Alumni Blog

Note: Hi. I wish I could but can't make reunion this year because I will be out of town. Please tell Jackie Buonomo that I would love to see her next time in Chicago!! We used to cheer for the Holy Cross Crusaders! I miss everyone. 
Thanks.   Nancy Beck (Szymarek)

On Thursday April 23rd 35 students from the political science class went down town to the Appellate court at the  Thompson Center on a field trip set up by one of our Mother Guerin Alums; Colleen Tierney '99.  The students had a wonderful opportunity to meet with two judges prior to a court case and had a chance to learn what a judge actually does.  The judges also briefed the students on a case they were about to listen to. 

The case is Porter vs. Cook County.  You may have heard about this in the newspaper, from what we were told this is a high profile case.

Porter is suing the city of Chicago.  Porter was on trial for a murder in 1982 and has been sitting on death row for 16 years.  Up until a few years ago the true murderer came forth and confessed to the crime that Porter was being held for.  But, there is a twist to the case, the confession at the time was not allowed in court to be used for Porter's trial.  Porter was pardoned by the Governor and is now suing the Cook County police department.

The students learned a lot and weren't shy about asking questions.  The judges and lawyers welcomed the Guerin Prep students to their court room and were very helpful to the students as well.  The judges took their time and explained to the students what was going as the trial went on. 

The Porter case is still in court and we hope to hear what the outcome is towards the beginning of the summer.  I'll post the conclusion when I hear more information.

The judges invited the students to come back again throughout the next school year! 
 

“Some future assembly of Guerin Prep students may be cheering the first woman president of the United States just as we are celebrating the first African-American president today.”

These words were spoken by Mrs. Bonnie Brown, principal of Guerin Prep, at the end of the assembly during which Guerin Prep students watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January. Mrs. Brown also  suggested that the woman could be a Guerin Prep graduate.

Guerin Prep’s newest program—“Educating Women to Leadership,” may provide some of the tools needed to get a Guerin Prep graduate to the White House.

It was, in fact, a political scenario that Guerin Prep President Terry Malik referenced when he convened a group of Mother Theodore Guerin graduates this past summer to brainstorm for ways to ensure that Guerin Prep graduates, like Hilary Clinton, will crack through the glass ceiling—that unofficial, invisible barrier that prevents women from advancing in various arenas.

Mr. Malik asked Ms. Mary Stephany, current registrar and long-time faculty member at Guerin to assume leadership for this project and to take the ideas generated by those assembled and create a program.

She quickly asked some of these alums to join her as a planning committee, and they have just announced their kick-off program, “Educating Women to Leadership Day,” which will take place April 24. 

Sophomore and junior girls will participate in an in-school field trip that day and listen to keynote speaker Melissa Rocchi ‘99 talk about self-image. This will be followed by three breakout sessions, including a presentation on careers by Jen Butera ’99, the fundamentals of building self-confidence and interpersonal skills, especially as their relate to interviewing for a job or a college, by Cindy Miller ‘93; and a session by Rocci on her career in Art Therapy.

This day and others like it to be planned in the future comprise one part of the overall program’s three-prong approach.

Mentors Wanted

The second focus of the program is making mentors available to current freshmen, sophomore and junior girls who seek such a relationship. The Educating Women to Leadership committee is currently reaching out to alumnae to volunteer to be a mentor.

Ms. Stephany defined the role of the adult mentor: “to provide knowledge, to share the wisdom of her experiences, to facilitate the development of skills and competencies within the student being mentored and to foster curiosity and interest in regard to a specific career area.”

The relationship between the Guerin Prep student and mentor should be interactive, utilizing either personal or electronic contact to nurture that relationship. “The time commitment and structure of this relationship necessarily needs to be defined by the mentor and the student,” explained Stephany, ‘but our expectation is that the two will meet or talk monthly and that ideally the mentor would make a commitment to stay with a student through a school year.”

Stephany hopes that from time to time evening sessions would be held with all mentors and students attending and sharing their experiences.

Students have identified 49 different career interest areas for mentors, from architects to writers. A complete list can be found at www.guerinprep.org/alumnae.html as well as a sign-up form.

The new alumni council has their work cut out for them in the next year.  The alumni department would like to host the first annual Holy Cross/Mother Guerin  golf outing next year fall to kick off the school year.  But, as most of you know it's a lot of work to put an outing together.  

If anyone is interested in lending a hand with the golf outing, please contact me!!  The more help the better.  When we have enough people together we'll meet this summer to discuss the game plan for next year.  

This will be the first  outing with many more to come, so let's make it FUN and have a good turnout!

If you can't commit to a meeting at the school, but would like to lend a hand from home, that would be great too.

Looking forward to hearing your input.