These two lines are from a prayer I have offered many times at DSHA. I have always liked it and believed “you are exactly where you are meant to be” would be as calming to our girls as it was to me. Today it speaks to me profoundly as I reflect on the opportunity I have had to serve as president of DSHA. When the Sisters of the Divine Savior asked me to become DSHA’s first president in 1998, I was given, I now realize, the gift of a lifetime. Entrusted with the mission to develop young women of faith, heart and intellect who will live lives that will make a difference, I received the challenge and opportunity to become one myself. OK, so the “young” part is no longer true, but the rest of it — that’s the job description. With the unwavering support and inexhaustible energy of Michael, my husband, my role here has not been a job. It has been a vocation and a lifestyle; together, we have been “all in.” I have been exactly where I was meant to be. For that incredible gift, I am so grateful.

 

The matter of faith is central to our reason for being a school. We intend to support each student and member of our staff to attend to their own faith journey and grow in relationship to God. Over time, I have grown so much in my own ability to discern and connect our community’s need to the prayers that we offer to God. Just a few weeks ago, I sat on the stage of the Robert and Marie Hansen Family Fine Arts Theatre for the send-off prayer service for Vocare, our seniors' two-week capstone service experience. As we closed with a full-throated singing of “We are One Body," I had tears in my eyes. I would never again have just that view of 695 joyous young women, nor would I join them in just that way as we made manifest our faith and our belief in each other and our school. To know that our Catholic identity is visibly present and felt at DSHA, I am so grateful.

 

To me, being a woman of heart required me to examine our institutional decisions to be sure that the reflection of justice and compassion that the example of Jesus demands of us was present. I knew that we needed to invest in people. And now we do! Through a scholarship program that is nearing two million dollars annually, we have made the DSHA experience possible for literally hundreds of talented, motivated girls with limited resources. Their lives have been forever changed and our school community has a depth, richness and diversity from which we all learn and grow. My parents, both gifted teachers, devoted their lives to Catholic education. My mother frequently talked about what a gift it is to have important work worth doing well. Their inferior financial compensation was not a point of contention for my parents. But I could not accept that what had always been true of working in a Catholic school would always have to be true. Justice in the form of market-competitive compensation for all DSHA teachers and staff has been achieved and must be maintained. So many worked so hard for so long to articulate and achieve our scholarship and compensation goals. I am so grateful.

 

That a school would name “intellect” as one of its outcomes is no surprise. But the opportunity at DSHA is that here we do not divorce the use of intellect or its power from the illumination of our faith or the insights of our hearts. The call to serve in a Catholic school demands and allows that you bring your whole-self to school every day. Yes, I take pride that our course offerings continue to grow and our ACT averages are the best in the state for girls. You bet I do. But it is our lived-out commitment to support the development of the whole girl that fueled my drive to complete two capital campaigns so we could transform our girls’ experiences and thus their possibilities. To look around today at DSHA is to see so many important teaching, learning, growing moments happening because of the creativity, commitment and transformative generosity of so many. And for that, I am so grateful.

 

So for today, there is peace within me. It has been an honor and a gift to lead

DSHA and live this mission every day. I am so very grateful.

President Ellen Bartel