This release was written by SMWC student, Christina Lee Bessell.

First photo - Sharon Ammen, associate professor of Theatre, SMWC, watches as “Officer Lockstock”, Brandon Wentz, and “Little Sally”, Danielle O'Connor, practice their parts for the upcoming musical, “Urinetown.”

Second photo - Rebecca Maurey as “The Duchess of the Isles of Langerhans” and Jennifer Shetley, playing “Little Becky Two Shoes” review their scene for the musical “Urinetown.”

Third photo - Brandon Wentz as “Officer Lockstock” and Whitney Kos as “Penelope Pennywise” practice together in preparation of the humorous musical, suitable for children, “Urinetown.”

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Cheyenne Plummer, a sophomore at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, received word that her fine art piece titled “The Theater” has been selected for the 2010 National Society of Arts and Letters (Bloomington Chapter) Visual Arts Show. Plummer, a native of Owen County and graduate of Owen Valley High School, is double majoring at SMWC in Art and Graphic Design.

Plummer’s artwork will be on exhibit during the Visual Arts Show held in February at Gallery North in downtown Bloomington, Indiana.  The opening reception is on Friday, February 5, at Gallery North from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Prize winners will be announced at the reception.

Gallery North is located on 116 W. 6th Street, on the north side of Courthouse Square, in Bloomington, Ind.  It is open Wednesday through Saturday.

The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Career Development Center is offering a number of events from January through April 2010. These events are designed to allow students and alumni to network with employers and learn about job and internship opportunities. Some research indicates that over 60 percent of jobs are found through networking. This approach is even more important for today’s college students, as they begin to enter a workforce that has proven to be unstable over the last 18 months.

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Some may wonder if a woman or man serving or having served in a branch of U.S. military and a Catholic sister would have anything in common. The Sisters of Providence don't wonder about that at all.

Six Sisters of Providence arrived from France at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in October 1840. They found themselves in the middle of a forest, with no house or school in sight. Yet by the next July, these six brave women, led by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, had received women into the community and had opened St. Mary's Academy, forerunner of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. They overcame the boundaries of language, culture and religious prejudice to tend to the needs of their time.

Twenty years later, during the War Between the State, eleven Sisters of Providence ministered in U.S. military hospitals in Vincennes and Indianapolis, Indiana. Serving those in their care as hospital director, as nurses or “in household duties that contributed to the smooth running of the hospital” the Sisters cared for their patients' physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Before becoming Sisters of Providence, three of our members knew active duty. Sister Francis de Lourdes Reilly (RIP) worked as a World War I Army nurse. Sister Catherine Hartman (RIP), for whom this program is named, served as a lieutenant in the Women's Reserve, U. S. Marine Corps during World War II. Another sister, Sister Patricia Linehan, saw duty as a Navy Nurse aboard the naval ship Repose during the Vietnam conflict. Obviously, these sisters' future life and ministry was profoundly influenced by the relationships they formed during their years of active duty.

Today, like all in our country, most Sisters of Providence have family or friends or children of friends serving in all branches of the military. We see the TV images of wars being waged, hear and read the stories of those serving and pray daily for all involved in the areas of conflict.

We are proud of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College for reaching out in a special way to military personnel to make a quality liberal arts education available.

We Sisters of Providence would like to partner with SMWC by offering spiritual companionship to any veteran who enrolls in an academic program at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Our idea is simple. We are happy to continue our mission of hope and healing by being available for spiritual companionship. We can offer on-going visits with a Sister of Providence companion at the time a student may be on campus as well as on-going visits via email or letters.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods itself, the place, is a site of extraordinary beauty and peace. We can offer many places to pray, to contemplate the beauty of God's creation, to be alone in a place of quiet and harmony.

Should a student value working in a garden, working with our alpaca herd to come closer to the rhythms and healing power of nature, we can arrange volunteer opportunities.

In these simple ways, the Sisters of Providence would welcome being part of students' education as global citizens, as whole persons who appreciate the many ways Holy Mystery draws us as a community into peace and unity.

For more information contact:

Denise Wilkinson, SP

1 Sisters of Providence

Owens Hall

SMW, IN 47876

On January 28 and 29, 2010, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College will host special guests, Retired Lieutenant General Martin R. Berndt of the U.S. Marine Corps and his wife, Diana, as well as Mary Pat Kelly, SMWC 1967 alum and author of “Good to Go: The Rescue of Scott O’Grady from Bosnia".

Lt. Gen. Berndt is visiting to show his support of the Yellow Ribbon Program that Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College participates and offers to all military branches. SMWC’s participation in this program, when combined with the Post 9/11 GI Bill, means that veterans who have served on active duty for at least 36 aggregate months since 9/11/01 and who meet college admission requirements will have the opportunity to attend SMWC tuition-free. 

Berndt is also showing his support for the new Sister Catherine Hartman Spiritual Companionship Program. The Sisters of Providence are partnering with SMWC by offering an optional spiritual companion to any veteran who enrolls in an academic program at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. They will offer on-going visits with a Sister of Providence companion at the time a student may be on campus as well as on-going visits via email or letters.

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Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and WTHI-TV announce that Chelsea Meeks of Vincennes and Katie Paxton of Rockville have been chosen as the December recipients of the Top Ten on 10 Scholarship.

Meeks has been on the honor roll at Vincennes Rivet High School since her freshman year. She’s been in the National Honor Society at Rivet since her sophomore year. Students in the society focus on volunteer work and each year Meeks does 10 hours of tutoring, six acts of kindness — such as fund-raising for St. Jude’s and taking gifts to area nursing homes, and volunteering at area food banks and kitchens.

Showing compassion and respect are important to Meeks. “Leaders show respect, trustworthiness, honesty and are willing to help others,” she said. “Leaders have to show compassion to others in order to help them.”

Meeks served on the student council her freshman and senior years. She’s also part of Students Against Destructive Decisions and Youth Inspiring Peers.

Meeks played on Rivet’s varsity basketball team all four years of her high school career, receiving such honors as first team all-conference, first team all-area, county leading scorer, and all-state honorable mention.

At SMWC, she plans to major pre-professional studies to either become an occupational therapist working with special needs children or go to medical school. “SMWC would be a great opportunity for me, it has small yet challenging classes, and a great learning environment,” Meeks said. “It would help me start off my career in the medical field. The small classes would help me get a one-on-one experience with my professors to help me learn the best way possible.”

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The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) Art Gallery's first exhibition of 2010 will be Leftovers: Spaces, Materials, People. The exhibition will be on display Jan. 21 through Feb. 6. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, Jan. 21, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Leftovers: Spaces, Materials, People is curated by Wes Janz, Ph.D, Professor of Architecture at Ball State University. The exhibition is part of onesmallproject, which was inspired by living conditions in the working class neighborhoods of Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Colombo, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Mumbai, New Orleans, St. Petersburg, and Singapore. It addresses the one billion leftover people - typically called squatters, self-builders, slum dwellers, informal settlers, or displaced persons - who claim leftover spaces in cities and live in unauthorized dwellings made of scavenged, leftover materials. For further information regarding onesmallproject, visit http://www.onesmallproject.com.

The exhibition is a complement to a larger exhibition, small architecture BIG  LANDSCAPES, which will be on display at the Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN, Feb. 5 - Mar. 13. An opening reception will be held at the Swope on Friday, Feb. 5, while a symposium will take place on Saturday, Feb. 6.

The SMWC Art Gallery is located in Hulman Hall, room 132. Admission is free and open to the public. Regular Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. For more information, contact Rebecca Mollenhauer, Gallery Director, by phone at 812-535-5265 or by email at artgallery@smwc.edu.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College students and others returning to the campus will find several changes took place during the holiday break. Various administrative offices have been moved to new locations on campus.

“With the goal of making offices and support services more accessible to our students and campus visitors, we have moved both Admission Offices to the Rooney Library and located Financial Aid closer to the Business Office,” said President David G. Behrs. “This will allow for more space and a brighter atmosphere for our campus visitors and will allow financial aid counselors more privacy when meeting with parents or students to discuss financial strategies.”

Another part of the move included relocating all the Program Directors of Graduate Studies to one hallway on the first floor of Guerin Hall and moving the Office of College Relations and Publications to the front of the building and closer to the Office of Advancement.  Several individual offices were also moved.

“We want to make it more convenient for our guest to find what they are looking for and to allow our employees more space and a better work environment for their areas,” said President Behrs.

The Office of Campus Admission and the Office of Distance and Graduate Admission are now located in the Mary and Andrew Rooney Library on the first floor. A new reception area was created and guests are now closer to Sodexho’s Jazzman’s Cafe’, which offers sandwiches, bakery items and specialty coffees.

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