Alumni Class Notes
Convent of the Sacred Heart • Sacred Heart Elementary • St. Joseph’s • Sacred Heart Prep
Note: Alumni entries are categorized by highest year of attendance. If an alumnus/a is a graduate of multiple campuses, a notation will appear next to the name, prior to the submitted news. CONVENT OF THE SACRED HEART (CSH) CSH Class of 1973 Since the Class of 1973’s 40th reunion in 2013, the class has continued to grow closer and try to get together much more often, including a Christmas lunch every December. Notably, classmates Jean Prinvale Swenk, Linda Power Holden, and Ana Carlotta Araujo have been delighted to join with Eugenia “Gena” Pares-Reyna McGowan to celebrate the wedding of her daughter, the birth of her first granddaughter, Maria Amelia Kramer, and this past March, the wedding of her son. During the May commencement ceremony at Boston College, Gena Pares-Reyna McGowan was awarded an honorary
doctorate in humane letters for her work with dual-language immersion programs, efforts which have significantly benefited St. Matthew Catholic School, an inner-city K-8 school in Phoenix, AZ, where she serves as principal. Noted in the program, “When Gena McGowan took over as principal, she transformed the way the inner-city school educates a student body whose families live at or below the poverty level. She led the school through two successful reaccreditation processes and re-structured the way the school uses assessment data... But the most dramatic step was the school’s adoption of a dual-language immersion curriculum, where proficiency in both English and Spanish in all subjects is the guiding principle. Two years ago, St. Matthew joined the 18 schools that are now part of the Boston College Roche Center for Catholic Education’s Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools (TWINCS), which provides curriculum support, professional development, and a network for dual-language Catholic schools. Jean Prinvale Swenk received the Bronze Presidential Volunteer Service Award from President Obama, recognized for more than 100 volunteer hours given last year to the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto. She notes, “my role is ‘House Warmer’—someone who works at the front desk and responds to phone calls, questions, comments, etc. This week we celebrated the grand opening of the new expansion, so that hopefully for the first time in the House’s 37 year history, RMH will have enough rooms so no one who needs a place to stay has to be turned away.”
CSH ’73-ers Eugenia “Gena” Pares-Reyna McGowan, Jean Marie Prinvale Swenk, Colleen Casey, Meghan Kramer, and Ana Carlota Araujo gather for a mini-reunion lunch in April
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Jean also recently traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia and visited the Sacred Heart school there. “What a delight to discover that
Sr. Rude, principal when we were at the Convent, now lives there (as luck would have it, she was back here in the US when I was there). I got a fun tour of the of course gorgeous building/grounds. I also this past year visited our network school in New Orleans. Wherever I go, it always feel a lot like ‘home.’ That’s the power of the Sacred Heart spirit!” SACRED HEART PREPARATORY (SHP) SHP Class of 1993 Margarita Woc Colburn, DVM earned her BS in biology and MS in conservation biology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2003, she earned her DVM degree from Cornell University Veterinary School. She completed a Zoological Medicine and Surgery residency at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, in conjunction with Oklahoma City Zoo. Currently, she is the associate veterinarian at the Nashville Zoo, where she is the SSP Veterinary Advisor for Giant anteaters and Tamanduas. She is currently researching the causes of gastrointestinal disease in Giant Anteaters.
Photo credit: Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Promoted? Moving? Married? New baby? New job? Please share your news with us for a future issue of the Sacred Heart Magazine at SHMagazine@shschools.org. All submissions may be edited for length and clarity, and digital photographs are welcome, too!
Margarita Woc Colburn, DVM (left) checking the vitals of a red panda
SHP Class of 1996 Previously with Yahoo, Intuit, NOOK, and GitHub, Kelly Dragovich was recently named senior vice president of people for San Francisco startup Hired, Inc. Among her volunteer activities, she has served as an SHRM mentor for young professionals and coached AYSO youth soccer.