Winter Convocation 2004

Joanne Glavin McClatchy '79, Keynote Address

Good afternoon,

Thank you for the invitation to speak at the Winter Convocation. I am honored to be here.

I have been asked to speak on vocation. I was going to use the dictionary and give you the definition of the word "vocation." As you may know, I am the executive director of The Nativity School of Worcester, a Jesuit middle school for boys located in the heart of Worcester. Each day at Nativity we start with a morning assembly. The gathering begins with a prayer or spiritual reflection, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and then the "Word of the Week." Joining us tonight are the young men who are enrolled at The Nativity School. If we were in assembly I would give the word, then ask someone in the audience to give me the definition and use the word "vocation" in a sentence. But seeing that I only have 10 minutes to speak, I tried to find reflections of what vocation can mean to us. I decided that a quote might be more appropriate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in the river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea."

Tolstoy said, "The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people." (That quotes makes one wonder if Tolstoy had been trained by Jesuits instead of being a Russian writer).

Brian Andreas said "Most people don’t know but there are angels whose only job is to make sure that you don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life."

But my favorite quote, which is how I have come to view this mysterious calling on how to have vocation in your life, is:

"Always be in a state of expectancy,
And see that you leave room
For God to come in as He likes."
- Oswald Chambers

So what is so special about my life that I have been asked to speak to all of you about it today. Until last year, I would have not seen how it would be interesting or relevant but upon review and reflection it has been an interesting journey and is a different way to view our lives or our vocations. It’s a little scary to be up here and to have to share a bit of my life, but I also believe that is part of the journey and the work I have to do.

I need to give you some background and tell my tale. I hope you enjoy the story. My tale begins in June 2003, with my father forwarding an e-mail with a job description for a position for a new school - a Nativity School to be opened by the College of the Holy Cross. He sent the e-mail to my husband and copied it to me. He told my husband to think about it. He really wanted me to think about it, but knew that I would reject it out of hand if he suggested it. I have always done things my way, not my father’s way. My husband and I both read the e-mail and not a word was exchanged for a few days.

I probably need to step back and give you some background on my professional life. I graduated from Holy Cross in 1979 and went on to a career in finance, specifically in the banking world. I had known since college that I want to be involved in commercial real estate construction. After two years at my first job in banking, I decided to pursue my master’s degree at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After completion of my MBA, I worked in various banks underwriting large real estate construction projects. I worked at various levels and areas of Fleet Financial serving as vice president, senior vice president and ultimately, executive vice president.

I would have said that I was following my passion for finance and my love for real estate while I worked my way up the corporate ladder. I had used my gifts as a manager to do my job. I had fun doing what I had done in the corporate world. I had followed my vocation or so I thought. During this timeframe, I had encouraged and supported my husband’s career as an inner city school teacher. He taught in a parochial school and was recruited in 1997 to a small, independent school serving 60 inner city middle school boys called The San Miguel School. San Miguel started in 1993 and is based on the Nativity school model which is to provide a private middle school education to young men from vulnerable neighborhoods. San Miguel became an important part of our life and our service to the community of Providence. Not only was Brian teaching social studies and the first development officer at San Miguel, but I was on the board of directors, wrote grants and ran the strategic plan for the president of the school.

Now I know that you are thinking what does this have to do with vocation and why is she telling me this - but one’s vocation is a journey. It is your life and you may not see what God has planned for you. At certain points in your life you may see all the patterns and roads taken that lead to your real vocation.

So let’s go back to the e-mail from my father with a job description. I did not give the e-mail another thought, until two days later when driving home to Providence from a family gathering in Boston. I was alone in the car and it was like a laser light or a hand on my shoulder, which showed that all of my schooling, training, work experience, volunteer experience was leading me down the road to this position. Every job I had ever had was on that job description, and it was like someone saying, "I know that you think you have been doing all this for 25 years because you liked it, but I was preparing you for this." It is weird to know you have been on a road but did not know where it was leading you. You then realize that the decisions you made along the way lead you to your destination.

We had dreamed of starting our own school (if we ever hit the lottery). Families and kids throughout the past 12 years have provided so much to us, as we have provided to them. The work that we do is not work but is our life and it is how we parent/mentor. It is a process that works in unusual ways and one does not know the impact or strength you have provided until years later.

It is hard to know or accept that the jobs at Nativity Worcester were the next important step in our lives. We knew the time and love that is required to dream, start-up and sustain a small school. But we also knew the rewards of seeing young men learn that they can contain their anger and frustration, they can be respectful of others and have respect for themselves. We knew that there would be a lot of curve balls thrown at us in the starting of a new school, and a small one at that.

So, in August of 2003, we opened the 47th Nativity School. We are part of the Nativity Network of Schools. An idea whose birth happened over 32 years ago in the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the first Nativity School started by the Jesuits. The success of these schools is found in the students who learn, laugh and love, go onto high school and college and have found that when given the opportunity to have a private education, they too flourish.

This journey has been a continuation of faith, blind faith, and seeing God’s hand in all you do. It has been a hard year, one where we have stood at the precipice and thought we were failing to today where the school is open and we have 24 young men who are flourishing. We have a staff that is focused on the education of the whole person, mind body and soul. We have begun to impart the teaching of Jesuits with community service, "to those to who so much is given, so much is expected". We have young men who love to sing and play games such as Chess, Sequence or Othello. They greet us each day with a firm handshake and a smile. They are up and dressed before their families come to wake them, making sure that they have their shirt tucked in and a belt (they know that it is one of Mr. Zequeira’s pet peeves to not wear a belt!). They are thriving and building their community as young men whom have found a place that treasures them.

So what is the next phase of the journey? Learning patience, learning to trust in God and to give Him control. It has been a difficult year for me personally to give in and give up in order to receive the many gifts that we needed to start the school. But in return I have seen God’s hand at work. I have seen the many gifts, friends and coincidences that show God wishes to remain anonymous, but is involved every day at the school.

We know that by doing good work, we will bring good things to the school. But each day another tidbit is placed before us that reminds us that we are just doing the work that God wants done. So, here are some great short stories that show the hand of God moving everyday in our lives that at times have left us speechless and in awe.

• The school is blessed with a principal who is superb - a Holy Cross graduate, one who also was educated at Belin in Miami and is personally steeped in Jesuit traditions and values, and whose personal long-term dream is to open a Nativity school in Miami on his own. Alex Zequeira is perfect for the job. Not only has he been a middle school teacher and high school teacher, he believes passionately in educating the whole person. He loves a challenge and was given the job description through an e-mail from his longtime mentor from Holy Cross, Bruce Miller. He values the arts and is a great performer, loves to coach soccer and basketball. He teaches and speaks fluent Spanish and an added bonus is that he speaks "Jesuitise." He was a treasure that found us.
• Kathleen Gorski, our master teacher, followed Alex on this path. Kathy has a Ph.D. in chemistry. She has been in private industry in the chemical field and felt the call to teach middle school students to be great scientists. When hearing of the new school, she gave up a great job at a prestigious private school to join us in the opening of an inner city school. Her guidance to the staff, the students and countless others is invaluable and greatly appreciated.
• And our Nativity Fellows, young teachers who give a year of service in teaching, applied because of word of mouth. Marshall Flowers is a recent grad from Weston with a master’s in theology who has made the study of religion not only fun but also a conversation at the lunch table. Another fellow, just completed a year of service on an Indian reservation in the JVC, and read the Holy Cross magazine article on the new school and knew she had to teach there. Crista Carrick is teaching language arts to the sixth graders and is managing our senior and student volunteers. She provides balance and passion for reading, and makes learning grammar and vocabulary words fun. There is a vicious game of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" going on weekly over the most recent vocabulary words. Crista found us and we are grateful for her service every day.
• Kelli McLoughlin and Jen Schmolz (2003 Holy Cross grads) also found us through the Chaplain’s office and have had a great year teaching language arts and math. Kelli manages our after-school activities and field trips and Jen is one of the assistant coaches for the stellar basketball team and someone who will pitch in at the drop of a hat.
• Alex and I have been blessed with a great team, one that is learning how to start a school. We have the responsibility to teach these young men about their own talents and gifts as well as to provide a base for rituals, traditions, spirituality and values that the school will use for the years to come.

There is a saying that is told to those involved in these schools that I want to share with you today. It is the saying that "you get what you need, not what you want, as the gifts from God." That statement is a reflection of what these schools are all about. The Nativity schools, and their sister schools, the Miguel schools, are focused on the education of inner-city youth and nurturing them in mind, body and soul. In each of the Miguel schools you will find an icon at the front door. It is a picture or Christmas card that is framed and it is always of the Three Wisemen. Why the Three Wisemen? Because the Wisemen come bearing gifts, but these gifts only come when you need them and the gifts may not be exactly what you wanted but what you needed. The next part of my story revolves around the many gifts and coincidences which are God’s way of remaining anonymous.

Gifts have come from a variety of sources around the College of the Holy Cross. Although we have the mantra that explains that Jesuits and the College of the Holy Cross are sponsoring us - we say that "they are praying for us not paying for us." Although our funding comes from private individuals, foundations and corporations, we have had unbelievable in-kind support from all areas of campus. Some examples of the gifts are free office space in O’Kane, use of fields for soccer, tickets to football games, financial record keeping by the controller’s office.

We also had a highly successful SPUD program with 30 volunteers coming down to the school for tutoring three nights a week. The track team comes down for lunch every Thursday and each Nativity student has a Big Brother - 54 Holy Cross students volunteer on a regular basis at Nativity Worcester. The Jesuits on campus have provided a research center where 16 new computers were fired up last week on a wireless network and where new books arrive every week. We have over 2000 books on the shelves and 98% are gifts from friends and supporters. The boys have new winter coats through personal donations from the staff members of the Holy Cross development office. We have printers, copiers, office supplies and over 10,000 index cards that have been made from scrap paper by Mr. Roy and Tom Parsons and their whole team in graphic arts. We have had help from the Chaplains office, the administration, the library staff, and countless others who have given of their time, their talent and their energy. And, after the long days at Nativity Worcester we really need the support and care of this college community. The gifts are too numerous to list, but show the generosity that is the hallmark of Holy Cross and its community members.

We have just finished our first semester and the 24 young men are doing great things. They too are gifts we have been given and will treasure in the years to come. The boys have learned to sing with their voices and their hearts. They are learning to love to read, perform in drama class, make wondrous things in art and have been successful in the classroom with their academic studies from science to Spanish with some American history and bible navigation, to community service and sportsmanship. Whether in the classroom or on the basketball court where they are 10 and 3 for the season in the Catholic School League here in Worcester, the young men are doing great things and having fun doing it.

So I have talked a lot. I have woven my tale, but I hope you have enjoyed my story and that it has shown you one way to view the journey of your life and that you can be a part of God’s plan and you can watch him work through your family, friends and colleagues.

As I close, please remember the Oswald Chambers quote:

"Always be in a state of expectancy,
And see that you leave room
For God to come in as He likes."

Because one day, you may come around a corner and bump into the rest of your life.

Thank you.