The Matriarch of Our Communications Family

by Ken Slavin (B.A. '83)

I can’t imagine St. Mary’s without Sister Ann. She was the first teacher I met when I enrolled as a freshman in 1979. I can still picture her standing in the broiling August sun as we lined up outside the Life Sciences Building, waiting to register. Despite the heat and the crowd, Sister Ann was unflappable.

Having attended Catholic schools much of my life, I was used to “take charge” nuns who seemed larger than life. That’s how Sister Ann seemed to me—minus the habit, of course.

I majored in English-communication arts—a fairly new degree program and the only one of its kind in the nation. Sister Ann was the creator, adviser and key instructor. In those days, there were few “EA” majors on campus. We felt like a small family with Sister Ann as its matriarch. She had high standards and expected the same from her students. But she also knew how to balance those expectations with kindness and fairness—and an occasional firm “nudge” when necessary. She was never a pushover.

I was often overly committed to extracurricular activities, and occasionally missed a writing deadline or didn’t do as well as I should have on a test. She gave me leeway when I needed it, but always firmly and fairly graded me—sometimes to my dismay. Once she allowed me to turn in a paper a day or two past deadline. I got a “B-minus” on it. She said, “Ken, this should have been an ‘A.’ But that would be unfair to those who were on time.” She was right.

More than once, she told me, both in red ink and face-to-face: “You can do better than this.” Right again.

Sister Ann taught me to appreciate literature both as an art form and as a pathway to critical thinking and analysis. Her soft-spoken lectures were quiet performances. She pulled you in until you were completely absorbed in the subject and, before you knew it, you had actually learned something of importance.

She was also a pragmatist. That’s why she created the Englishcommunication arts degree. She wanted English majors to have marketable skills. So we studied business, advertising, journalism, TV and radio production, and more. Her Career Seminar is legendary and became a model for other universities around the country.

After graduation, Sister Ann often invited me to speak to her classes. I couldn’t possibly say “no” to a woman who helped me so much and taught me so well. Over the years, we became true friends. I will always cherish that friendship.

Ken Slavin owns his own public relations consulting business and is a professional jazz singer. He lives in San Antonio and is an active alum of the University, having served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and as a volunteer for various activities.

Teacher, Mentor, Friend

by Lucinda Vela-Wick (B.A. ’83, M.A. ’88)

When I think of Sister Ann Semel, from a first introduction in 1980 as my professor, to the time of her recent retirement, I recall each time she influenced my life and the lives of so many others. I have read that a teacher is someone who envisions what can be accomplished, not what cannot be achieved. This is what gives Sister Ann the timeless reputation among her former students of being “tough, but the best professor I ever had.” A favorite class for many of us was Career Seminar—a course for communications students with the goal of preparing them for employment and career development.

Now I have the pleasure of teaching this course at St. Mary’s, still sharing what I learned years ago from the pro. Regardless of the advances of technology, some things are essential in our careers: professionalism, communication skills, ethics and commitment. They are at the core of what Sister Ann taught her students, and they remain constant through the text and curriculum she wrote for Career Seminar (and that are still used today).

Sister Ann becomes a mentor during our college years and remains so, even as we leave St. Mary’s. For me, she would clip want ads from the newspaper that “matched my skills” and call after I graduated to keep track of my career. One of those calls brought me back to St. Mary’s as an admission counselor for a few years. And then, the mentor proclaimed me a mentor by inviting me to join her Career Seminar class as a “communications professional in the real world.” Once again, Sister Ann was teaching us, this time on how to be good mentors.

Her famous red beans and rice. Na’wlins. Party at Sister Ann’s. “Cook it and they will come,” and we did, time after time. You were always welcome, whether they were departmental gatherings, graduation celebrations, special masses led by Father John Rechtien, S.M., art showings that changed her home into a gallery of inspiration, or even just private conversations with her. Sister Ann befriends for life. At one of her retirement parties, I heard her say she enjoyed math in college and could have pursued that field of teaching.

Selfishly, I’m glad she didn’t. I can’t fathom the English- Communications Arts Department without Sister Ann. I can’t picture my life without her. She has created a legacy for future students, and although they may not have the opportunity to meet her, they sure will know her through all of us.

An adjunct professor at St. Mary’s University, Lucinda also owns her own product development and marketing business, Create2Market and is a partner in Green River Pet, a manufacturer of organic, eco-friendly pet products.

The protagonist of a transcendental story

by Twister Marquiss (B.A. ’97)

The one class I remember taking with Sister Ann Semel, American Transcendentalism, might make for an apt title for any piece reflecting on her influence in my life—as a student, scholar, and today as a college English instructor.

She took the subject matter far beyond the transcendental notion that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, such as we saw in the works of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In fact, in the challenges she posed to us as students, she applied what seemed to be philosophical transcendentalism: the idea that in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine the nature of experience.

It’s that “experience” that led me to where I am.

Sister Ann became my adviser when I changed my major to English. She guided me through personal rough patches and academic logjams. She pushed me toward grad school and she directed my thesis, which included some of my earliest substantial fiction writing. She also provided a role model in the classroom: her exceptional knack for shepherding discussion of texts always led to new discoveries and insights and opened class to more insightful dialogues. I try to employ a similar discussion method in teaching my own courses at Texas State University by establishing a catalyst and then steering class discussion. I can only hope that some of my own students are getting as much from the course as I gleaned from Sister Ann.

There was, of course, another connection from Sister Ann to where I now stand. In 1997, she introduced me to Scott Blackwood and Gene Browning. Scott was a coordinator at the St. Mary’s Learning Assistance Center and Gene was an adjunct faculty member in the English Department. Both were recent graduates of the MFA program in creative writing at Texas State (then Southwest Texas State). Gene helped kick-start my fiction writing, and Scott became the mentor who guided me from small workshops to an MFA program. In 2002, I completed my own MFA in creative writing (fiction) at Texas State, where I have been a literary editor and program faculty member in English ever since.

So, it was Sister Ann who guided me—sometimes directly, sometimes by causality—to this point in my academic life. Her retirement reminds me of her profound impact, not only on myself but on scores of other students as well. For many of us, she will always be the protagonist of a transcendental story.

In addition to teaching English at Texas State University, Twister Marquiss is assistant editor for three journals: Southwestern American Literature, Texas Books in Review, and The Journal of Texas Music History. His fiction has appeared in Narrative Magazine, Callaloo, Carve Magazine, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere.