Saint Mary's Newsroom
Campus ConnectionAn update from the president to alumni and parents

Saint Mary’s to celebrate Family Weekend Sept. 27-29
As many as 1,000 visitors have come to Saint Mary’s Winona Campus in celebration of Family Weekend. This year, families are welcomed Friday through Sunday, Sept. 27-29, with a full slate of activities — many of which are open to the Winona community, including music and theatre events, sporting events, and the Fall Frolic fun run/walk. Find a full schedule of events at smumn.edu/familyweekend.
Saint Mary’s awarded $187,926 grant to fund Scholarships for diverse teacher licensure students
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University has been awarded a Collaborative Urban and Greater Minnesota Educators of Color Grant. Through the grant, Saint Mary’s will receive $187,926, which will be used primarily to fund tuition scholarships for a new cohort of diverse teacher licensure students at the university. The cohort, scheduled to begin in summer 2020, represents the second cohort of the community-engaged teacher pathway program developed in collaboration with The Sanneh Foundation’s Dreamline coaching program.
According to Shannon Tanghe, Ph.D., program director in the M.A. in English as a Second Language, these grants help Saint Mary’s prepare educators for a growing population of diverse students. “Promoting diversity in educators is also important, because research has shown that students benefit when teachers share their race or gender,” she said. “As we work to close the achievement gap in education, it’s crucial we support racially diverse teachers. Students of all racial backgrounds can benefit from a diverse teacher workforce that represents the nation’s overall demographics.”
These scholarships will benefit adult learners in the M.A. in English as a Second Language and Special Education programs.
Beech named to Launch Minnesota Advisory Board
WINONA, Minn. — Christine Beech, executive director of Saint Mary’s University’s Kabara Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, has been named to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s advisory board for Launch Minnesota. This new statewide collaboration supports technology startups.
Each of the board’s 10 members come from unique backgrounds in technology and entrepreneurship.
Launch Minnesota will provide financial incentives, training, and grants to people starting scalable innovative businesses in sectors such as aerospace, agricultural processing, nanotechnology, and medical devices. The program provides special consideration for startups in Greater Minnesota, as well as businesses started by women, veterans and people of color. The program has an annual budget of $2.5 million.
A key goal of Launch Minnesota is to make the risks related to starting a high technology company a little more manageable for entrepreneurs through:
- Grants to assist in attracting federal research and development funding
- Business operation grants to help entrepreneurs with capital constraints
- Child care and housing assistance
- Training in areas focused on scalable innovative businesses
- An Angel Tax Credit that incentivizes venture investment in early stage startups.
Beyond providing incentives, Launch Minnesota seeks to bring the statewide startup industry together to create a stronger network of innovators in Minnesota, and to tell the story of the state’s startup growth to the rest of the country and the world.
Christine Beech is also an assistant professor of business at Saint Mary’s. She is active in the Southeast Minnesota entrepreneurial community, co-founding a Women Entrepreneur’s Forum in Rochester, helping to launch a co-work space and bring 1 Million Cups to Winona, and partnering with other local universities to create new cross-disciplinary student entrepreneurial events. Her research areas have included the examination of gender, faith, and military service as predictors of entrepreneurial activity. Prior to joining Saint Mary’s University, Christine engaged in several entrepreneurial ventures, ranging from building a management consulting business line with over $21 million in annual revenue, to operating a boutique consulting practice serving federal government clients. She is also a military veteran, having retired after serving 20 years in the Army as a military intelligence warrant officer.

Celebrate Día de los Muertos with ‘Sugar Skull!’ at the Page Theatre
WINONA, Minn. — The Page Series at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota presents Mexico Beyond Mariachi in “Sugar Skull! A Día de los Muertos Musical Adventure” Friday, Oct. 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the Page Theatre. The family-friendly production explores the Mexican cultural traditions of Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead.
“Sugar Skull!” tells the story of 12-year-old Vita Flores, a born-and-raised New Yorker struggling to connect with her Mexican heritage. But when a spirited Día de los Muertos decoration decides to help out, Vita must navigate a colorful and mysterious cementerio populated with trickster chaneques, colorful calacas, ancient ancestors, a bewildering bruja, and even the famous Catrina Calavera. With an excitable candy skeleton as her friend and guide, Vita discovers the true meaning of Día de los Muertos through stories, songs, and more. Featuring a company of gifted musicians and dancers, this one-hour, colorful stage production is fall entertainment for youth and family audiences alike.
To help families prepare for the performance, the Page Series will partner with the Winona Public Library for a Día de los Muertos-themed story time event on Saturday, Oct. 5, at noon at 151 W. 5th St. Families will enjoy story time and crafts inspired by the production. This event, held at the library, is free for all and does not require registration.
Mexico Beyond Mariachi is a multi-cultural ensemble of professional musicians, actors, dancers, and teaching artists whose love of Mexican traditions and way of life shines bright in every performance. The company’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that art and culture are an integral part in the development of every individual’s outlook on life. Personal engagement, community experiences, and the celebration of commonality are themes present in all of Mexico Beyond Mariachi’s work.
Tickets for “Sugar Skull!” are $12 for the general public and $8 for youth ages 17 and younger. For more information, a video preview, and to order tickets, visit pagetheatre.org. Tickets may also be ordered through the Saint Mary’s Performance Center box office by calling 507-457-1715 (noon to 6 p.m., weekdays).
About the Page Series
Now in its 33rd season, the Page Series connects professional performing artists from around the globe with thousands of Winonans each year. With events at the Joseph Page Theatre on the Winona Campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as at locations across the Winona community, the Page Series offers dance, music, and theatre performances, workshops, classes, and more that inspire, uplift, educate, and invite community members to discover the relevance of the arts in their daily lives.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Community Programs Sponsors:
Page Series community programs are made possible, in part, through a grant from the Xcel Energy Foundation.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Sept. 26 mixer to connect Saint Mary’s students, Winona business leaders
WINONA, Minn. — Winona-area business leaders are invited to attend a Welcome Back Mixer with Saint Mary’s University students from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. The event, which will be held in Saint Mary’s Science and Learning Center, is designed to connect students with local business leaders and increase their awareness of career opportunities. The mixer will include an introduction to Dr. Michelle Wieser, the university’s new dean of business and technology.
This event is co-sponsored by Miller Ingenuity, WinCraft, the RTP Company, and the Saint Mary’s School of Business and Technology.
Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Dennis Pedrick at dpedrick@smumn.edu.

Cokie Roberts inspires action at 2019 Hendrickson Forum
The sad news of Cokie Roberts’ passing coincided with the publication of the following recap of her appearance at the Hendrickson Forum this past April on Saint Mary’s University’s Minneapolis Campus. Our prayers are with her family and friends, and our deep appreciation for her wisdom, wit, and faith remain.
At this year’s Saint Mary’s University Hendrickson Forum, held April 16 during Holy Week, keynote speaker Cokie Roberts appropriately recognized the Blessed Mother for her strength.
A sold out crowd of nearly 300 attended Roberts’ presentation at the annual forum on Saint Mary’s Twin Cities Campus, during which Brad Hewitt, retired CEO of Thrivent Financial, also received the 2019 Hendrickson Medal for Ethical Leadership.
In her keynote, “Weaving the Social Safety Net at Home and Around the World,” Roberts, a New York Times best-selling author and renowned journalist and political commentator, explained that “There has been a strong social responsibility fabric running throughout history, primarily exercised by women.”
“That’s what the women in the foundation of our country did,” she added. “They looked around them. They saw what was happening. They saw the needs and strove to fill them.”
As Roberts has written six New York Times best-sellers, most dealing with the roles of women in U.S. history, she ought to know. “I came to write these books because histories that leave out half of the human race aren’t accurate,” she said.
One lifelong inspiration for Roberts was her mother, who served 18 years in Congress before retiring and serving as ambassador to the Vatican. “She was an enormous influence in my life and remarkable human being in so many ways,” Roberts said, listing another major influence, the nuns from the Society of the Sacred Heart. “They took girls seriously in the 1950s. That was radical,” Roberts said. “They raised us to be anything we wanted to be.”
In the continuum of religious women doing what needed to be done, Roberts mentioned the Ursulines who came to her home town of New Orleans in 1727 to open hospitals for the colonists but looked around at other needs and soon established schools for Native Americans and African Americans.
In 1810, Elizabeth Ann Seton, started what became the highly successful parochial school system in this country — a feat that often gets her one short sentence in history books.
She detailed Sister Francis Xavier Cabrini, Sister Katharine Drexel and others, women canonized for being ahead of their time “to bring those on margins into the mainstream and not take no for an answer.”
And, in examining Minnesota history, she credited the woman who founded Mayo Clinic.
The celebrated hospital, she argued, would not exist were it not for Sister Mary Alfred Moes. “I know, of course, all about the Mayo Brothers and their remarkable father, but had it not been for a pushy nun, who wouldn’t take no for an answer, Saint Mary’s hospital wouldn’t have been built and Mayo Clinic wouldn’t exist,” Roberts said. Sister Mary Alfred Moes refused to accept that Rochester was too small a town to support a hospital and she raised the money herself.
But, Roberts said, strong women aren’t just Catholic religious women. She detailed the stories of Isabella Graham, Elizabeth Hamilton, and Martha Ripley, to name a few.
Amidst all of these notable women who worked, despite tremendous hardship, adversity, and often ridicule, for the betterment of society, Roberts singled out a male: Saint John Baptist de La Salle, the founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools — of which Saint Mary’s is affiliated.
“He was a man definitely before either his time, or perhaps more accurately, a man who recognized the sign of the time,” Roberts said. “His remarkable vision about education for the poor, for delinquents, is still so incredibly relevant today … everything I’ve learned about Saint Mary’s underlines that.
“It’s clear that the Lasallian principles are still the guiding force behind this very important institution,” she furthered. “Faith and the presence of God, quality education, and respect for all persons, inclusive community, and concern for the poor and social justice. Those principles need influence in our country today.”
Roberts shared insights into other innovative humanitarian efforts and programs in both the private sector and U.S. government.
An active volunteer and advocate for Save the Children, she detailed her work with this organization, which provides relief to children in times of distress. “War is still stunting the lives of children,” she said, providing the estimation that in 2018, 60.5 million people displaced from their homes by war, half of them under age of 18. She said that one person in this world is displaced every 2 seconds.
She said there are many programs which are making great strides to help global issues. She detailed the PEPFAR program, started by George W. Bush that is the biggest program for global health, providing anti-viral medications to 14.6 million people.
Circling back to education, Roberts said it is the best way to break the cycle of poverty. “It changes not only their lives but it changes the life of a country and we have lot of data to support that,” she said. “That remarkably is what Saint John Baptist de La Salle recognized 300 years ago and is still true today. I am constantly blown away by kids’ ability and desire to learn, even in extremely difficult conditions. We must try as hard as possible to provide education.”
Roberts encouraged attendees to do what they can do, just like the women throughout history. “To say that it’s too big a problem is just a copout,” she said. “I hope the young people coming out of this great institution, no matter what their expertise, emerge awakened, nurtured, and empowered to lead ethical lives of service and leadership.”
Following Cokie’s remarks, Mary Lahammar, anchor, reporter and producer of Almanac, joined her on stage to moderate the question-and-answer portion of the program before Roberts met with 20 students for a private and inspiring Q&A.

Saint Mary’s to celebrate Family Weekend Sept. 27-29
Student performances highlight weekend activities
WINONA, Minn. — As many as 1,000 visitors have come to Saint Mary’s Winona Campus in celebration of Family Weekend. This year, families are welcomed Friday through Sunday, Sept. 27-29, with a full slate of activities — many of which are open to the Winona community, including music and theatre events, sporting events, and the Fall Frolic fun run/walk. Find a full schedule of events at www.smumn.edu/familyweekend.
Saint Mary’s Department of Theatre and Dance will perform two hilarious one-act plays by Tom Stoppard Wednesday through Sunday, Sept. 25-29, in the Studio Theatre, located in the Performance Center. The absurd farce, The Real Inspector Hound, follows feuding theatre critics Moon and Birdboot into a hilarious whodunit, set in the mists surrounding isolated Muldoon Manor, where they become implicated in the performance they are there to review. Hound is paired with another surreal Stoppard farce, After Magritte, in which a Scotland Yard inspector sleuths a case involving a tuba, a bunch of .22 caliber shells, and some paintings. Both are directed by Dr. Jimmy Bickerstaff. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25-28 and 3 p.m. Sept. 29.
The annual Family Weekend Concert, planned for 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 in Page Theatre, will feature:
- The Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, under the direction of Dr. Patrick O’Shea, performing works by Randall Thompson, Moses Hogan, Sam Pottle, as well as music by Palestrina and English madrigals;
- The Concert Band, under the direction of Dr. Janet Heukeshoven, performing music by John Williams, including scores from Munich and Amistad, as well as his more familiar films such as Star Wars, Jaws, and T.; and
- Jazz at Saint Mary’s, under the direction of A. Eric Heukeshoven, performing swinging favorites and Latin grooves.
Tickets to theatre and music performances are $10 or $5 for students and seniors and are available at the box office, 507-457-1715, from noon to 6 p.m. weekdays or online at www.pagetheatre.org/.
MCA performance to support music scholarships for youth
WINONA, Minn. — Thirteen music instructors from the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) will present a joyous and varied musical program at Café Congo 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, at First Congregational Church.
MCA is “playing it forward” by donating proceeds from the performance to music scholarships for youth with financial need.
Piano, saxophone, clarinet, drums, flute, cello, and singing performances will all take place at this public event. MCA instructors performing are Ryan Ballanger, Dawn Burmeister, Catie Deysach, Larry Finke, Aleah Harvey, Grace Hendrickson, Kayla Jannsen, Kerry Klungtvedt, Meghan Knudsen, Lindsy O’Shea, Theresa Remick, Rachael Ryan Dahlgren, and Jake Schmacher.
Freewill donations will be accepted. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and refreshments will be provided.
Café Congo is a social action initiative of the First Congregational Church, located at 161 W. Broadway. The church is handicap accessible.
About MCA
The Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA), an affiliate program of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, is a nonprofit community arts school offering programming in dance, music, visual art, and theater. Classes, lessons, workshops, and camps are offered for students of all ages from birth through older adults at the Valéncia Arts Center. For more information about MCA or Galleria Valéncia, visit mca.smumn.edu, email mca@smumn.edu, or call 507-453-5500.

Public invited to dedication of Brother William Hall at Saint Mary’s
WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University invites the public to a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its newest residence hall on the Winona Campus, Brother William Hall, on Friday, Oct. 4, beginning at noon.
The $6.9 million residence hall has been entirely funded through philanthropic gifts. Two anonymous families chose to not only help Saint Mary’s create a vibrant living facility to attract new students, but also to honor Saint Mary’s 13th president Brother William Mann’s 10-year legacy at the university.
The 112-bed, three-story building houses first-year students and some of the best views of Winona. The ceremony will be followed by refreshments and tours.