15 minute read
Alumnae Profiles
Adelaide competes in at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in August.
Magnificat’s Olympian: Adelaide Aquilla ’17
Shot-putters get three attempts to qualify for the Olympics, but Adelaide Aquilla ’17 nailed it on her first try. Her throw of 18.61 meters edged out her closest competition by three centimeters, granting her a third place finish and a trip to Tokyo to perform on the world stage. The Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, in June were the culmination of a stellar year for the Ohio State Buckeye, who set a school record and won both the indoor and outdoor NCAA National Championships. At age 22, she was the only college athlete among the trio of female U.S. shot-putters sent to the Olympics, competing against professional athletes. While she did not qualify for the final rounds of competition, she intends to continue competing with Ohio State as she completes her studies in communications and hospital management. Hopefully, she will return to the Olympics in Paris in 2024—and experience an Olympics without strict COVID-19 precautions in place. “I wish my family could have been there,” she said about her time in Tokyo. Adelaide’s shot put career started in 7th Grade at St. Raphael School, where students were challenged to try every track event to win the Raider Award and a tie-dye sweatshirt. Teachers saw her ability in shot put and encouraged her to stick with it, and she became more and more interested in the details of how to throw. At Magnificat, she further developed her technique and stayed fit by running cross country with her friends. “Day in and day out, Adelaide was always working on her craft,” says President Moira Clark '77. Her high school experience with track and field showed her the power of team spirit and camaraderie. “Track is very individualized based on performance,” she said. “But it’s nice to have a team behind you, cheering you on.”
Regina Aune ’62 ,Ph.D.
In the final days of the Vietnam War, just before the Fall of Saigon, Regina Aune ’62, Ph.D. was sent to the Philippines while stationed in California as a First Lieutenant with the Nurse Corps of the U.S. Air Force. It was April 1975, and most American military and civilian personnel were being evacuated out of the region—not rushing in with little notice. “We didn’t know for sure what the mission was until we got to Vietnam,” she said.
Regina learned that President Gerald Ford had ordered 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans to be airlifted to the Philippines in preparation for relocation to the United States for adoption by American families. The mission was called Operation Babylift, and Regina was to command a medical team in the rescue of sick and injured children, most of them under the age of two. The first 20 minutes of the initial evacuation flight were uneventful, with Regina aboard a C-5A Galaxy cargo plane comforting children in her care. Then, the unimaginable happened. The lock mechanism on the back of the plane failed, triggering a rapid air decompression of the aircraft. The plane crash landed in a rice paddy, breaking into four pieces, and 138 people of the 328 on board perished, including 78 children. Upon impact, Regina sustained a broken foot, fractured spine, and leg wound. Nonetheless, she carried babies out of the burning wreckage until rescue crews arrived to take over. The pain from her injuries became overwhelming, and she asked to be relieved of her duties shortly before losing consciousness. Within 12 hours of leaving Clark Air Base in the Philippines for Vietnam, she was taken back by helicopter for treatment at a military hospital. Regina became the first woman to receive the Air Force’s Cheney Award for her bravery, established in 1927 “for an act of valor, extreme fortitude or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian interest, performed in connection with aircraft, but not necessarily of a military nature.” The children who did survive the crash eventually made it to the United States, and those who knew from their adoptive parents that they were part of the tragedy began to research and reach out to members of the military involved with the mission as they grew into adulthood. That’s how Regina met Aryn Lockhart, who was one of the babies aboard the doomed flight. In the early days of the internet, Aryn searched for more information about what happened and contacted Regina. Over time, they kept in touch and grew close, eventually traveling back to Vietnam together and writing the book Operation Babylift: Mission Accomplished, A Memoir of Hope and Healing. They shared their story with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today for Mother’s Day in May. “It was a healing book for both of us, because it was such a horrible event...It didn’t end with just the crash. It had a long lasting effect.”
In 2022, Magnificat students, faculty, and staff will participate in an all-school read of Operation Babylift: Mission Accomplished, and we look forward to welcoming Regina Aune ’62 and Aryn Lockhart to campus to hear more about their story during the 2022-2023 school year.
Meet Magnificat’s first African American student:
Patricia Lindsey Woods ’72
Patricia Woods ’72 remembers that when she was growing up, table manners were taught at home and reinforced by grandmothers, aunts, and anyone else who was “keeping track” at family gatherings. These days, she observes that children show less knowledge of proper etiquette, even at formal events. Having always wanted to start her own business, Patricia became a certified etiquette consultant after retiring from her job as a payroll administrator and launched “Eyes Up, Forks Down” for both children and adults from a range of backgrounds. Her diverse clientele seeks her assistance for any number of reasons, from children needing a crash course in good manners before a wedding to adults planning for a cruise who want to brush up on correct use of a full table setting. “It’s been a wonderful journey,” she said. “It really is a fun job because you meet so many different people in so many different scenarios.” Patricia is well accustomed to meeting new people, having moved around the country and the world during her husband’s career as a military photographer with the the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. After getting married, the couple moved from Ohio to California, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Germany, and Italy. Patricia worked as a bank teller, a position she could take full-time even if only on a temporary basis, and during that time she had two children, whom she said benefited from the travel and adventure.
“I can see the tolerance level they have for people, differences, and different cultures,” she said. “I don’t think they would have had that if they hadn’t traveled.”
Patricia’s journey began in Cleveland, where she was born, raised, and attended St. Aloysius for elementary school. Her family moved to North Olmsted when she was 13, and when she and her sister enrolled at St. Richard’s, they were the only students of color. “That part of it really didn’t seem as strange to me as it did for my fellow students,” she said. “You have to remember now this is back in the late 60s, early 70s, and during that era it was still strange for a Black person to even be Catholic, let alone go to Catholic school. But I had a good time. We had fun, of course there were little pockets of adversity, but you do what you have to do.” Although Patricia realized that she might be the only or one of only a few Black people at Magnificat, her parents wanted a Catholic education for her for high school. She had friends that went to other high schools, but none were attending Magnificat, which made her curious about and interested in the school. As the only Black student at Magnificat when she arrived, Patricia described the experience as “very strange at times because there was nobody there who looked like me, who came from the same culture as I did. I think I was sort of blessed that I could make people laugh. I think that’s what sort of helped me get through it.” She remembers, for example, that she met challenges from the school’s leadership when she started to wear an Afro hairstyle. Even though her mother did not much care for the style, she got involved and explained that her daughter’s hair was in its natural state, just like other students’ hair was in its natural state. “She was like, ‘and that’s the way it is,’” Patricia recalled, and the leadership allowed her to wear the hairstyle to school. Overall she has fond memories of her time and education at Magnificat, which prepared her for a life of travel, business, and entrepreneurship. She had her first opportunity for
Travel to the Parthenon with Patricia’s son, Justin, and daughter, Lindsey.
international travel during her time at Magnificat, when she took French with Madame Andree Sajous and spent the summer in France to experience the language and culture for about six weeks. While she now lives in Adams, Tennessee, she said she is looking forward to returning to Magnificat for her 50th Reunion next year. “Magnificat is such a big part of who I am, and those four years probably were some of the best,” she said. “I will always cherish that time at Magnificat.”
Mental Wellbeing
The ongoing challenges of the pandemic on top of life’s normal stressors have brought attention to the importance of caring for mental health and wellness. Here Magnificat alumnae in the fields of psychiatry, pscyhology, and counseling share suggestions for tending to mental wellbeing that work in their own lives.
Syma Dar ’97, M.D.
After graduating from Magnificat, Syma entered the six-year NEOMED medical program at Kent State University and earned her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine. She was a psychiatry intern at Cleveland Clinic and completed her residency at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and she is now affiliated with Cleveland Clinic and Fairview Hospital.
Syma Dar ’97, M.D. recommends taking a close look at how one’s time is being spent. The busy nature of juggling work, family, household responsibilities, and community commitments can make for stressful days, with wellness activities somehow not making the To Do List. She advises carving out time on the schedule for activities that help us relax and recharge, like yoga, meditation, exercise, or cooking a homemade, nutritious meal. This may mean pulling back elsewhere. Syma suggests looking for activities that eat up time but are not truly fulfilling. For her, that was social media. About a year ago, she decided to change her habits and trim a mindless hour of scrolling through social media feeds before bed, which not only consumed valuable time but also led to unhealthy comparisons to the lives of others. Now she is more intentional about how she uses social media, and she spends more time reading and enjoying her new pandemic hobby: crochet.
With that, Syma acknowledges that some weeks will be better than others in terms of how we’re feeling and taking care of ourselves, and that’s OK. Be patient and kind to yourself. “I wouldn’t claim to have perfect balance, but I definitely do my best,” she says. “That’s all we can really do.”
Nora McNamara ’86, M.D.
Nora graduated from St. Louis University and earned her medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry as the Principal Investigator at University Hospitals’ Center for Discovery and Wellness for Children, and serves as assistant professor in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Nora McNamara ’86, M.D. tries to get at least a half an hour of exercise a day, whether that is riding her bike to work, using a stationary bike while watching television, or just taking a walk at some point during the day. A little daily exercise can go a long way, she says. Regular physical activity that gets the heart rate up even just a little has significant benefits for everyone, even for people with severe depression or anxiety. She also likes to spend time knitting, not so much for the satisfaction of the finished product, but for the experience of “flow”— the complete absorption in an activity without distraction that brings happiness and energy. We see this in children through free play and creative outlets, but many adults drop those types of activities as they get older. The hands-on nature of activities like knitting help prevent the mind from wandering or worrying, Nora says, especially when she is listening to a presentation or meeting. Speaking of meetings, she only attends if she really thinks they will be worth her time. After all, each calendar invite comes with a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” option, she points out. “Way too many young females just don’t feel comfortable saying no,” she said. “I hit ‘decline’ 90% of the time.” Finally, as a psychiatrist who works with children and teens, Nora shares that one of the best things we can do for our children to promote wellness is to do interesting things together. Based on her clinical experience, she observes that children who have strong relationships with their parents tend to cope better during times of stress. Simple activities like cooking, swimming, and reading together forge beneficial connections. “You can experience an awful lot of adversity, and having enough interpersonal relationships can be really, really protective,” she says.
Mary Gnandt ’71, MS, LPC
Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Dayton and a Master of Science in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a licensed professional counselor and certified equine psychotherapist, having most recently served as director of acute services at the Center for Mental Health in Montrose, Colorado.
Mary Gnandt ’71, MS, LPC finds mindfulness stress reduction, which incorporates a secular form of meditation, most effective in addressing anxiety and depression both in a professional and personal capacity. Research shows that with repetition, intentionally-created states can become enduring traits that result in long-term changes in brain function and structure, called neuroplasticity. Mary recommends the Palouse Mindfulness Stress Reduction Course. “What I learned through this course is that meditation isn’t getting rid of unwanted thoughts, but observing these thoughts in a nonjudgmental and compassionate manner,” she says. She also fosters wellness by spending time outdoors. Hiking, skiing, and backpacking in the mountains or gardening help connect to nature, which she finds calming. “The Japanese have a term for time in nature, forest bathing, and have studied its effects,” she says. “They claim that trees emit an oil called phytoncides, which helps our immune system. These studies also claim that forest bathing lowers our heart and blood pressure, reduces stress hormones and depression.” Finally, Mary shares a few thoughts about wellness in retirement, having spoken to people who view retirement as an ending and fear the prospect. “I see this time as a transition to a new chapter,” she says. “Retirement gives us the gift of time to explore new interests. For me, I have used the knowledge and experience gained in my career in mental health to teach the general population about mental health concerns and ways to respond to a person they see in crisis. Mental Health First Aid and QPR, a suicide prevention class, are taught a couple days a month. I hope these classes will destigmatize mental illness and give people the confidence to support each other as we go through challenging times.”
Sarah Filipic '04, LPCC-S
Sarah is a licensed professional clinical counselor and art therapist with University Hospitals. She studied fine art at the University of Dayton and earned a Master of Arts in art therapy and counseling from Ursuline College.
As both a counselor and art therapist, Sarah Filipic '04, LPCC-S uses art materials to complement her psychotherapy sessions, for example by letting patients draw their feelings with lines, shapes, and colors rather than struggle to express them verbally. Similarly, she finds that physical activity and tactile experiences found with hobbies can be helpful in managing stress. She loves to cook, for example, and she feels that moving around the kitchen and getting her hands dirty help balance out the desk driven nature of her work, especially as she continues to work remotely. If she doesn’t exercise on any given day, she at least tries to fit in stretching or walking her dog to get her body moving. The little things add up. “A lot of times people think it has to be really big stuff, like modifying your whole lifestyle,” she says, which can then add more stress. “It is more accessible if you find small ways to integrate wellness into your lifestyle.” She also suggests taking moments of self reflection to check in on how you are doing. These “checkpoints” can come during a cup of coffee on the porch or stepping outside for a little fresh air. If you notice changes in your day to day patterns, or perhaps find yourself isolating socially from others, it may be a good idea to find help in navigating feelings of heaviness or anxiety before they amplify. “It’s never too early,” she says. “You don’t have to have significant symptoms to seek support.”
