STOP, LOOK and HELP: Alumnae needed for volunteer opportunities
We need you! Part of our mission at St. Agnes Academy is to encourage our students to work for social justice and make a commitment to community service. Let's keep that spirit alive as alumnae and join the Alumnae Association at their second Annual Volunteer Service Day 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 24 at the Houston Food Bank . For more information or to register to volunteer, please click here and log in to AcademyConnection.
SAA 2010 Reunion - Celebrating history and one another - SAVE THE DATEWe value alumnae feedback and, due to popular demand, we're making some exciting changes to the St. Agnes Academy Annual Alumnae Reunion this year! Following extensive comments and input from an alumnae focus group, the Reunion is transitioning into a late-afternoon celebration. Please join us 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 12 on the Academy campus for a special,
complimentary event and an opportunity to mingle with classmates, enjoy wine and appetizers, honor graduation years ending in "5" and "0," and see St. Agnes circa 2010 with campus tours. We're excited to share a few moments with our alumnae before they head off to their traditional Saturday night, class-specific gatherings and we hope you'll make a stopover on campus to enjoy a drink, share some memories, and reunite with teachers and friends at Reunion 2010. Please watch your mailbox for an official invitation and more details soon. Contact
alumnae@st-agnes.org with questions.
Class Challenge: Support Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow TODAY!The inaugural St. Agnes Academy Alumnae Class Challenge is heating up! It's a close competition with multiple classes jockeying for victory with the highest giving percentage to the
Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow Annual Fund. Class agents are working hard to encourage classmates to donate and become the first winners in this year's Challenge. How is your class doing? Click
here to view current class-year giving percentages. The class with the highest percentage total will be announced April 30 and will receive a complimentary wine and cheese reception with Head of School Sr. Jane Meyer, O.P. the night before the annual Reunion festivities - 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, June 11. The winning class also receives a commemorative brick paver to be installed in the walkway in front of the new Center for the Sciences and Student Services Center. Give today and help your class win the first-ever SAA Alumnae Class Challenge! Click
here to make your gift online.
Call for nominations: Alumnae Veritas Award 2010The St. Agnes Academy Alumnae Association is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Alumnae Veritas Award. This annual honor recognizes an alumna for her ongoing commitment to St. Agnes, as well as her professional and academic achievement and dedication to community service, as well as leadership roles and interest in diversity. If you are interested in nominating a classmate or St. Agnes friend for the 2010 Alumnae Veritas Award, please click
here for more information and the official nominating form. All nominations are due by April 30. Send any questions to
alumnae@st-agnes.org. Previous Alumnae Veritas Award recipients are: Previous Veritas Award Recipients: 2009 - Debbie Sieck '87; 2008 - Kathy Kokas '73; 2007 - Janet Kingham Greenwood '57; 2006 - Sister Therese Warden, O.P. '51; 2005 - Eileen Antill '51; and 2004 - Calista Herbert '69.
Dedicated alumna, former teacher and staff member to retire from SAA
In June, St. Agnes Academy will lose a faithful friend, former Dominican Sister and teacher, and devoted Advancement Office staff member. Eileen Antill '51 (formerly Sr. Laetitia Antill) will end her storied career with the Academy after more than 40 years in various roles on campus. She plans to officially enter into retirement. Eileen fondly remembers visiting the Academy with her mother, a piano and violin teacher at the Academy, when she was a preschooler. She went on to become a student, a Dominican Sister and math teacher, and then an Advancement Office employee as the development director and the school's first alumnae director. In recent years, she's been an integral part of the Advancement Office - working diligently on research and database maintenance with a lifetime worth of St. Agnes knowledge and relationships. "In looking back on life at St. Agnes, there are many happy memories to cherish," Eileen said. "People that I have known and worked with through the years: the Sisters, schoolmates, administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, alumnae, all share a part in these. Many are faithful friends and are like a second family. God bless them and St. Agnes Academy." To honor her legacy and her love for the Academy, St. Agnes is establishing a scholarship in honor of Eileen and her years of dedication. If you are interested in paying tribute to a dear friend, mentor and former teacher, please click
here to make a contribution to the Eileen Antill '51 Memorial Scholarship. For questions, contact
alumnae@st-agnes.org.
VeritasVoice: I'll always remember to wage peace, by Natalie Harms '10
(and Anastasia Hansen '10)
Here at St. Agnes Academy, we have many different themed weeks, but my favorite is Diversity Week. Diversity Week encompasses everything beautiful about our school. It shows how exciting, accepting and supportive all the students and teachers are at SAA. During the last week of January, St. Agnes girls participated in an entire week full of events in keeping with the theme "Waging Peace." All week long, activities and assemblies were planned for us. On Tuesday, peace activist P.K. McCary, a writer and radio host, talked to us about how to make peace through her casual, funny lecture. McCary told us of the future and how this decade is "a time when the impossible becomes possible, the possible becomes probable and the probable becomes inevitable." Before McCary spoke, a few students stole the show with their own stories about what peace means to them.
The week concluded with St. Agnes Academy's annual Solidarity Day, including the Ancestral Dress Day and International Food Festival. As they do every year, students sprinted from class at noon to the gym and stuffed their faces with food from countries around the world. The event is hosted by the Mothers' Club, the gym is decorated by the Diversity Club, and the food catered by our entire community of students, parents, faculty and staff. During the Ancestral Dress Day, students dressed in outfits reflecting their heritage or adopted heritage, and a few participated in a fashion show to show off their ancestral threads. We also welcomed the Brazilian Arts Foundation who sang, danced and invited students on stage to participate in their presentation.
Although next year I will be far from St. Agnes, some of my fondest memories from this week will always be with me. I will remember how to make peace in my daily life and to accept all ethnicities, orientations and ways of life-just as St. Agnes has taught me.
Commemorate the 'flying nun's' skydive, support SAA's Hope for Haiti campaign
You've probably seen all of the great media coverage related to St. Agnes Academy's Hope for Haiti campaign and the leap of faith by Head of School Sr. Jane Meyer, O.P. She took to the skies to honor a promise she made to students - if they raised $25,000, she would take her first sky dive. By the close of the campaign, students raised $90,000 for Catholic Relief Services' Haiti efforts through a series of fundraisers they organized. If you'd like to purchase a commemorative t-shirt honoring Sr. Jane's dive and help our Hope for Haiti campaign, please click here.
