Reflections Magazine Issue #69 - Spring 2009 | Page 24

Feature Article

“Siena had such an
enormous influence on
me. I am who I am today
because of the years I
spent here at Siena.”

“Many (domestic violence victims) were talking
about their experiences through the criminal
justice system,” Davis said of her early exposure
to the problem. “And those experiences were
roundly negative. ... It broke my heart to think
that people turned to the criminal justice system
for help, and they were actually re-victimized
through that process. I wondered if there was
anything I could do that could turn the tide.”

Gabrielle Davis ’85
Sister Ann Joachim Award Winner
Gabrielle Davis’ Siena Heights experience was
only supposed to last one semester. Davis, a Toledo, Ohio, native, was attending Oberlin College
but had to return home to deal with a medical
issue. She didn’t want to fall behind in her classes,
so when a friend invited her up to nearby Siena
Heights to visit, she accepted.
“I enrolled with the intention of just being here
a semester and going back to Oberlin,” Davis
said. “After I was here a couple of months, you
couldn’t have dragged me away from Siena. I
don’t know that I knew I was going to get my
degree from Siena, but once I was here, I was
sure of it.”
It was another suggestion from someone at
Siena that put her on her next career path.

“I was getting close to graduation, and I had a
professor who I was very close to, Sister Pat Hogan,” Davis said. “She said, ‘What are you going
to do when you graduate?’ ... I said, ‘I don’t know.
Maybe this. Maybe that.’ She said, ‘I th [