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BRIDGING THE DI STA NC E After 30 years, a distance learner comes home.
STORY BY JOANNE BEAN, VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER
B
y any measure, Jeanne Arnold ’83 is a fabulous Saint Joseph’s success story. She was one of our early distance education pioneers, and has gone on to use her degree to advance patient care throughout the course of her career in healthcare administration. She is a noted philanthropist and continues to engage in cutting-edge health initiatives. Yet, like too many of our distance-learning graduates, her connection to campus was, well, distant. All that changed in spring 2015, when Jeanne came across Saint Joseph’s College Magazine and was inspired to put a check in the mail. When I called to thank her for her generous donation, a relationship blossomed. During a recent conversation with Jeanne, I asked her to share how she found her way back to Saint Joseph’s College all these years later.
“It transformed my career.” Jeanne (Donlevy) Arnold doesn’t remember how she first heard about the Saint Joseph’s distance baccalaureate program for nurses. But she does remember thinking, “This could benefit my career path—an advanced degree on a schedule that works for me.” As the newly appointed assistant director of nursing
at the former St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Jeanne had come a long way with the RN diploma she received from Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing. But it was clear that nurses would soon need their bachelor’s degrees to remain competitive. “I had proven myself to be a good administrator and a leader,” she says. “They valued my clinical experience… But, you never know.” Jeanne wanted to be sure that her lack of a degree wouldn’t be a barrier. However, as she reminded me, there weren’t many options available to single, working moms back in those days. Fortunately, Saint Joseph’s had recently begun offering a BS in Professional Arts through distance education. It was tailor-made for nurses like Jeanne: “Saint Joseph’s counted a good chunk of my RN diploma credits toward my degree so I could earn my BS in just two years. Plus, I was able to continue working full time at the hospital.” To speed her progress, she attended two summer sessions on campus. “It was beautiful being on Sebago Lake in Maine, although mostly I spent my time studying,” she recalls. In 1983, she achieved her goal, earning a BS in Professional Arts with a major in healthcare administration. “The degree transformed my career,” says Jeanne, who was then able to advance steadily in
Pictured: Ed and Jeanne (Donlevy) Arnold visiting campus in December 2015.
“It was beautiful being on Sebago Lake in Maine, although mostly I spent my time studying.”
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