Winter 2008 - Sacred Heart Schools

More documents

Recommendations

Info

$Current Math Teacher Recommendation Form - Sacred Heart Schools$

Joan Terry (SHP ’61), (center) is pictured here with Sr. Carmen Parrilla (left) and Sr. Ida Rinne. Ann Carey (SJSH ’71, SHP ’75) and Sheila Giannini Ruprecht (SHP ’63) with Alex Lucas Ertola (SJSH ’72, SHP ’76). Lyn Jason Cobb (SHE ’65, SHP ’69), and Lisa Geserick (SHP ’69) “When I was a student here at Sacred Heart, a close friend, Mariko Takahashi, now a nun in Belgium, gave me a holy card which I still have today. Though our paths are different, it says, our goal is still the same. To surrender one’s self, to hope for the courage to say yes, is to glimpse the truth illumined in Saint Teresa of Avila’s magnificent prayer: Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks with compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” later, to pay public tribute and to give open thanks to a school, a faculty and a religious order whose own brave mission was to educate and protect the minds and spirits of young girls. In the spring of 2005, I was sitting in a creative writing faculty meeting at Arizona State University. One of our faculty asked – is anyone interested in going to India to work with sex slaves Everyone reared back in a kind of shock, someone murmured, ‘that sounds dangerous,’ and though I didn’t say a word, every cell in me, every fiber, or more accurately, my soul, said ‘Yes.’ That single decision, that ‘yes,’ to the unknown, changed my life. Within ten hours of landing in Calcutta, I was walking, at night, with my guide Bishan, a twenty-four year old graduate of Calcutta University, through one of the worst slums in the world and into the narrow, winding alleyways of a working class brothel. Kalighat was nothing like my fears, my stereotypes or even my limited knowledge had imagined. Bishan seemed to know everyone, a n d c h i l d r e n s w i r l e d around me, like children everywhere, curious and spirited. During my ten days in Calcutta, I taught a workshop for around twenty young Kalam poets, visited shelter homes and toured Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart,) the first home Mother Teresa established for the dying and the destitute. I met the nun in charge, a woman I am convinced is a saint, a woman so selfless and holy, so radiant with love, that had she looked at me, asked me to stay on at Nirmal Hriday, I would not be here today. I met Indian women, attorneys and doctors who had given up affluent marriages, traditional caste status and social approval, to help the women of Kalighat attain legal status, receive proper medical treatment, and provide education and a safe place to sleep at night for their children, so they would not be trapped in a hopeless life ending, as the lives of more than 80% of these trafficked women did, by dying, before the age of thirty, of HIV/Aids or other preventable diseases. I met unsung heroes, witnessed lives of selflessness, saw the difference between the ego’s satisfaction, the self ’s thirst for recognition, and the more enduring joy of using one’s gifts and talents for the benefit of uplifting others. Something in me woke up in the presence of these individuals, woke up as I walked through the narrow, foul alleyways of Kalighat, shyly smiled at by girls stolen from their villages, forced into a brutal life from which there was no escape. Most of Kalighat’s prostitutes are mothers, and like most mothers, they adore their children. I came home from that first trip to Calcutta in early 2006, determined to build a link between our creative writing program and Kalam. One year later, in January, 2007, I returned with five MFA students, and this summer two graduate students worked, fully funded by ASU, with Kalam and New Light. In the past year, I have felt that same intuitive pull to begin an outreach program with Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and for two or more years, I had dreamed of making documentary films but 12 H e a r t o f t h e M a t t e r Wi n t e r 2 0 0 8
had no idea how to begin. One evening in 2006, because of a magazine article I had published two years before on the Lost Boys of Sudan, I was invited to a reception for the new director of the Lost Boys Center in Phoenix and met a young filmmaker struggling to develop a story about one of these exceptional young men. Today we have developed our script, and have the support of an experienced producer to help us raise funding to fly to the Dinka village of Ajak in southern Sudan, to film William Mawin’s reunion with his family, and to help build a school and a medical clinic for others handicapped by war like himself. The time and energy I have given to these projects could, and some would say, should have gone into writing another book of fiction. I could rest on well-earned laurels, I could lead an easier life. But I cannot resist this “call of the soul,” and though it often exhausts me and worries friends and family, I cannot disobey this call to surrender the smaller self, to answer the soul’s call to service. Too many heroes exist to show the way, and too many surprises and miracles validate one’s path once one responds. This adventure of the soul is a high and ultimately joyful one. Once one steps off the illusory path of safety, the path of contentment and ease and even fear, to follow the divine or some might say mad call to service, one joins a holy stream of fellow travelers, many leading the way, some walking alongside and others eager to catch up. Blessed travelers like Sr. Irene Cullen, Jonny Dorsey, all of you here today.” March 20 Holy Thursday Easter Holiday begins. School closed March 20-24. April 5 It’s Showtime! Auction dinner If you wish to attend, donate an item, or volunteer for the event, contact Diane Brugos at (650) 473-4088 or dbrugos@shschools.org. May Spring/Summer 2008 Calendar For additional information, go to www.shschools.org 2 Director’s Club Cocktail Party This party is for donors who have joined the Director’s Club ($2500+) during the 2007-2008 Annual Fund Campaign. To join the Director’s Club or to learn more, contact Lauren Whittam at (650) 473-4054 or lwhittam@shschools.org. 9 Mad Hatter Luncheon Noon, Conway Court If you are interested in attending or would like more information, contact Nancy Tarantino at (650) 473-4089 or ntarantino@shschools.org. 26 Memorial Day School closed. June 5 SHP Pinning Ceremony, 5 p.m., Chapel If you are an alumnus/a and are interested in attending, please contact the Alumni office at 650.454.8394. SHP Graduation 6 p.m., Softball Field 7 SJSH Graduation 10 a.m., Robinson Court Wi n t e r 2 0 0 8 H e a r t o f t h e M a t t e r 13
Page 1 and 2: Published for alumni, families and
Page 3 and 4: Contents Heart of the Matter Winter
Page 5 and 6: Seniors Inducted into the Sacred He
Page 7 and 8: Even in her lifetime, St. Madeleine
Page 9 and 10: attended a diversity conference wit
Page 11 and 12: g r a d u a t e s o n l y t w o sen
Page 13: Spirit of Mater Awards I n October,
Page 17 and 18: Sacred Heart college girls relaxing
Page 19 and 20: “Because we had many of the same
Page 21 and 22: Seniors Jade Fields, Shannon Hamilt
Page 23 and 24: Class of 1977 reunion photo. 1970s
Page 25 and 26: The Changing Face of the Alumni Boa
Page 27 and 28: Sean Day (SHP ’97) is currently a
Page 29 and 30: Karla Gurley (SHP ’00) in South A
Page 31 and 32: Dan Brady (SHP ’04) will graduate
Page 33 and 34: 1 2 3 1 4 5 6 Young Alums gather ov
Page 35 and 36: Stella Dyer is remembered for her l

Winter 2008 - Sacred Heart Schools

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?