On this week’s edition of “Look at all the Neat Stuff the Intern Found” we are examining this blast from the past. In the 1979 Diamond Jubilee Edition of the Saint Joseph High School yearbook within the first few pages we stumble across the first graduating class from the original school established in 1904. On June 30th, 1906 Anna Creighton, Helen Moran, Irene Collins, Margaret Doyle, Mary McCoy, Alice O’Flinn, and Loretta McCornmick became the first women to hold the title of SJHS graduates.
Perhaps what makes this even more interesting is that the Sisters of St. Joseph, who were founded in LePuy, France in 1650, were originally only six women as well. Anna Brun, Claudia Chastel, Francoise Eyraud, Marguerite Burdier, Anna Chraleyer, and Anna Vey were the names of the original six. What a coincidence!
Looking at the different faces that make up this picture I wonder, did these women know that their school would still be around 114 years later? Did they ever think about the legacy, that in a way, they had created? What was it like being in a graduating class with only six people!? These questions are only the tip of the iceberg of what I would be itching to ask these women given the chance. I can’t even fathom how amazing it would be to be able to get together with them for coffee and pick their brains about what there time was like here at St. Joseph’s back in the day.
What would be even more incredible would be to give them a tour of the school itself, and show them all of the changes that have been made to the school over the years. Once they got over the initial shock of all the incredible technological advancements, like the 3D printers and virtual reality (VR) equipment, they would see all the good that their school has been up to over the last 114 years. They would be able to witness first hand what their legacy has produced. And while the type of curriculum that the women of the graduating class of 1906 were taught is completely different when compared to this year’s graduating class. What hasn’t changed is the root cause of why St. Joseph High School exists, and that is to provide a space in which young women have historically been able to become empowered.
#waybackwednesday #empoweringwomen #womenofspirit #sjhsbrooklyn #brooklynbest