Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) hosted more than 330 alums, guests, faculty, staff and students May 15-17 during the College’s 2009 Reunion celebration. Some of the many activities included a retreat, an alumnae art exhibit, pilgrimage tours, and the 23rd Annual Walk-in-the-Woods led by the SMWC President David G. Behrs.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Saturday night's Reunion Banquet where alums, friends and family gathered to celebrate a shared past, to sing and to enjoy good food, company and conversation. In addition, the banquet featured the presentation of the Frances Murphy Rumely Award to Jane O’Brien Argento, class of 1968, and the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Award to Miriam Wanjiru Chege, class of 1964.

The Rumely Award was presented by Marti Rumely Kuehn, class of 1969, in memory of Marti’s Mother, Frances Murphy Rumely, class of 1935, whose life was a celebration of the education she received at her beloved Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. In her lifetime, Frances volunteered thousands of hours to her College and to her community. The award is given annually to graduates of SMWC who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to civic, religious or educational organizations; volunteered significantly to one or more such organizations; and demonstrated leadership through her work for such organizations, whether paid or volunteer.

Jane O’Brien Argento has made significant contributions to her community and her family. For many years, she has volunteered at the Dolores Mission, which is a Jesuit parish in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles. This is one of Los Angeles’ poorest parishes with three public housing projects and four active gangs operating in the immediate neighborhood. She is also active with her parish, The Holy Family, in Pasadena, Calif., where she chairs the Social Concerns Committee and Detention Ministry.

In addition, she is a member of the Restorative Justice Commission of the California Province of Jesuits, an organization formed because Jesuit prison chaplains, and those who work with incarcerated youth, felt those children needed advocates. As an advocate, Argento spends 2-3 hours per week with kids – usually girls – who are incarcerated in juvenile facilities. She has testified in court on their behalf, advocated with social service agencies, and found lawyers to represent them pro bono. When these children have nowhere to go, Argento gives them love and support.

She is also a loving mother to her own four children, Maggie, Marie, Annie and Chris, and for the past ten years, Jane, and her husband, Phil, have provided financial assistance to a mentally ill homeless man who shines shoes for a meager income, but who is unable “to get a roof over his head.” The couple supplements his earnings so that he can get a shower, sleep in a bed and obtain many other necessities that each of us take for granted. 

Argento was nominated for the Rumely award by several members of her class, who said in their nomination forms, “Jane walks the walk. She is passionate about social justice and is using all of her God-given resources to make this world better than when she found it.”

The Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Award is presented for embodiment of the qualities of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin. The College’s foundress, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, is a role model for today’s woman. It is in her honor, and in recognition of the value-based educational legacy she established at SMWC, that the College honors women of like purpose, devotion, community vitality and leadership. The award is given annually to a graduate of SMWC who uses her gifts to excel at what she does and thus reflects God’s love and abundant grace in the world and who possesses similar purpose, devotion, community vitality and leadership as exhibited by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

Miriam Wanjiru Chege arrived in the United States in 1960, in the midst of the civil rights struggle. In spite of this atmosphere, not only did Miriam adapt – she thrived and made many friends who remain in contact with her still today. Upon returning to Kenya with her education degree, she married Henry Chege. She also began working for Catholic Charities as well as the City Council of Nairobi, where she oversaw feeding programs and eventually led a program funded by the World Bank to provide affordable housing for low-income people.

Upon the death of his mother, and when most people would have been thinking of retirement, Henry asked Miriam to start a community kindergarten in his mother’s old house in Kanyariri, a rural area outside Nairobi, where children had little access to education or nutritious food. The school had no electricity or running water. In spite of this, the Mary Nyanjega Academy grew quickly to 300 day and boarding students, ages pre-K to 8th grade. In the few years since its inception, the Academy has emerged as a premier school in the area.

Sadly, Henry passed in 2006 and his dying wish was that Miriam continue the school. When a monetary memorial was established in Henry’s honor, Miriam decided to use it to provide a basic rainwater catchment system for the school.  This provided some water for their needs. Miriam’s ongoing fundraising eventually resulted in enough money for the drilling of a well and expansion of the water system, allowing them to grow their own crops and permitting the school to provide a nutritious lunch for all students.

In commenting on Saint Mother Theodore’s sainthood, Chege said, “I have imagined the life Mother Theodora lived when she came to these woods in Terre Haute. This place must have been cold, wet and lonely and probably mosquito infested due to the bushes and forest. But none of that discouraged her because she had a dream which she knew to achieve, called for faith and commitment to the dream, and sacrifice to be made. Friends, our Mother Saint must be praising God for her work in women’s education, for her rough journey to sainthood was not in vain.”