Widening the Circle of Opportunity

Dear Saint Mary’s Friends,

A very cold Saint Mary’s January comes to a close tomorrow, and we are all hoping for an end to the extreme conditions that have made our campus look and feel like an arctic tundra! Even so, there have been many warm and bright moments here this month, starting with the return of our students following the break. Classes started on January 12, and the tunnels are definitely getting lots of use.

Last week we celebrated the opening of the Prikkel Advising, Career, and Experience (PACE) Center—a beautifully renovated wing in Le Mans Hall—just off Reignbeaux Lounge (with a new exterior entrance facing the Student Center!). Since then, I’ve found myself reflecting on how often important moments in the life of the College reveal something larger than the occasion itself. The launch of the PACE Center was, on its surface, a ribbon cutting—an opportunity to inaugurate new initiatives in a new space—and also a celebration to express gratitude for the extraordinary generosity of the Prikkel family! More deeply, it offered a glimpse into the momentum of Saint Mary’s at this moment: a College growing with intention, widening the circle of opportunity while strengthening the core of who we are. 

That growth matters not simply because Saint Mary’s is enrolling more students but also because who our students are—and what they carry with them—has always shaped our work. Many of our students arrive with immense talent and ambition, but without the networks—either formal or informal—that make navigating careers feel intuitive or assured. They may be the first in their families to attend college, the first to pursue certain professions, or the first to imagine futures they have not yet seen modeled. They remind us that access is not abstract: it is relational—and it extends well beyond a letter of admission. Access involves sensitively advising students we have come to know well, encouraging their curiosity toward direction, and making certain that relevant experiential learning opportunities are visible and easy to navigate. The PACE Center stands as an equalizer in the Saint Mary’s experience—a tangible expression of our commitment to ensuring that every Saint Mary’s student can explore her future with confidence and support.

I think it’s important to say that this work is not a departure from our identity as a liberal arts college but a deepening of it. A liberal education, at its best, has always been about more than accumulation of knowledge: it is about self-knowledge, discernment, and the ability to make meaning across complexity. Career exploration, when approached with care and reflection, is not at odds with our tradition. It is one of its most practical expressions. To ask students who they are becoming, what calls to them, and how their gifts might meet the needs of the world is the fulfillment of an education, not a narrowing of it.

In this way, the PACE Center reflects something essential about Saint Mary’s today. We are not standing still. We are building with clarity and confidence—making judicious investments on behalf of our students. As we widen the circle—welcoming more women into this community—we are also strengthening the center: the relationships, the values, and the commitments that ensure a Saint Mary’s education continues to prepare women not only for their first job, but for lives of judgment, contribution, faith, and leadership.

The world our graduates enter today is complex and unsettled. It asks not only for competence, but for wise discernment; not only for ambition, but for self-understanding; not only for values, but for the confidence to act on them. In such a world, preparation cannot be reduced to a single major or a first job. It must help students integrate learning with experience, reflection with action, and aspiration with purpose: it must help them move forward with clarity even when the terrain ahead is not fully mapped. That is the ultimate work of a Saint Mary’s education, and the PACE Center will put a fresh new lens on that integration.

My heart is full of gratitude for the work of so many to make Saint Mary’s an institution focused on today’s students and unafraid to grow and evolve. I hope faculty, staff, and parents will encourage students to visit the PACE Center, and that alumnae will join The Bridge, our new mentoring platform that connects alumnae to current students and to each other. And I hope that all friends of the College will take note of what philanthropy, large or small, does for our College. It helps us to honor our history and to sustain our wonderful momentum—both to set and to keep the pace.

Warm regards,
 

Katie Conboy, Ph.D.

President

 

January 30, 2026