ALUMNA SPOTLIGHT
Cathy (Rodrigues) Lee ’83
Distinguished Alumna and one of Hawai‘i’s top interior designers, Cathy (Rodrigues) Lee ’83, pays it forward with her creative brilliance in designing the Academy’s first STEAM environment—The Innovation Center.
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TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK. Cathy Lee ’83 stands in Sacred Hearts Academy’s new Innovation Center, her mind racing. The soaring, light-filled room is familiar to the Academy alum—years ago she was a student here, in Mrs. Lopez’s biology class, the clock on the wall a constant reminder that she was behind. Though biology was one of her favorite classes, Cathy’s mind wandered if she wasn’t conducting experiments or doing other hands-on activities, and her pen filled the margins of her notebooks with doodles and poems. “Miz Rodrigues, would you please pay attention?” The rejoinder always snapped her back to reality. Today, standing in the same space, it’s a far different reality for an alum who soared despite—and because of—her unconventional learning abilities. Now a successful interior designer, Cathy was tapped to redesign this room, and as a gift to her alma mater, she waived her professional fees. It’s a more fitting assignment than the school could have known. Despite admonitions in the classroom, Cathy thrived in the Academy’s nurturing
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SAC R E D H E A RT S AC A D E M Y
