Threshold Fall/Winter 2008

Speaking Out
by Patricia J. Aaron, MSSC Class of 1969

My family has had a long association with the Benedictine Sisters in Atchison. As Oklahoma has a very low percentage of Catholics in the state, that meant you were going out of state if you wanted to attend a Catholic college! Several of my fraternal aunts went to the Academy for high school and then on to the college and one aunt entered the community in Atchison. Various cousins and also my older siblings went to either St. Benedict’s or the Mount for college.

After graduating from Mount St. Scholastica College, and until just ten or so years ago, my contact with the sisters was very sporadic. I was reintroduced by a friend who has, through the years, kept in great contact with the sisters. Now I am pleased to say, my association has deepened and become very important in my life.

As a youngster I was very involved in Girl Scouting and decided during college that I would seek a career with this non-profit organization. After 10 years of working for that organization on both a local and national level, I moved into the human resources field and worked in various companies at the senior HR officer level. I have owned my own consulting business and also worked as the chief operations officer for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. I have been fortunate to be retired for four years.

After college, I soon found out that my Benedictine education had well prepared me in the classic “liberal arts” but it had also strengthened my logic and deductive reasoning, and given me a solid work ethic. It would be remiss of me not to mention how the Mount influenced my spiritual life, my sense of justice and duty to the poor.

Returning to the Mount, as I often do now, I am always touched by the kindness, happiness and vibrancy manifested in the lives of these magnificent women. They are attuned to the injustice in the world in which we live and not a bit timid in speaking out about it and, most of all, doing something to change it. These women challenge us by their example. I am honored to have them in my life.