Dear Alumni and Friends,
The usual pattern of the academic year has been dramatically altered. Sending the campus students home in March, postponing Ring Day and Commencement, cancelling all spring banquets, celebrations and athletic events and making the entire College virtual were historic happenings. Sometimes it felt and still feels like nothing will ever be normal again.
And yet, in the footsteps of our foundress and sponsors, we “have confidence in the Providence that so far has never failed us.”
I could not be prouder of the team of people that I work with every day at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. In the midst of the pandemic, the Admissions team became extremely creative in ways to reach out to students and their families. Virtual tours of campus, virtual parent and student panels and personal phone calls were among their persistent outreach to prospective students from March through today. The SMWC COVID-19 Taskforce, made up of relevant leaders throughout campus, has been meeting twice weekly for many weeks and weekly in recent days. The taskforce focused initially on ensuring that students and faculty had the technology and resources to be successful in remote learning. Their focus shifted then to creating a thoughtful plan to gradually bring staff back to The Woods and also to make accommodations for those who needed to remain at home. By June, they shifted again to creating safe reopening plans for the campus. The entire staff and faculty of The Woods have come together with purpose and determination to implement The Avenue to Reopening Plan.
August provides new beginnings for every program that is part of the College. The traditional campus program, Woods Online, master’s programs in Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Leadership Development, Healthcare Administration and Nursing each are part of the new students attending The Woods this fall. Each program has made adaptations and accommodations to enable us to continue to enroll new students and provide a robust, safe learning environment. New campus students arrived for orientation on Friday, August 14 and classes resumed this week. We will share more information regarding numbers on our website and through social media as soon as registrations are all finalized, but I am pleased to say that enrollment remains strong.
We celebrated the new 2020-21 academic year with an Opening Day Celebration. This is usually a Mass, held in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Because of current circumstances, it was a prayer ceremony held in the Hamilton Arena of Knoerle Center. Most Reverend Charles Thompson, Archbishop of Indianapolis, sent a recorded blessing for our event. Learning of the passing of beloved Emerita President Sister Barbara Doherty that same morning, standing in a building named in memory of Emerita President Sister Jeanne Knoerle and welcoming another class of students to the College was a poignant moment for me. I thought of the years of differing beginnings yet consistent commitment to education and students from July 4, 1841 to today.
What I know is that the College has weathered so many untold storms without wavering from the passionate mission to unite knowledge with virtue for each of the generations who have been the beneficiaries of a Woods education. We’ll be launching a series of virtual fall events as travel and large gatherings continue to be on hold indefinitely. Part of my message will be to challenge our Woods family to remember that this is not our first global pandemic – we are resilient, and we will persevere.
As this new year begins, I am reminded of my love for the smell of a new box of crayons. Opening the lid and smelling the colorful, pointed array brings me back to so many first days of school in my own life. I now not only enjoy the remembrances brought by this sensory experience, but I think too of the symbolism contained in the box. It is filled with color! Each color is important and has its own special qualities; each has the potential to be part of many beautiful creations. The crayons are all sharp in the beginning… none are worn out or broken. None are missing. New academic years are filled with much promise, much like the crayon assortment. Likewise, each person at the College is important, possesses unique and special qualities and each has so much potential to be part of many beautiful experiences.
I love the beginning of the academic year, and I love the promise of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College!
Blessings,
Dottie