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2022 Year in Review

Blog | 02.13.2023

This story appeared in the 2023 President’s Report issue of Onyx Anneau.


January

  • SMWC education department partners with Bartholomew County School Corp. and Monroe County Community School Corp. to help fill teacher shortages with the Pathway to Licensure program.

February

  • Woods Giving Day blasts through 1,000 donor goal and raises over $300,000
  • Delegation to Ecuador solidifies the partnership for SMWC and Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
  • Woods Café reopens in Woods Student Center
  • SMWC ranked among the best in online programs
Students proudly wearing their Woods Rings after the Ring Day ceremony.

March

  • SMWC nursing programs are ranked among the best in the Wabash Valley by U.S. News & World Report and the Nursing Schools Almanac.
  • SMWC Women’s Basketball advances to the USCAA National Championship for the first time in the school’s history.
  • The 100th anniversary of the ring was celebrated in two Ring Day ceremonies, with more than 110 rings awarded.

April

  • The Global Leadership Institute (GLI) is established as a part of the Lilly Endowment Grant, Charting the Future. The vision of the Global Leadership Institute is to position Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College as a global leadership epicenter where collaborative global opportunities are created through meaningful and active partnerships that ultimately strengthen the global mindset of society.
  • Blaine Powell is named Sprint Football head coach, coming from Sullivan High School, where he was the head football coach for the past five seasons.
  • SMWC announced a newly developed open-access academic journal focusing on global leadership across multiple academic subjects and cultures. αρετή (Arete): Journal of Excellence in Global Leadership is published through the Global Leadership Institute in collaboration with SMWC.
  • SMWC adds BS in Addictions Counseling and Post-Bachelor’s Addiction Counseling Certificate for Fall 2022.
SMWC welcomed 300 attendees and guests for Reunion 2022.

May

  • 300 graduates celebrated in the 188th commencement
  • Sharon Harley ’70, Ph.D. was recognized as 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient
  • Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College recognized for educational partnership with Monroe County Community School Corporation by the Indiana Office of Career and Technical Education under the Governor’s Workforce and Indiana Association of Career and Technical Education (IACTE).
  • SMWC softball team wins River States Conference tournament in first year of membership and advances to the NAIA National Tournament.
  • Wabash Valley Leadership Institute resumed with the 11th cohort.
  • Reunion weekend welcomes over 300 attendees and guests from 33 states.
  • Aspire sculpture, located at the entrance to the Knoerle Sports and Recreation Center, was dedicated thanks to the Nordloh Family Foundation in memory of Mary Cavanaugh Nordloh ’60.
In July 2022, SMWC received a $1.5 million READI grant for equine and athletic facilities to be expanded. 

June

  • SMWC adds Myoskeletal Massage Therapy Associate Degree and minor.
  • Marcia Miller, Ph.D., RN, is named Dean of Division Nursing

July

  • SMWC receives $1.5 million READI grant for equine and athletic facilities expansion.

August

  • SMWC launched “One Woods. Our Woods,” a video that speaks to the SMWC culture as a way of life – the shared behaviors, beliefs and values, which focus on respect, personal responsibility and recognition of the value of all people. The video took off and became the College’s message and theme for the year and for Homecoming 2022.
  • A record-breaking number of new students arrived on Move-In Day, totaling 260 from 23 states and ten countries.
  • SMWC receives $702,775 from Lilly Endowment, Inc. through its initiative, Indiana Youth Programs on Campus (IYPC), to fund Challenging Ambitions and Maximizing Potential (C.A.M.P.) at The Woods and establishes a new Office of Pre-College Outreach.

September

In September 2022, the College received the Indiana Landmark’s Servaas Award.
  •  SMWC offers a P-12 Mild Intervention undergrad program.
  • SMWC ranked among the best in the Midwest and Indiana by U.S. News & World Report
  • U.S. News & World Report Rankings for America’s Best Colleges for 2023 for SMWC
    • Regional Universities Midwest #33
    • Best Value – Regional Universities Midwest #5
    • Social Mobility – Regional Universities Midwest #4
  • SMWC announces the addition of a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in February 2023.
  • The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Archives opens on the lower level of Rooney Center and is a collaboration of the SMWC archives and the Sisters of Providence archives.
  • 2023 is the largest cohort of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Scholars at 16.
  • SMWC receives Indiana Landmark’s Servaas Award for achievement in historic preservation.

October

  • “One Woods” Homecoming hosts more than 300 attendees with an equine competition, alumni softball game, women’s volleyball game, and outdoor concert. The inaugural sprint football game draws over 700 spectators.
  • During Homecoming 2022, students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered in Le Fer Hall for the dedication and blessing of the Margaret “Peggy” Kelly Deputy ’64 Parlor (PK Parlor), formally known as the Formal Parlor. Deputy served on the Alumni Board from 2013 – 2019. The gathered crowd moved across the hall for the renaming of the Sullivan Parlor to The 1840 in honor of the generosity of the Class of 1964 and their contributions to the College.
  • Ring Centennial event raises $100,000 for the renamed Meade Geisel Ring Fund for ring scholarships and the Bill Wolfe commissioned ring sculpture that will be located in front of the Sunken Garden in front of Le Fer Hall.
  • Mary Pat Kelley ’67, Ph.D., visits the SMWC campus to relaunch her book, Martin Scorsese; A Journey which she first published in 1991. She dedicated memorial bricks to be located in the Garden of Reflection outside of the Knoerle Sports and Recreation Center to her parents and Martin Scorsese’s parents.
  • More than 400 students participated in Foundation Day of Service, allowing students to give back to campus and the community in honor of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

November

  • The SMWC sprint football team won the Midwest Sprint Football League championship game, defeating Calumet College of St. Joseph 23-7.
  • International Education Week highlights the international students of SMWC and the status of SMWC as an international institution.

 December

  • Light Your Way Christmas Parade sponsored by SMWC, draws more than 10,000 to downtown Terre Haute.
  • SMWC announces that it will offer a bridge program for Paramedic Science to BSN degree.

2 Comments

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Michelle Barrentine | 02.15.2023 at 10:50pm
Great wrap up of a great year. Way to go SMWC community! Thank you for all your creativity and hard work.
Sister Barbara sheehan, SP | 02.14.2023 at 8:20am
Am proud and delighted. May all continue to thrive and learn and grow.