A Shining Success Story

The 10-year term of President Emerita MaryAnn Baenninger matches that of President Emerita S. Colman O’Connell ’49 for the longest in school history. Mark and Teresa Fleischhacker chose to honor those years of service – and how MaryAnn made the most of them – with a gift of $2.5 million.

CSB/SJU Strategic Directions 2020 (SD2020) was a holistic, joint vision between the two colleges, outlining areas of focus for the five years between 2015 and 2020. The overarching goals of SD2020 included:

• Create a leading and innovative liberal arts curriculum emphasizing preparation for life; and
•  Meet the needs and aspirations and exceed the expectations of a 21st century student body

While studying in Guatemala, a group of 16 CSB/SJU students participated in a course centered around a themed interactive performance style known as Theatre of the Oppressed. The CSB/SJU students chose racial and cultural tensions at CSB and SJU as their theme, and through the production, sought to explore those issues and create a forum for safe dialogue. After performing in Guatemala, students brought their work back for two performances on campus, and then repeated the Theatre of the Oppressed experience the next year.

Sharon Pugil Ridgeway ’81 and her husband, Jim, say studying in the CSB/SJU community with the Benedictines has benefited three generations of their family. That’s why they decided to pay it forward, in a big way. Read more about Sharon and Jim’s commitment to breaking barriers and providing support so every student can take full advantage of the Saint Ben’s experience and reach her potential.

The reimagined XPD office empowers students to connect their aspirations with opportunities and translate their liberal arts education to achieve meaningful personal and professional lives. More focused internships and experiential learning means students are taking better advantage of the transformational opportunities they have here. Saint Ben’s students emerge ready for that first job out of college – and the next one.

Allison Kosobud was one of 30 women honored at the NCAA Woman of the Year banquet in Indianapolis, Ind. She was one of 10 women from Division III chosen for the top 30 who were honored at the banquet with their Division I and II counterparts.

In 2018, Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s received a $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support initiatives focused on inclusive pedagogy and community building. The project is called Becoming Community, and its goal is to teach and enable CSB/SJU faculty, staff and students to become agents of change by preparing them to dismantle oppression rather than simply learning about oppression.

The volunteer support that Saint Ben’s receives, and the ways we’re able to utilize that support, are humbling. It’s a distinctly Saint Ben’s phenomenon and explains why Saint Ben’s was the first college in the nation to receive the Service Enterprise designation from the Points of Light Foundation.

For the second time, Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s hosted higher education professionals from across North America in a broad-based effort to reframe the narrative surrounding the liberal arts. View Liberal Arts Illuminated conference program.

Institutional Learning Goals reflect an institution’s promise to its students. The “new” goals for Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s include: Think Deeply, Embrace Difference, Engage Globally, Serve Graciously and Live Courageously. Formalizing these goals was a key part of developing our dramatic new Integrations Curriculum.

More than 25% of the student body at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s are first-generation students, meaning their parents do not have four-year degrees. Creating the First-Generation Organization is a step taken to provide resources for making sure students, especially first-generation students, succeed throughout college and adulthood.

Bennie Conversations: How She Shines is an initiative designed to capture the individual impacts of our collective light. Through alumna-to-alumna interviews, we hope to celebrate and preserve the moments that define a Bennie. The first Bennie Conversation was recorded in March 2019, which lit a spark for over 300 more conversations to be conducted throughout entirety of the Illuminating Lives campaign. Listen to those conversations and other sparks of Bennie illumination.  

Furthering our objective to provide a leading liberal-arts education, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a highly competitive grant to support a new Saint Ben’s/Saint John’s honors program built on three pillars: the new Integrations Curriculum; a social change model of leadership; and experiential learning.

Judy Gretsch Schmid ’63 knows introducing new students to the College of Saint Benedict has the potential to change their futures. So, when she learned that a building renovation project would include space that welcomes our students, she wanted to get involved. Schmid pledged to name the plaza of the Guy and Barbara Schoenecker Commons project, which has become the inviting new front door of campus to the 4,000 prospective students and their families who tour the CSB campus each year. Each of these tours pass through the plaza, providing an ideal space for visitors to experience the warmth and beauty of Benedictine hospitality.

For the first time in more than a decade, the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team was one of eight teams in Division III still competing in the final week of the season. Hunter Weiss ’21 and Madison Weiss ’21 both earned AVCA First Team All-American honors as juniors. This marks the first time since 1990 that Saint Benedict volleyball has had two First Team All-American in the same year, and just the fourth time in program history. Additionally, Hunter was named the NCAA Elite 90 award winner. The Elite 90 award recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring an individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in their sport while also achieving the highest academic standards. The award is given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA participating at the final site for each of the NCAA’s championships.

“I believe deeply in the power of a college for women to develop and nurture the leaders of our future,” said LeAnne Stewart ’87 of the gift that she and her husband John announced in January.

When the call came out to support Bennies left stranded or vulnerable by the COVID-19 pandemic, donors stepped up in a big way. More than $73,000 in gifts rolled in, and the Saint Ben’s Senate also made contributions to support their peers. The fund helped many students get back home safely (funding transportation, food and lodging) along with resources to support day-to-day living expenses and distance learning for those in need.

Valerie Doze, a native of Grand Forks, North Dakota who is a biochemistry and German double-major at CSB, was named a 2020 Truman Scholar April 15.

Each winner receives up to $30,000 for graduate study. Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling and special internship opportunities within the federal government.