Reflections Magazine Issue #79 - Fall 2013 | Page 23

Campus Feature

Trudy McSorley
4. What has been the single biggest change
since you’ve been at Siena Heights?
Hmmm. I suppose one would naturally say the growth in athletics, more
students, more academic programs. But
sitting where I am now on this end of
the calendar of life, I would say the focus
on Mission. Being a truly Dominican
institution. This commitment is critical
for our uniqueness, and I think for our
integrity and survival as an institution.
We didn’t always do this, you know.
for children, where we did many of the
literature classics such as “Pinocchio,”
“Alice in Wonderland,” “Ice Wolf” and
“Anne of Green Gables.” The other type
of children’s theater was college students
performing for children such productions as: “Androcles and the Lion,” “Wiley and the Hairy Man,” “Davey Crockett
and the Coonskin Cap” and “Ransom
of Red Chief.” It was here that the term
“Teaching is a Performing Art” was
coined on our campus. Teacher Education was looking for a home in our new
division structure, and we invited them
to be a part of our division. Sister Eileen
Rice, chair of Teacher Education, decided it was a perfect fit, as that was precisely what teachers did in the classroom
– teaching was/is an art a performing art!
This program meant everything to me.
There are as many stories as there are the
thousands of children who went through
the program over all those years. As time
went on it was not only Siena’s program,
it belonged to the Adrian and Lenawee
County community. The families were
proud of it, and it indeed was my passion. The hardest thing I have done at
Siena was leave that program and t