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Four hundred women graduates returned to campus on Saturday,
March 28, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of coeducation
at Holy Cross. The daylong event included a photographic
exhibition, discussion panels, a Mass, and a special reception
and dinner during which alumnae presented a $12,000 gift
to the College.
The following remarks are excerpted from a
speech given by Joan McDonough Perrault '77 during the course of the evening. September
1973, station wagon filled to the brim, my mother and father and I hauled all
my belongings to the second floor of Mulledy complete with the obligatory trunk,
the refrigerator, the hot pot, the sheets, the pillowcases and of course, the
bedspread selected to match
my roommate's. I was wearing a carefully selected outfit - plaid pants, matching
turtleneck and coordinating vest - 100% WOOL! It was at least a 90 degree day!
I was sweating bullets. But under no circumstances was I changing that outfit.
This was the outfit I had chosen to wear on my
first day at Holy Cross . . .
Holy Cross provided me with far more than a bachelor of
arts degree. It was the essence of Holy Cross that fostered
not only my academic growth by challenging me to think more
deeply, more diversely, and more carefully, but my spiritual
growth as well. It is here that I learned what it meant to
be a woman of faith, as I began to understand the responsibilities
that would face me in life. That in every small way and in
every large way, the choices I made in my life had to be
rooted in the Jesuit charge to be men and women for others.
With my crazy schedule, and I'm sure yours too, it's so
easy to get off track and to lose focus of what's most important
in life. I dash from the meeting to the orthodontist to the
birthday party, my calendar serving as a reminder of what
I'm supposed to be doing today. But life at such a pace serves
no purpose should I forget why it is that I am really here.
I often draw upon my experiences at Holy Cross to redirect
me right back to the true focal points of my life. The Jesuit
challenge to be men and women for others is what helps me
define my life as a mother, a wife, and an educator.
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