit, they were all right. CSB put together a historic season that included an NCAA Tournament berth, another MIAC Coach of the Year honor for Durbin and multiple postseason accolades for several members of the team.

“To have a final season like the one I am so lucky to have experienced is every athlete’s wish for their senior year,” Guetter said.

After a 5-0 start, Saint Benedict dropped a close home game to UW-Eau Claire, but rebounded with a 10-game winning

streak to improve to 15-1 overall and 9-0 in the MIAC: its best overall start since 2003-04, and the best conference start since 2002-03.

A 25-point loss to No. 13 St. Thomas ended the streak, but CSB rattled off seven more wins, including an 83-76, come-from-behind win at Bethel and a four-point win over Gustavus, the team’s first since January 2016. CSB ended the regular season with another loss to UST, but this one was by just three points, and the team nearly came from behind to upset the Tommies on the road.

CSB finished the year second in the MIAC – its best finish since 200910. The team fell to the Gusties in the MIAC Tournament semifinals, but earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament – its first since 2008-09. A long, fast George Fox team ended CSB’s tournament run, but didn’t take away from the phenomenal season.

Saint Benedict finished the season 22-5, the most wins for the program since

2008-09. It also marked the 25th 20-win season for Durbin – who won MIAC Coach of the Year honors for the sixth time. He is one of just five Division III women’s basketball coaches to have 25 or more 20-win seasons.

Niki Fokken ’18 – who became the 20th CSB basketball player to score 1,000 or more career points – earned All-MIAC First Team honors for the third time in her career – the first to earn three firstteam nods since Amy Stifter ’11 did it in 2009-11. Guetter earned a first-team nod, and Fokken also earned a spot on the d3hoops.com All-West Region Third Team – the first all-region athlete for the team since 2007.

“Being a part of a team like this gives us upcoming seniors big shoes to fill,” said Breanna Gates ’19. “Now that we know we’re good enough to make it to the NCAA Tournament, we need to hold ourselves to those standards and strive to get back again next year.”

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BY | ELLEN HUNTER GANS ’05

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Being a Bennie means more today than ever, and something unique for everyone.

If 10,000 people read this article, we can expect there to be 10,000 distinct reactions to that opening phrase.

We are deeply proud of those characteristics. If you want to call that list an archetype, we’ll take it.

A ventured guess at some common themes? Unmitigated pride. Empowerment.

Opportunity. Sisterhood. The strength of a woman. Perhaps a few cringes.

But beyond that, there is nuance upon nuance.

I am a Bennie.

I AM a Bennie.

To be sure, there are commonalities. As a liberal arts college for women, Saint Ben’s disproportionately attracts women who feel a calling to serve others and who value a sense of community, the opportunity to lead and the freedom to challenge paradigms.

Cringes? That’ll strike some of you as unexpected. Awkward. Uncomfortable. For others, it will resonate deeply or, perhaps, not even be strong enough.

That’s okay. It’s part of the story.

The College of Saint Benedict is embracing the Bennie identity with full hearts and open arms and both feet and every other body/mind/spirit metaphor you could envision.

It’s a bold leap, because Bennie is a richly layered appellation that carries generations of history and context and stereotypes.

As private liberal arts colleges for women become increasingly rare, the role we play becomes increasingly important.

Bennie applies to all of us. It applies to current students, and it applies to those who graduated last year and those who attended a century ago.

And yet, this isn’t about aligning under a common description. Attempting to pigeonhole an archetypal “Bennie” would do a disservice to the diverse spectrum of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences that make up our community.

Increasingly, that diversity is one of our most valuable hallmarks.

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A deep dive into the Saint Ben’s archives reveals a rollercoaster of associations with the Bennie identity. Over the decades, Bennie has been everything from a badge of honor to an unsavory epithet. (There are t-shirts to prove both ends of the spectrum.) Most of the latter connotations came from external sources, but we also must confront the reality that, over the years, members of our own community have deliberately eschewed the Bennie “label” because it didn’t resonate and didn’t feel sufficiently inclusive.

We are at a point of transition at Saint Ben’s. As private liberal arts colleges for women become increasingly rare, the role we play becomes increasingly important.

We’re receiving more national and international recognition and top rankings than at any point in our history. We’re stepping into the spotlight as a source for courageous leadership, critical thinking and impassioned advocacy. The value of a Saint Ben’s degree is directly tied to the caliber and diversity of the women who choose to spend time here.

“I keep seeing the value of my Saint Ben’s degree go up and up as the college continues to receive national recognition for its programs and student and faculty achievements,” says Judy Zimmer ’84, an entrepreneur, coach and speaker. “This [My CSB degree] has been the most incredible return on investment I could have ever made.”

Judy has a unique perspective on Saint Ben’s evolving value proposition. She is deeply involved in volunteer work for or on behalf of the school, having served on the alumnae board for several years and held multiple alumnae leadership roles.

She also co-founded the professional development series for alumnae and

is closely tied to the Donald McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship. She even hired one of Saint Ben’s first entrepreneur scholars. “The students I meet are just extraordinary,” she says.

microaggressions, which created a sense of separation from her fellow travelers.

Once again, Yemi opted for the active path.

She took the opportunity to raise her voice and create an awareness about the hostile culture she was encountering. She says it not only opened the eyes of the others on her trip, but bonded all of them closer together.

The value of a saint ben’s degree is directly tied to the caliber and diversity of the women who choose to spend time here.

And “extraordinary” is one of the few descriptors that we’re inclined to apply universally. That’s because the positive evolution of Saint Ben’s hinges on our refusal to narrowly define the Bennie identity.

Olayemi Fadahunsi ’18 was familiar with Saint Ben’s before she arrived on campus for her first year – her older brother attended Saint John’s and she had spent time on campus. And yet, familiarity didn’t translate to comfort – at least not right away. “In addition to adjusting to being at college, coming from my context as a first-generation college student and a woman of color, it was hard for me to call myself a Bennie. I didn’t have a negative connotation with the name at all, but I had a picture in my mind of who a Bennie was – and that wasn’t me.”

Yemi, as she’s known to friends, could have left. Instead, she owned her discomfort and took action. As she puts it, “I needed to find my purpose at Saint Ben’s.”

Yemi dove in head first. As an Intercultural LEAD scholar, she became very active with the program. She joined a variety of organizations on campus. She became an RA. She studied abroad. “After applying myself in various capacities, I felt like part of the school and was more able to resonate with what it means to be a Bennie.”

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

During her study abroad trip in London, Yemi was exposed to a culture ripe with

Now an alumna, Yemi can proudly say: “I’m a Bennie.” Not because she acquiesced to a pre-conceived notion of what that entailed, but because, in her words, “I was able to build up what it means to me to be a Bennie.” Yemi says she thinks it’s important that everyone is afforded the opportunity to decide for herself how they see themselves as a Bennie, and that starts with “being able to recognize all the diversity that falls under the name.”

Angie Schmidt Whitney ’97, CSB/SJU executive director of Experience and Professional Development, has spent years determining what being a Bennie means to her – beginning as a student, continuing over time while working at the University of Minnesota and in admission at CSB/SJU, and becoming clearer in her present work. Angie doesn’t see a Bennie as one particular type of person. Instead, to Angie, being a Bennie “is about the power of women, not only in terms of what we do, but also how we have the opportunity to create a variety of examples of what being a woman looks like, and celebrate them all. It’s about the individual, and it’s also about the collective voices.”

So, perhaps, there are a few descriptors.

Confident and capable. Extraordinary, to be sure. In these conversations with Judy, Olayemi and Angie, we also heard kind.

Hard-working. Strong. Powerful. Ready to challenge stereotypes. Prepared to take on the world.

Charles Schwab says her success stems in no small part from spending time at a school where “if there’s a need for a leadership position or someone to speak up, I couldn’t wait for a man to raise his hand. I needed to do it.” Terri and her Bennie friends have followed divergent paths, but they remain closely connected and share a bond forged from this uniquely female foundation.

For each of us, our participation in the Bennie sisterhood changes the nature of the sisterhood itself. Because you’re part of it, the Bennie identity has shifted accordingly.

Your story adds texture, richness, depth and value. Rather than be defined by the Bennie identity, you have helped to define it.

After applying myself in various capacities, I felt like part of the school and was more able to resonate with what it means to be a bennie.

Feeling empowered? That’s kind of the point. The reason Saint Ben’s is so wellpositioned to change the world is not because of some sort of institutionalized power; it is because of the individual and collective power of the many voices of the women within the Bennie community. As we continue to explore what it means to be a Bennie – and what it means to lead, to serve, to think critically, to act courageously, to advocate passionately – we invite you to share your voice, loud and proud. And of course, if we all sang in one pitch, it’d be pretty boring. It’s that harmony, that nuance, that fuels the masterpiece.

And of course, all Bennies have one element in common: They’re part of an institution devoted to women. That’s a crucial part of the identity, says Terri Giyan Kallsen ’90. The executive vice president at

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Proud To Be a Bennie Congratulations to each of these amazing women. They’re putting the lessons they learned at Saint Ben’s to good use and accomplishing remarkable things. They’re this year’s Reunion Award winners, and each of them proudly identifies as a “Bennie.”

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Molly Roske ’08 Decade Award When it came to leaving home to attend college, Collegeville, Minnesota, native Molly Roske ’08 didn’t have far to go. And yet, her path in 10 years since graduating from Saint Ben’s has taken her a long way from home – and left a remarkable impact. The environmental studies major headed to Alaska after graduation where she worked as an ecology interpreter.

Next, she volunteered at a conservation foundation in Ecuador, then with the Peace Corps in Guatemala.

After earning a graduate degree in forest ecology, Molly worked as a research associate throughout the U.S., helping improve understanding of how natural resource management could shift to accommodate the consequences of climate change. Molly felt a pull to take some of these approaches to other parts of the world, where even less eco-system science exists to support decision-makers.

In 2017, she returned to Ecuador and Fundación Cordillera Tropical – the foundation where she had served as a volunteer many years prior – this time, as the executive director. Molly has been at the foundation ever since, developing and directing projects that aim to bridge ecological conservation goals with rural livelihoods.

The foundation’s mission is ambitious, but Molly isn’t one to shy away from a challenge. In addition to her wholehearted commitment to the foundation’s purpose, Molly wants to “inspire others to go after their goals courageously and to be undeterred from exploring what most inspires them in life.”

Kate Ritger ’03

Colette Peters ’93

Judith Gretsch Schmid ’63

Benedictine Service Award

Distinguished Alumna Award

S. Emmanuel Renner Service Award

By all accounts, Kate Ritger ’03 is a solo entrepreneur of the highest order. All accounts, that is, except perhaps her own.

Kate isn’t falsely modest. Instead, she’s quick to acknowledge that her business ventures don’t exist in a vacuum. “The only reason the work I do succeeds is because there are people in the community who respond to it, receive it, accept it and choose to be part of it,” she says.

As director of the state of Oregon’s Department of Corrections, Colette Peters ’93 sits at the helm of a $1.8 billion organization with 4,700 employees. Colette is the first woman in Oregon’s history to hold the director title, and she’s one of just a few women in the same role nationwide.

The S. Emmanuel Renner Service Award is not bestowed every year but rather reserved for those individuals who have gone above and beyond with exceptional service to Saint Ben’s. S. Emmanuel herself was the one who encouraged Judy to return to Saint Ben’s to complete her studies after Judy pressed pause on her education to get married and raise a family.

Given what Kate offers – and the spirit in which she offers it – it’s not hard to convince her audience.

Kate manages an abundant garden (located right in St. Joseph) and uses it across multiple ventures. She cans her own fresh goods for sale, and she’s also at the helm of a burgeoning pizza business using her homegrown fresh ingredients. Her mission goes far beyond growing and selling food.

She’s driven by a strong commitment to social justice and is committed to building community and facilitating access to thoughtfully grown, nourishing foods.

And that’s not the only way she nourishes her community. Kate also works part-time as a chaplain at the St. Cloud Hospital, providing solace to those who need it most.

So Kate is a solo entrepreneur on paper, but in practice she’s a humble servant of a community that has given so much to her. It just so happens that her method of service is compassionate and delicious.

What led to her extraordinary success in this male-dominated field? Colette is one of seven children, six of whom are women.

She says, “One of the best feminists I ever met was my father, who convinced us all that we could do whatever we wanted to do.” Then she arrived at Saint Ben’s, which further underscored that notion. “At Saint Ben’s I was surrounded by all these amazing women who wanted to be leaders, to be agents of change, and who wanted to support each other.” Colette left Saint Ben’s with such confidence that she admits to being a bit baffled by the sexism and inequality she later encountered.

Rather than let that pushback deter her, Colette drew on her strong foundation and pushed forward – not only working hard to challenge and advance herself but also to serve as an advocate for others. “One of my passions is teaching the world about corrections. Research has shown us that if you treat these individuals like humans, like the Rule of Saint Benedict, they will come back to us and they will be good neighbors. When I look at the core values that I took on from Saint Ben’s, so many of them resonate with our mission today: justice, needing to care for our neighbor, cultivating a sense of community and a sense of peace – it all fits in.”

Judy did finish her degree, and that was just one chapter in her extraordinary relationship with Saint Ben’s. Judy stayed very active with the college over the following decades.

As she achieved success as co-owner (with her husband Terry) of Avon-based Lumber One, Judy made a conscious effort to spread opportunity to others. And in 2004, the Schmids established the Terry J. and Judith Gretsch Schmid Endowed Scholars Fund at Saint Ben’s with a pledge for $1 million. They fulfilled that pledge, and it is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Judy’s donations have made it possible for 103 women to receive multi-year scholarships to Saint Ben’s.

If you ask Judy, the gifts she has given to Saint Ben’s are a natural extension of her experience here. “The atmosphere at Saint Ben’s is one of respect, kindness and enrichment,” she says. “From graduation, we leave here with skills, knowledge and a newfound sense of esteem. We are ready to help others be good citizens of the world.

It is my privilege and honor to give back to this institution of higher learning!”

Summer 2018 | 15

TEAM

EMBRACING OUR INCLUSIVE HERITAGE

BY BEING BENNIES BY | GREG SKOOG (SJU ’89)

16 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

IN THE FALL OF 1973, COLLEGE OF SAINT BENEDICT WOMEN STARTED COMPETING IN INTERCOLLEGIATE VOLLEYBALL. THAT WINTER WAS THE BASKETBALL TEAM’S FIRST SEASON. SWIMMING, TENNIS AND SOFTBALL FOLLOWED SOON AFTER. In those days just after Title IX became law, this was exciting and new – uncharted territory – for Saint Ben’s and for most of women’s athletics. To take those first steps onto those fields, to build those teams and to let the world know that CSB was here to play, we needed courageous, strong and bold trailblazing pioneers.

Blazers have represented Saint Ben’s for over 40 years. And over that time, the number of women participating in college athletics in America has risen by 545 percent, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. Blazers have produced 77 All-Americans (individual and relay), 26 Academic All-Americans, two Academic All-American Players of the Year and two NCAA Division III Woman of the Year (Top 30) finalists. For the 2017-18 academic year, the student-athlete GPA at Saint Ben’s was 3.447.

Our student-athletes are remarkable. But they’re the only Blazers on campus.

Mary Haffner Bonnell ’80 saw that. As a first-year student, she spent a short time with the basketball team before realizing she couldn’t juggle the time commitment.

She knew the women involved, their vision, and what they were up to. So when a contest was announced to select a name for the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams, she was ready with the answer: Blazers.

“I did feel like we were blazing into new territory, like pioneers. That was part of my thoughts on it,” remembers Bonnell. “The other part was that the name had to ‘sing.’

It had to roll off the tongue. ‘CSB Blazers’ captured the spirit I felt for the atmosphere and the school, and it flowed easily for game cheers and fan shout-outs.”

Summer 2018 | 17

IDENTITY CRISIS Kelly Mahlum ’93 is the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. During the 1992-93 season, she was a first-team All-American Blazer basketball player. “Being a Blazer meant I was strong, confident, competitive, and I did not apologize for who I was as an athlete. I was part of something bigger than myself. I still believe those things,” she says. “What I did not understand at the time is that Blazer was related only to the student-athletes at Saint Ben’s. In my mind, everyone was a Blazer. I certainly am about inclusivity and equal representation, and I would want the entire campus to feel that they are a part of the team.”

Our trailblazing athletes had led the way.

But along the way, had they separated themselves? “I have been a Bennie since 1989,” says CSB Athletic Director Glen Werner ’93. Werner played on four NCAA tournament-qualifying basketball teams, including a Sweet 16 and a Final Four. “I have been a Blazer since 1989 as well. I feel heavily invested in both [Bennies and Blazers] for very different reasons.”

WE NEED STRONG FEMALES IN THIS WORLD WHO ARE INSPIRED TO CHANGE HOW THE WORLD SEES OUR STRENGTH. It got to be a little confusing. “About seven years ago our Athletic Department went through a routine program review,” explains Mary Geller, CSB’s vice president of student development. “At the time, our outside reviewer told us flatly: ‘You have an identity crisis. Who are you? Are you CSB? Bennies?

18 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

Or Blazers? I know you believe in the Trinity, but in this case you’ve got to pick one.’ ” That review identified a gap in people attending events. Focus group testing revealed that one reason non-athletes were not attending was because non-athletes did not identify as Blazers. “‘Come out and support Blazers (which you are not)’ is a different message entirely than ‘Come out and stand together as Bennies,’” Geller explains. “That was the beginning of our reflecting on who we are and why it matters.”

TODAY WE NEED BENNIES Right now, our five-year goals, identified in Strategic Directions 2020 (SD2020), emphasize the holistic and transformational development of women. In that context, our SD2020 goals call us to “extend our leadership and distinction on athletic excellence and wellness.” Through facilities and programs, Saint Ben’s is working to get as many women as possible engaged in athletics at whatever level is right for them – varsity, club, intramural or recreational.

Each year, between 250 and 275 CSB women participate in six club sports at Saint Ben’s (dance, lacrosse, rugby, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball and figure skating) and two joint club programs with Saint John’s (Nordic skiing and crew). Between fall and spring, at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s, there are as many as 850 Saint Ben’s students in women’s and co-rec intramural programs. The opportunities for participation are definitely here.

“In the beginning we needed trailblazing pioneers, but today we need role models,” explains Werner. “We need student-athletes to do what Saint Ben’s students have done for over 100 years – let their lights shine.

We need leaders to illuminate the trails the Blazers have made.”

And that’s what we’re getting. An evolution is underway now – starting with uniforms, then appearing in signage and now in new facilities. In newly branded materials, our teams compete as Saint Benedict.

WHAT’S AT STAKE? When it comes down to it, when we talk about role models and one team and encouraging every woman to participate in athletic activity at a level that’s right for her…. What does it matter?

WOMEN’S SPORTS FOUNDATION Girls who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem than girls who don’t play sports.

Women without sports experience are disadvantaged in a work setting. One reason is that they don’t have practice with an important skill that successful players learn through sports: practicing the illusion of confidence. Evidently there’s a lot to be said for faking it till you make it.

ERNST & YOUNG Surveyed over 800 executives at American companies with annual revenue of over $250 million.

A MEANINGFUL TRANSITION “Let me tell you what this (transition) is not,” says Geller. “This is not about ‘retiring’ Blazers. We will always have a significant number of alumnae who identify as Blazers, and rightly so.”

For decades, student-athletes at Saint Ben’s have worked extremely hard above and beyond their classroom commitments. They tried out, offered up their best and were selected above the rest. They earned the right to be called Blazers. “This is not a flip-of-the-switch situation,” Geller continues. “We will always have Blazers and we have always been Bennies. Therefore, this is a process of cultural change.”

While Mahlum admits the transition will be tough for her, she has good reasons to be on board. “The definition that was used for the word ‘Bennie’ was much different [in the early ’90s] than what

I hope and believe it stands for now. It had a negative connotation and one that I definitely did not appreciate. I believe today’s definition has a new narrative. We need strong females in this world who are inspired to change how the world sees our strength. I would want my daughters to be a part of that new narrative that stands for breaking through barriers and excelling in arenas that have typically limited women.”

96%

of women in a C-suite position had played team sports growing up – 55 percent at a university level.

72%

of women agreed that women with a sports background work more effectively in teams than those without.

THE GALLUP-PURDUE INDEX Measures outcomes of higher education.

They found that former college athletes – particularly women – are more likely to fare well after graduation on various measures.

53%

of female former student-athletes are thriving in their social wellbeing (defined as having strong, supportive relationships and love in one’s life), compared with 48 percent of female non-athletes, 52 percent of male former athletes and 44 percent of male non-athletes.

47%

of female former student-athletes are thriving in their physical wellbeing (defined as having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis), compared with 33 percent of female non-athletes, 36 percent of male former athletes and 32 percent of male non-athletes.

ONE TEAM “What I love about this is that we are ALL Bennies,” says Geller. “Whether we are artists or athletes, social justice advocates or entrepreneurs, we can all embrace Bennie. It brings us together and allows us to cheer each other on.”

Summer 2018 | 19

It’s Time

Shine to

BY | KELLY SMITH ’08

Look through the archives of Saint Benedict’s Monastery and the College of Saint Benedict and you’ll find countless cases where the Bennie identity is championed by us, defined for us, hurled at us and refined through us.

So what makes now the time to declare it?

C

ollege is now – and always has been – a time of discovery.

So it’s no surprise that, for the last 105 years, College of Saint Benedict students have pushed to define themselves. As a college built by women, for women, thousands have filled these halls and debated what it means to be a woman, a student, a Benedictine, an athlete, a leader, a friend…. What it means to be a Bennie.

“People are having more of a voice,” says Nicole Bauer Scherck ’16. In 2015, she led a grassroots video campaign to declare the Bennie identity. “I’m hoping the conversation keeps going.”

20 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

There may be no better time than now to keep that conversation going. Women across the U.S. are standing up to injustice and sexism in new ways. At the same time, women are creating and seizing new opportunities as they rise through the ranks of leadership – from corporate boardrooms to Congress. In 2017, there were more women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. than ever before, with 32 female CEOs making up 6.4 percent of all CEOs, according to Fortune magazine. This is progress, but far from equalizing the opportunities, recognition and advancements for women compared to male colleagues.

2017 MORE WOMEN CEOS IN FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES IN THE U.S. THAN EVER BEFORE

32 6.4% FEMALE CEOS

OF ALL CEOS

ACCORDING TO FORTUNE MAGAZINE.

And alumnae at women’s colleges just may have a leg up on success. According to the Women’s College Coalition, graduates are almost twice as likely to complete a graduate degree as their peers at public universities. They also are more likely to feel prepared for life after college, to highly rate their college’s ability at helping them learn to be a leader, and to highly rate their college’s effectiveness in helping them develop self-confidence and initiative.

Blazers & Bennie Buses

At Saint Ben’s, women have embraced these advantages – and are becoming more vocal about them.

In the 1970s and 1980s, CSB thrived, tripling its enrollment, adding buildings and growing athletics around the Blazer mascot. Some students were glad for a new name, with one writing in 1983 in The Cable (the CSB newspaper at the time) that the connotations of a Bennie “are an embarrassment to everyone who admits she is a member of the CSB community.”

Other students countered it was time to take pride in the Bennie name.

“There seems to be a lot of good energy around this right now,” says Jody Terhaar, the dean of students. “We want to be very clear about who we are as a college for women, and the conversation about what it means to be a Bennie is part of that.”

When she started working at Saint Ben’s 20 years ago, Terhaar says students didn’t wear shirts stamped with the Bennie name. Now, the bookstore is filled with Bennie-branded gear and the name is not just being used more visibly on campus but off-campus as well. “It’s been around forever,” Terhaar says of the Bennie name. “What has changed is people embracing the name … with greater enthusiasm and positivity.”

Taking pride in the success of Saint Ben’s is about more than just selling shirts. It’s about elevating the college’s reputation.

Our current five-year plan (Strategic Directions 2020) strives to make Saint Ben’s nationally recognized for our liberal arts education for women.

Key objectives include enhancing the identity and community here at CSB, as well as developing and advancing a cohesive brand identity with Saint John’s University that supports and defines the colleges separately and together.

It wasn’t always easy for Bennies to claim their identity.

Since the 1960s, when Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s started developing this coordinate relationship, the two campuses have successfully navigated co-ed education, while also championing their single-sex campuses – and the distinct experience that brings.

Kelly Althoff Cheramy ’86 was one of them. While she was initially drawn to CSB through her family’s connections to SJU (four brothers attended), she soon noticed major inequalities such as Johnnies not wearing CSB sweatshirts, Saint John’s hosting most joint events and SJU’s reputation linked to iconic places such as Lake Sagatagan or the Stella Maris Chapel.

“Saint Ben’s has an enormous amount going for it – being a women’s college is its greatest asset – but in comparison to

Saint John’s, we appear to be ‘less,’” she wrote at the time. “We can strengthen what we have in Saint Ben’s ... or we can be content in sharing.”

Now, 35 years later, she says that moment was a pivotal point in developing her confidence in CSB. “It was this awakening of finding yourself,” Cheramy reflects.

By 1994, the Bennie Bus she rode between campuses was renamed The Link. And by 2000, a new Bennie generation was continuing the conversation. Before Homecoming that year, Dana Kelly Fitzpatrick ’02 noticed there were no events just for CSB students.

“Traditionally, [Homecoming] is all about football,” she explains. “It’s not a truly accessible event for women.”

As the Senate president at the time, she rushed to plan a BBQ, where they sold 1,000 light blue t-shirts for $1.75 each, scrolled with a curvy “Bennies” script.

Turns out, it wasn’t a hard sell. “Half the school came,” Fitzpatrick recalls. “We didn’t anticipate how popular it would be.”

That was the first Bennie Day – an annual tradition that continues nearly two decades later and has expanded to include alumnae events nationwide. Revealing the affordably priced new “Bennies” t-shirt each year is still a rite of fall. “[Bennie Day] is a really cool tradition,” Fitzpatrick says now. “It’s something everyone can rally around.”

That’s become even more relevant recently as we embrace the Bennie identity for athletes and all students.

“People feel a need for a more complex, sophisticated and broadly inclusive way of talking about what it means to be a Bennie,” Terhaar says. “And to me that is exciting.”

Summer 2018 | 21

The Spark of a Bennie

“It was kind of a challenge,” Bly says, looking back. “Was it an image? We circled back ... to people.”

As popular as those t-shirts became, there was still a noticeable imbalance when it came to logowear on campus. Whether this indicated a deep hesitance by women to identify as CSB students (and men to identify as CSB supporters) or not, thenPresident MaryAnn Baenninger decided to address it in 2007.

Her request seemed simple enough. If student workers at CSB chose to wear logoed clothing, it should be a CSB logo rather than SJU. “Our identity is important,” Baenninger noted in her state of the college address in 2007. “Not everyone knows what [CSB] stands for. If people don’t know who we are, [students] won’t come here.”

The result: a photo of five Bennies with a message about traits such as community and leadership. It concluded: “we will not forget where we came from.” Unlike iconic campus places, she says, what resonated more was the supportive community of strong, hard-working women.

“Saint Ben’s really prides itself in it,” Bly says. “We may all be from different backgrounds, but we are always here for each other.”

results – such as the fact sexism correlates with some of the findings, showing that gender norms and stereotypes play a deeper role – were met with hostility.

But the move set off a broader dispute about a so-called Bennie “identity crisis.”

“CSB students do not have a concrete sense of what it means to be a Bennie, whereas SJU students do have a sense of what it means to be a Johnnie,” an editorial in The Record opined at the time.

“It goes way beyond our schools,” she says now about the reaction. “It’s about socialized gender expectations.”

That year, psychology professor Pam Bacon presented results of a study on the issue, confirming what many students had observed for years: women equally identified with both schools much more often than Johnnies, who were more likely to identify solely with SJU. Surprisingly, Bacon says that the

That summer, as crews finished up construction of the new Gorecki Dining Center, Emily Pearson Bly ’08 and Elizabeth Laurie Harriman ’08 were working in the marketing and communications office and given a timely mission: create a banner for the center that illuminated what it means to be a Bennie.

While Baenninger’s push may not have been understood by some students at the time, Bly says that, looking back, it empowered women on campus. “There’s a spark and a drive when I meet other Bennies” she explains. “There’s no one image of a Bennie, but there’s a spirit."

Changing Times On CSB soccer fields eight years later, Nicole Bauer Scherck ’16 and her teammates faced their own challenge: How could women’s teams get more fans in the stands? Scherck, who was also on the Senate, saw the answer in uniting the community around the Bennie name. She launched her video campaign in 2015, putting together short vignettes of students sharing what they liked about CSB. “We weren’t bashing Saint John’s, but we are two separate institutions,” she says.

This year, as Saint Benedict Athletics begins identifying as Bennies, CSB will no longer be split between athletes and non-athletes. “Everyone’s a Bennie now,” Scherck confirms.

There are other signs of progress. Bacon did a follow-up study in 2013 and found that Bennies identified more with Saint Ben’s than with just Saint John’s or CSB/SJU, compared to their peers in 2005. (Johnnies also were less likely in 2013 compared to 2005 to say they were completely a Johnnie and more likely to say they were equally a Bennie and a Johnnie.) In 2013 there were more Bennies wearing CSB-branded clothing than there were in 2005.

“There’s a massive shift; we have many more [students] identifying as a Bennie,” Bacon says of the changes. “The reputations of the schools are more equal now.”

That showed Bacon that the divide between CSB and SJU students’ pride in their campuses has narrowed. “It’s no longer the little sister, but partners,” Bacon says. “That is a change.”

Today, CSB’s enrollment has surpassed SJU’s. The college’s endowment is growing. The campus community has become more diverse. For recent graduates like Magnolia Ditzler ’18, there’s a lot to be proud of. But there’s still more work to be done.

This year, in a survey of students and alumnae, student scholars at the Sister Nancy Hynes Institute for Women’s Leadership found that women who aren’t heterosexual, white or Minnesota natives still feel excluded from the Bennie image.

While top words to describe the average Bennie were “smart” and “strong,” the top social identity words were “white” and “Catholic.”

“It leaves a lot of people out,” says Ditzler, who was the center’s student director. “It’s very hard to be yourself, let alone be a Bennie.”

Moving forward, Mary Catherine Steenberge ’18 says it will help to increase inclusive efforts on campus and continue to spread a message that being a Bennie is less about physical traits and more about shared internal values. Steenberge was the CSB Senate President for the 2017-18 academic year.

In fact, enhancing inclusivity, identity and community are key parts of the college’s five-year Strategic Directions 2020 goals. And just this year, CSB received a $600,000 grant from the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support initiatives focused on inclusivity and community-building. That gives recent graduates like Steenberge hope for the future of all Bennies.

Now is an excellent time for students and alumnae of the College of Saint Benedict to rise up and let their lights shine. “It’s not just a nickname for our school – it’s who we are,” Steenberge says. “If you go to this school, you’re a Bennie and you take pride in that.”

Summer 2018 | 23

2018

RE CAP Nearly 1,500 Bennie and Johnnie alums packed both campuses last month for Reunion 2018. Good friends gathered to celebrate their connections with each other, with their college and with this community we share.

24 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

P

We are so happy to have you back home and so very proud of all you have accomplished…. For over 100 years, since the sisters founded us, our mission of educating women has been relevant and compelling. Now, we need a nation of women to carry out and carry on that vision and mission.

A nation of women led and inspired by you. We need a #Bennienation.”

Mary Dana Hinton CSB President

My hope for all of us is to own our Benniehood. To own being enough. Because we are enough.

Run your race and become your own champion.”

Emily Coborn ’08 Alumna speaker

Lord … we thank you for the wisdom we gained here, the friendships we made here and the faith we refined here.”

Josephine Zehnle Terwey ’39 Offering the blessing during Reunion Kick-Off

Saint Ben’s was one of the transformative moments of my life. We were honestly taught to believe we could do anything we wanted after college – and that was revolutionary at a time when women only had three ‘acceptable’ options: nurse, teacher or homemaker. We made so many important connections here and we were challenged academically, spiritually and socially.”

From the class of 1968 Golden Anniversary Class Conversation

Summer 2018 | 25

I’M A BENNIE

’11 RACHEL PETERSON BUILDING A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE When most people think back to their college days, researching and writing term papers isn’t usually a nostalgic memory. But for Rachel Peterson, those papers were a stepping stone to the work she does every day as an architectural historian.

“There are two main aspects to my job,” says Rachel. “One is researching buildings and other types of resources in the built environment – like bridges or designed landscapes – to determine if they are historic. The research and writing piece is my favorite part of the job, because that’s where you get to learn and share the story behind a place. The other big part of my work is advising architects, engineers and developers about how to renovate historic buildings while keeping what’s special about them.

I’ve worked on a couple of buildings that started off in a sorry state – just horribly run down and vacant – and by the end, our project team had brought them back to life.”

26 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

After graduating from Saint Ben’s, Rachel completed her master’s in historic preservation at the University of Vermont.

“Because historic preservation is such a niche field, I had to slog through about a year of applying for jobs before I landed in my current position in Minneapolis,” she says.

That perseverance led to a rewarding career that gives Rachel access to places and stories that would otherwise be lost in time. Ordinary industrial buildings, prisons and lumberyards may not look like much to the casual observer, but to Rachel, that historic diversity is part of what makes preservation exciting.

“There’s now more variety in the types of properties that are considered historic,” she says.

“Modern architecture was scorned a bit when the field first started, but now those buildings are getting attention. And other unassuming buildings that are important, for example, to the history of people of color or the LGBTQ community are finally being recognized.”

Major at CSB History and gender studies, minor in art history

First-year residence hall Aurora

Favorite course/professor My favorite courses were the two women’s history classes taught by Martha Tomhave Blauvelt. She and Beth Wengler are tied for my favorite professor; both of those women gave me great guidance.

How has your Saint Ben’s education influenced your career?

Saint Ben’s taught me how to learn, and I draw on that every day. Most of the buildings I work on are part of a history that I don’t know much about at the start, but I know how to learn about it.

What does being a Bennie mean to you?

To me, there’s a genuine kindness that underpins being a Bennie. The Bennies I’ve met on campus and beyond have, by and large, been some of the most welcoming and

respectful women I know. When I was getting ready to move to Vermont, my dad and I visited Burlington to scout out apartments. There was a Bennie alumna teaching at UVM and I sent her an email on a whim to ask if she had any advice on moving to Vermont.

I was hoping for an email in response, but instead, she spent an afternoon with us showing me around town and answering my questions – all because we were both Bennies and she wanted to help. I think her generosity exemplified the Bennie spirit and proved to me how lucky I am to be part of the CSB community.

I also think there’s a fierceness to Bennies that can get overlooked. I spent two years at the Institute for Women’s Leadership on campus where I worked with some truly impressive women who wanted to engage our campus community in challenging conversations. Since graduation, I’ve known so many Bennies who dove head-first into grad school or careers or passion projects that they’re incredibly dedicated to.

I’ve also volunteered on the Alumnae Board the past two years and have met a wide age-range of Bennies who prove there’s an independence and a determined spirit that’s always been a part of Saint Ben’s women.

CLASS NOTES

Nancy Richtsmeier Breyen is the 1994

CORRECTION n page 11 of our Spring 2018 issue, O we listed Bernie Elhard ’82 as an assistant professor of nutrition. We apologize for that – she is, in fact, a tenured associate professor.

Programs Facilitator at Feed My Starving Children, Coon Rapids Minn., Oct. ’17.

2 003 Andrea Bennett to Ryan Bacon, Aug. ’12 Rebecca Roth to Thomas Richardson, 2005 Sept. ’05

1995 Margaret McGlinch won the 2018 STAATS Awards, Feb. ’18.

1998 Heather Wolney Thompson received the

Exemplary Leadership Award at the Willmar Lake Chamber of Commerce, March ’18.

MILESTONES 1948

’48

1999

hannon Slaikeu Horstman is an HR S Specialist II at the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services, St. Paul, Minn., March ’18.

hannon Roers Jones, North Dakota S State Representative, was appointed to a task force to evaluate North Dakota’s higher education system.

2012 Katherine Tomten earned a master’s

degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, May ’18. & Weddings Manager for the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minn.

EILEEN OPATZ BERGER

and daughter Joan Berger Bachman coauthored a book “If Only You Would Ask: A guide to Spending Quality Time with the Elderly” published, Dec. ’17.

E rin Wissler Gerdes earned a master’s degree in public service administration from Marquette University, May ’17.

Yehua (Callie) Yao is a Marketing Operations Analyst at Deserve in San Francisco, Calif.

1983

’05

Carissa Pfarr Burns is a Meetings, Events 2014

Josephine Nistler entered University of 2017 Minnesota Duluth Medical School, class of 2022.

MARRIAGES 2001

LAURA STEINKRAUS TO MAHLON RHANEY III, JULY ’17 2007

Johanna Moss to Chad Moerke, Sept. ’15

Kiersten Gjerstad to Andy Dolan, Nov. ’17

2008

Sarah Eisenschenk to Daniel McKay, Sept. ’17

Clare Barrowman to Casey Murray, 2009 June ’12

Jenna Uselman to Dana Damm, Aug. ’17

Jenna Miller to Cody Edlund, Sept. ’17 2010

Brianne Boardman to David Rosenstock, Sept. ’17

Hannah Balder to Benjamin Bauer ’11, 2011 Sept. ’17

Chelsie Roberge to JJ Griesinger, May ’16

Colleen Cummings to Taylor Gunkel, 2012 July ’17

’83

Samantha Larsen to Bryce Rushmeyer, Sept. ’15

Kristin Donner to Adam Weber ’12, Aug. ’17

JANET SETTER DRYER was named one of the Most Admired CEOs by the Twin Cities Business Journal, March ’18.

1985

L isa Fobbe is the chairwoman of the Sherburne County Board of Commissioners in Sherburne County, Minn.

Elizabeth Madden Ogren is the owner of Pedal & Roll, a non-profit organization that promotes activity for those living with Parkinson’s Disease.

Jean Trautt Oseko earned a master’s 1986

2013

Laura Nicklay to Alex Bilski, Oct. ’18

Kayla Blevins to Tony Dube, Feb. ’18

Marissa Gillespie to Aaron Haakonson ’11, Oct. ’17

’01

JENNIFER PATNODE TO BRADLEY TRASK, DEC. ’17

degree in special education from Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn., Dec. ’17.

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 2018 | 27

CLASS NOTES

2014

’14

ERIN WISSLER TO HARRIS J. GERDES ’14, NOV. ’17 2015

Sarah Lindenfelser to Taylor McAlpine ’16, Oct. ’17

Annie Gorman to Alex Toninato ’15, Jan. ’18

2016

Kassandra Gall to Benjamin Brown ’16, Sept. ’17

BIRTHS/ADOPTIONS Dawn Mosbrucker & Paul Hanscom, boy, 2000 Samuel, March ’16

Teresa Kerres Schicker & Nick Schicker ’01, boy, Isaac, Feb. ’18 Katie Kaproth Dufault & Michael Dufault, 2001 girl, Annabel, Oct. ’17

’14

L INDSEY WEBER TO MATTHEW MARTIEN ’14, JUNE ’17 28 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

’16

HAY EBBA TO BRADLEY S RONALED ROLES WOLLUM, OCT. ’16

L arissa Omann Mrozek & Kyle Mrozek ’01, girl, Scarlett Mae, April ’18

Sarah Halverson Gasparick & Travis 2002 Gasparick, boy, Caden, April ’18

Kristen Howa Madrigal & Domingo Madrigal, girl, Kathryn, March ’18

CLASS NOTES

Roxanne Tchida Haggerty & Patrick 2004 Haggerty ’04, girl, Neala, Aug. ’17

esiree Sanner Murphy & Nicholas D Murphy, girl, Lucille, April ’18

Jodi Johnson Carreon & Ryan 2005

Carreon ’06, boy, Grant, Jan. ’18

Nicole Pagliaccetti Phillipich & Jeff Phillipich, boy, Joseph, Feb. ’18

2006

’06

RACHEL ISTAS PRUDHOMME & NICK PRUDHOMME ’06, TWIN BOYS, MATTHEW & WILLIAM, JUNE ’17

’06

EATHER HAMPTON ALEMU H & MATTHEW ALEMU, GIRL, ELLA, OCT. ’17

Gail Anderson & Bret Anderson, boy, Thomas, April ’17

Kelly May Brahn & Mike Brahn, girl, Addison, July ’17

Sarah Spaanem Foehrenbacher & Matt Foehrenbacher ’06, boy, Maxwell, March ’18

eather Novak Johnson & Daniel H Johnson, girl, Hannah, Oct. ’15 & boy, Elliot, Nov. ’17

Katie Kalkman & Gabriel Harren ’10, boy, Edison, March ’18

Valerie Durand Kovachevich & Rudy Kovachevich, girl, Mila, Oct. ’11 & girl, Annalise, July ’14

Patricia Nolan Meling & Capt. Shaun Meling ’05, boy, Asher, April ’18 Amy Fiedler Kramer & Daniel Kramer, 2007 girl, Layla, April ’18

Rachel Enge, girl, Maya, Jan. ’18

Amanda Dunlap Gabiou & Christopher 2008 Gabiou ’08, boy, Boden, Jan. ’18

Kathryn Young Gasser & Brian Gasser ’06, boy, Brekken, March ’18

E mily Sandberg Mayerhofer & John Mayerhofer ’08, boy, Noah, March ’18

Katie Peterson & Tim Kennealy ’08, boy, Francis, Jan. ’18

’08

JESSIE MADER CAVAZOS & ADAM CAVAZOS, GIRL, THEODORA, DEC. ’17 Summer 2018 | 29

CLASS NOTES

Charlotte McGuire Bjoraker & Derek 2009 Bjoraker, girl, Lucy, Aug. ’17

Brooke Peterson Nohner & Karl Nohner ’09, girl, Julia, Jan. ’18

2010

Andrea Millerbernd Huschle & Jason Huschle, girl, Eden, April ’18

2011

tacy Skroch Underhill & Benjamin S Underhill ’10, boy, Harrison, Sept. ’17

Michelle Peltz Hoffmann & Jason 2012

Hoffmann ’08, boy, John, March ’18

Anna Martin Larson & Peter Larson ’08, girl, Eleanor, Feb. ’18

Mary Ann Dawson Stewart, Jan. ’18 1944 1949 Margaret Ryan Greco, Feb. ’18 1951 Jovita Beste Baker, Feb. ’18 1953 Eileen Lund, April ’18 1956 S. Miriam Mary Ardolf, OSB, Feb. ’18 Darlene Bechtold, Feb. ’18 1957 1957 James Grossman, spouse of Margaret Schuster Grossmann, father of Dina Grossman Dubeaux ’80, Judith Grossman Griffin ’81, Annette Grossman Rabusch ’84 & Mary Grossman Scavotto ’97, April ’17

Jeanne O’Fallon Hynes, Nov. ’17 1957

Donald Reisdorf ’58, spouse of Caroline Klein Reisdorf, April ’18 Donald Hamling, spouse of MaDonna 1958 DeZiel Hamling, Feb. ’18

Daniel Daly, spouse of Patricia Schlegel 1959 Daly, father of Mary Daly Doherty ’86, Jan. ’18

William Wertzler, spouse of Mary Ellen Hunt Wertzler, Jan. ’18 Eugene Hermanutz, spouse of Mary Ann 1960 Schmit Hermanutz, Jan. ’18

S. Shirley Frandrup, OSB, Jan. ’18 1961

Carlotta Virnig, mother of Lora Virnig Cracraft ’90, March ’18 Thomas Dosdall, spouse of Annella 1963

’10

Zervas Dosdall, March ’18

HAYLEY BERRISFORD MUELLER ’10 & KYLE MUELLER, GIRL, LUCY, APRIL ’18

Wayne Mahan, spouse of Bernadette Wojcik Mahan, March ’18

1964 S. Magdalen Schwab, OSB, Jan. ’18 Rosamond Meyer, mother of Carol 1965

Meyer Hergott & Joanne Meyer Cole ’66, Eleanor Meyer Doherty ’68, Susan Meyer Munshower ’87, Jan. ’18

1965 Judith Kittleson Kearney, Feb. ’18 Julia Szulerecki, mother of Bonnie 1966 Brezinski Friske, April ’18

Frank Anderson Jr., father of Barbara 1972

’10

’10

J OY POHLAND JANSSEN & TIMOTHY JANSSEN ’10, BOY, LOUIS, MARCH ’18 Marita Vievering Schmitz & Joshua Schmitz, girl, Lucia, April ’18

2014

Kara Solberg Brink & Boe Brink ’10, boy, Elliot, Feb. ’18 Stephanie Theobald Broughton & 2011

Aaron Broughton, boy, Ladd, April ’18

Ashley Studniski Kibutha & James Kimeu ’09, boy, Bakari, March ’18

30 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

Anderson Heinz & Teresa Anderson ’82, Jan. ’18

Mildred Blesener, mother of Rose Blesener, April ’18

MANDY LIBBESMEIER KRIPPNER & MARK KRIPPNER, BOY, ROWAN, DEC. ’17

Shirley Brusseau, mother of Mary Brusseau Sellner, Peg Brusseau Cox ’76 & Brigid Brusseau Borka ’84, Feb. ’17

atie Kronzer Paul & Willie Paul ’13, K boy, Penn, Feb. ’18

Steven Kulenkamp, spouse of Elizabeth 1973

DEATHS 1942

Patricia Coyne O’Doughtery, March ’18

S. Arles Silbernick, OSB, March ’18

Marion Jacobs Fahey, mother of Mary 1944 Fahey Piehl ’69, Feb. ’18

J ohn Sellner ’72, spouse of Mary Brusseau Sellner, Jan. ’18 Spahl Kulenkamp, father of Margaret Kulenkamp Mitchell ’00, Jan. ’17

Marie Hesse, mother of Catherine Hesse Plantenberg, Feb. ’18

CLASS NOTES

Jo White, mother of Catherine White, 1975

Jane White Schneeweis ’76, Margaret White ’80, Mary White Frey ’80 & Judith White Jaffee ’81, Feb. ’18

Rita Berg, daughter of Theresa Meyer-Berg, March ’18 Peggy O’Brien Schley, spouse of Michael 1976 Schley ’76, mother of Renee Schley ’07, Maureen Schley ’09 & Erin Schley ’14, Feb. ’18

Warren Anderson, father of Susan Anderson Johnson, March ’18 George Sinner, father of Elizabeth Sinner Witt, March ’18 Lorraine Pumper, Jan. ’17 & Kenneth 1977 Pumper, Jan. ’18, parents of Mary Pumper Johnson

Kathleen Henkemeyer Sauer, mother of Mary Beth Sauer ’90 & Victoria Sauer Neff ’93, Feb. ’18 Richard Hageman, father of Denise 1978 Hageman Wozniak, April ’18

Phyllis Meredith, mother of Marcia 1979 Meredith, March ’18

Luella Wilhelm, mother of Ann Wilhelm Schleper & Mary Wilhelm Anderson ’84, Jan. ’18

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WOW!

Gregory Woessner, father of Cheryl 1980 Woessner Gerold, April ’18

Louis Filiatrault ’54, father of Ann Filiatrault McCann, April ’18 Joan Owens, mother of Nancy Owens, Dec. ’17

ORDER BEFORE AUGUST 10 AND ENJOY SPECIAL EARLY BIRD PERKS!

Herbert Hoppe, father of Linda Hoppe Youngdale, March ’18

1981

alph Torborg ’55, father of Julie R Torborg Hussey & Laura Torborg Kakach ’83, Jan. ’18

Ray Bowar, father of Mary Bowar Bobertz & Marcia Bowar Toombs ’84, Jan. ’18 Emil LaBuda, father of Karen LaBuda Woitas, April ’18 Edward Perrault, father of Margaret 1982 Perrault Knack, April ’18

John Holloran, father of Mary Halloran 1983 Bartek, April ’18

Dixie Settengren, mother of Jennifer Settengren Kajer, April ’18 Florence Smid, mother of Ruth Smid Schilmoeller, April ’18 Michael Brutger, son of Cynthia Bancroft 1984

THE PASSING ZONE September 8 • 7:30pm Escher Auditorium, CSB THE WAILIN’ JENNYS September 15 • 7:30pm Escher Auditorium, CSB TAIKOPROJECT September 22 • 7:30pm Escher Auditorium, CSB KAKI KING September 28 • 7:30pm Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, SJU

Brutger, Feb. ’18

Eugene Minea, father of Janet Minea, Jan. ’18

2018-2019

Audrey Ricci, mother of Maria Ricci Dols, Lese Ricci, Christi Ricci Schwegel ’87 & Lese Ricci ’89, March ’18 James Lissck, father of Jane Lissick Heider 1985 & Mary Kay Lissick Neubauer ’86, Jan. ’18

TO ORDER CALL 320-363-5777 OR VISIT CSBSJU.EDU/WOW

Summer 2018 | 31

CLASS NOTES

1985 Julie Kurvers, mother of Kathleen Kurvers

1989

Leone Jarvis, mother of Anne Jarvis, Feb. ’18

Crystal Ebnet, mother of Kelly Ebnet & 1992

Jim Ruble, father of Francie Ruble O’Brien & Kristin Ruble ’86, Dec. ’17

Henderson & Kerry Kurvers Putzke ’89, Jan. ’18

Duane Carlson, father of Judith Carlson 1986 Koller, Jan. ’18

Andrew Becker, father of Nancy Becker Waldbillig, March ’18 Dennis Frett, spouse of Ann Kesti Frett, 1987 Feb. ’18

Susan Elmquist, mother of Nancy Elmquist Quinlan, May ’18 Diane Niebolte, mother of Theresa 1988 Niebolte Anderson, Feb. ’18

Howard Rassier ’59, father of Rebecca Rassier, April ’18 Frances Sommo, mother of Amy Langer Kroeten, Feb. ’18 MaryAnn Krypel, mother of Kathy Krypel, Jan. ’18 John Coyne, father of Eileen Coyne Mead, April ’18 Richard Coller, father of Ruth Coller 1989 Forbes, Dec. ’17

aymond Cunningham ’67, father R of Angela Cunningham & Carrie Cunningham Svendahl ’92, April ’18 Kerry Ebnet Herker ’95, Feb. ’18 Nancy Stelzer Kabis, Feb. ’18

1993

J ohn Beutz ’93, spouse of Jennifer Broin Beutz, Jan. ’18

Robert Brenny, father of Amy Brenny Reuvers & Leah Brenny Ernste ’96, March ’18 Donald Groschen, father of Florence Groschen Harris & Corinne Groschen White, Jan. ’18 Joann Tuvey, mother of Sara Tuvey, Feb. ’18 Kay Holunga, mother of Cari Ann Holunga, 1994 Jan. ’18

Rita Klein, mother of Lori Klein Lieser, Feb. ’18 John Charles Loperfido, father of Gina 1995 Loperfido, March ’18

Rev. Noel Kropp, father of Sarah Kropp 1996

Almen & Jennifer Kropp ’00, Sept. ’17

Frank Gruska, father of Tory Gruska Van Halbeck, March ’18 Mary Beth Lawrence, mother of Kathryn 1997 Lawrence Boyle, Feb. ’18

Margaret Gerchman, mother of Beth Gerchman Doroff, Jan. ’18 Gail Schaefer Schulz, mother of Sara Schulz Michel, March ’18 Lester Layton Jr., father of Jennifer 1998 Layton Arnold, Jan. ’18

Ronald Carlson, father of GaVae Carlson Piner, April ’18 Michael Fastner ’70, father of Sarah 1999 Fastner, Jan. ’18

Barbara Bangsund, mother of Aleisha Bangsund Starken, April ’18 Charlotte Jean Turek, mother of Shanna 2001 Turek Bradley, March ’18

Margaret Marrone, mother of Deborah 2003 Marrone, Feb. ’18

JoAnn Haakonson Seal, mother of Stacy Haakonson Lund, Jan. ’18

Harold Keske, father of Shaundra Keske 2006

Michael Wahlin, father of Chrystal Wahlin Collins & Coral Wahlin Simones ’99, Jan. ’18

Owen Johnson, son of Heather Novak Johnson & Daniel Johnson, May ’14

Heimermann, Jan. ’18

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.

32 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

CLASS NOTES

Brian Weis, father of Amanda Weis 2008 McGivern, Jan. ’18

William Krueger ’75, father of Elizabeth 2009 Krueger Betterley, April ’18

Joseph Wegner, father of Jennifer Wegner Swinson, March ’18 Mary Balder, mother of Hannah 2011 Balder Bauer, Feb. ’18

2012 Irene Coran, mother of Carmen Bernu, Jan. ’18

Julia Jo Arns, daughter of Brianna Barrett 2014 Arns, March ’18

John Hendrickson, father of Monica 2015 Hendrickson, Feb. ’18

Lorie Siebels, mother of Katrina Siebels & Maria Siebels ’20, March ’18 April Myers, mother of Megan Myers, 2017 April ’18

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

REALLY? 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/

KNOW SOMEONE WHO’LL

LOOK GREAT IN RED? Referring a student is one of the best ways you can help build the CSB/SJU tradition. If you know a high school student who would make a great Bennie or Johnnie, let us know by filling out the Student Referral form on our website. As an added bonus, we’ll send them a voucher for a t-shirt that they can redeem during a campus visit.

Go to www.spreadred.com to help dress someone for a lifetime of success.

Summer 2018 | 33

BENNIE CONNECTION

1

2

1. B ennies celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day this spring with a parade in Naples, Florida.

L to R: Camille Schoen Flicek ’76, Barbara Hall ’76, Lori-Jo Fergle ’76, Barb Torborg Melsen ’79, Lori Burns Sullivan ’76, Annette Hendrick ’79, LeAnne Matthews Stewart ’87, Patty Bartholomew ’79.

2. Amy Olson, nutrition professor at CSB/SJU, celebrated her retirement with former students, March ’18. L to R: Katie Kasner ’08, Camille Skarvan ’08, Amy Olson, Melissa Viane Nelson ’08 and Kaylen James Jackson ’08.

1

3. A mpusam Symonette ’00 (L) and Helena Neilly ’99 (R) enjoyed an evening at the Presidents’ Reception in Nassau.

3

4

5

6

4. O ver 50 volunteers from the 4 and 9 classes gathered for the joint Reunion Leadership Summit at Jax Café in Minneapolis to spark excitement and start planning for Reunion 2019. It’s only 11 short months away! Becka Gross ’12 and Rick Speckmann ’72 were the guides and emcees for this wonderful event.

5. Bennies from the class of 2013 gathered for a photo after a networking event for past and current Saint Ben’s Senate members.

From L to R: Alivia Tison, Sophie Kem, Riley Johnson Ries, Meghan Simmet Hermes, Sarah Reisdorf, Ellen Newkirk.

6. P ast roommates Sarah Abraham Murnane ’89 (L) and Jodi Fogelman Olson ’89 (2nd from R) gathered with their daughters and current roommates Annie Murnane ’20 (2nd from L) and Raina Olson ’20 (R).

7. B ennies met at the 2018 Class Identity Summit for volunteer training. Front row L to R: Abby Milton Turbes ’09, Sarah Kruger Hilger ’13, Christa Troup ’14, Kathi Beavers Rivard ’77, Renee Schley ’07, Kaitlyn Huntington ’14, Gigi Fourré Schumacher ’74.

Back row L to R: Maggie Weber Utsch ’00, Marnee Swing McGowan ’93, Michelle Kemp Anderson ’98, Stacy Rooney ’98, Riley Johnson Ries ’13, Madison Armstrong ’12, Valerie Jones ’94, Abby Hansen ’12.

34 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

7

BENNIE CONNECTION

8

9 8. Bennies Natalie Stoneburner ’16 and Gretchen Sitzer ’14 graduated in May from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota with Master of Arts degrees in teaching.

9. Bennies from Saint Ben’s Institutional Advancement got together after a blessing of the newly renovated Schoenecker Commons. L to R: Emily Tohal Chaphalkar ’07, Tara Maas ’14, Sydney Klinker Andringa ’13.

10

11

10 S aint Ben’s alumnae gathered at Alchemy in Edina in April to celebrate the month of wellness. Front row L to R: Kara Ehlert ’11, Rachel Peterson ’11, Liz Tomten ’82, Jean Diekmann ’85, Anne Diekmann Condon ’82, Kelly Smith ’08, Johanna Holub ’13, Anne Sumangil ’99. Back row L to R: Maggie Berg ’11, Katelyn Plutt ’11, Meghan Krantz Weis ’09, Sarah Krantz ’12, Briana Daniels ’14, Ellen Dean ’14, Sara Spitzmueller Stremcha ’99, Sarah Fastner ’99, Sally Koering Zimney ’99, Carol Mueller- Leavitt ’86, Kerry Cashman ’86.

11.

REDTalks speakers posed for a fun photo in front of the Brave New Workshop.

Front row L to R: Rev. Nick Kleespie, OSB, ’06, Jayne Byrne, MS, RDN, Mackenzie Lobby Havey ’05, Bridget Cummings ’15, Olayemi Fadahunsi ’18. Back row L to R: Dennis Moriarty ’69, Joey Hamburger ’13, Gabriel Harren ’10.

12. Laura Tiffany Hendrickson ’12 (L) and Stephanie Pinkalla ’14 (R) met at the annual REDTalks event in April.

12 Summer 2018 | 35

ARE YOU A

SUSTAINER? Being a Saint Ben’s Sustainer means that you stand up on a recurring basis for today’s Bennies. It means you know the importance of giving to fund the scholarship help on which over 90 percent of our students rely. It means you understand the impact that women’s education has – today and tomorrow.

Being a Sustainer provides a steady, predictable stream of giving.

Don’t get us wrong. We love a nice lump sum as well, but predictable Sustainer gifts help us plan for the scholarship support Bennies need.

It takes less time than you’d spend ordering a customized dog sweater.

Becoming a Sustainer is fast.

That makes being a Sustainer easy for you – and important for us. Year to year, 90 percent of Sustainers feel satisfied enough to continue their support. Our overall donor retention rate is under 75 percent.

There’s no need to remember anything.

Just like a good rotisserie oven, you can set it, and forget it!

Being a Sustainer is, well, sustainable. Less paper, less postage, fewer administrative costs ... That means more dollars end up where they’re really needed – helping Bennies.

LEARN MORE AND BECOME A SAINT BEN’S SUSTAINER TODAY!

GIVECSB.COM

36 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine

GENEROSITY

?

of corporate clients. In addition to her strategic responsibilities as a leader at MMA, PK works to attract more women to the industry and is passionate about supporting women in business through mentoring and executive coaching.

“Women have natural gifts to bring to our communities, workplaces and families – and those gifts make a difference in the world,” she explains. “I have been fortunate in my career and supporting women is a natural passion for me.”

That’s why PK is dedicated to giving to Saint Ben’s at the Presidents’ Circle level – not only because CSB is her alma mater – but because of the education Saint Ben’s provides and the environment it nurtures to empower women.

The Presidents’ Circle is a generous group of donors who choose each year to support the Annual Giving Program at Saint Ben’s with $1,500 or more.

PK Kriha ’91

Where You Lead, I Will Follow BY | COURTNEY SULLIVAN

It’s often said that truly good leaders should also be good followers – a lesson PK Kriha ’91 learned early on when she followed in the footsteps of her two older sisters and chose to attend Saint Ben’s.

“They had a great experience and I looked up to them – so the choice was easy!” she recalls.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, PK received the scholarships she needed to turn that choice into reality.

It was an experience that made a profound impact on her and ultimately served as a launching point for her lifelong dedication to supporting and empowering women.

“I was surrounded by incredible friends and resources at Saint Ben’s,” she says. “I learned to have confidence and persevere.

I learned the importance of a strong network of friends and a ‘village’ as my CSB and SJU network has been a big part of my career success. I have also been fortunate to work with some of the best and brightest women since I began my career in 1991. Throughout my career, my gender has not interfered with my success and I am grateful that I can use my natural and God-given talents for good.”

PK currently serves as Senior Vice President for Employee Benefits at Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) in Minneapolis, where she advises on total reward strategies, wellbeing/wellness programs and more to a diverse base

“I am proud to be a Bennie and share it freely (and often),” she says. “My network stands tall and with pride as we boast about our Bennie connections, faith, friendships and support systems.”

As an impactful leader at work and in her community, PK finds value in following in the footsteps of others – donors who saw the value of investing in women’s education.

“I want to give back to other Bennies so that they can have a bright future,” she says. “I was able to attend Saint Ben’s because of the many scholarships from donors during my student years. Now it’s my turn to give back to the college and its students.”

Interested in making an immediate impact on Saint Ben’s students with your leadership annual gift? Contact Tara Maas ’14 at tmaas@csbsju.edu or 320-363-5078 to start a conversation.

Or visit givecsb.com and start creating a tradition of your own today.

Summer 2018 | 37

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

Recycle logos here - remove box after placement

TWO GREAT EVENTS; ONE ACTION-PACKED WEEKEND

We look forward to seeing you

SEPTEMBER 21-23

This homecoming, there’s something for everyone.

Our homecoming/family weekend includes activities for families and alums on both campuses. Mark your calendar and make plans to reconnect with our campuses, our communities, our families and great Bennie and Johnnie friends.

Learn more at csbsjuhomecoming.com.