October 5, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

CHC president, Sister Vale, plants seeds early and often
by PAULA M. RILEY

Sr. Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D., President of Chestnut Hill College for the last 14 years. (Photo by Paula M. Riley)

This is the first in a new series of articles by Chestnut Hill writer Paula M. Riley. Each week Riley will profile a local business, community or educational leader.

“When I walked in I didn’t have the gift of faith, but I did when I left,” says Sr. Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D., President of Chestnut Hill College, describing her first experience at a Catholic Liturgy.

Though only an eighth grader at the time, the daughter of an Army Colonel who was raised Episcopalian was intrigued with the faith shared by her neighbors. After attending an Easter celebration with her neighbor’s family, she knew she wanted to convert to Catholicism. “I somehow just knew that something happened in there,” she says.

During her high school years, she was introduced to an order of nuns knows as the Sisters of St. Joseph. “They were so lovely, full of joy, good natured, fun and smart,” she says. Not only did she want to convert to Catholicism but now she also wanted to become a nun. While her parents repeatedly declined her request to convert, she read everything she could about Catholicism. They finally realized how serious she was and during her senior year agreed to let her convert. Her father’s one condition was that she complete a year of college before applying to the Sisters.

Vale gladly agreed and completed that first year at a small college in Maryland. She then transferred to Chestnut Hill College, where she joined 97 other women who began training to become Sisters of St. Joseph. Vale became a Sister and later graduated from Chestnut Hill College with an English degree and a faith that was growing stronger each day.

It is that faith which has seen Vale through the significant changes the college has experienced under the 14 years of her leadership. These include the transition to a co-educational college and the purchase of the Sugarloaf property, nearly doubling the size of the college’s grounds.

Though she holds Master’s and Doctorate degrees, her exceptional ability to listen has served her best in this challenging role as President. She leads the 82-year old college founded by the Sisters whose total enrollment for 2006-2007 exceeds 2,000 students pursing continuing education, graduate and undergraduate programs. In discussing how her leadership style was leveraged best in the last few years, Vale says, “I listen to the pulse of the institution and ask those who know more than me.” Before the previously all-women college started admitting men in 2003, Vale had been listening for what she says was “years and years.” She listens carefully and works collaboratively with the entire college community when considering such monumental changes. The transition to co-education was a huge success that is due in part, to her concentrated listening coupled with a simple but strategic plan. She explains, “I dropped hints to alum, spoke to faculty and directly approached our key supporters. Everything indicated that there would be no resistance. Knowing that enables you to move forward to take the next step.” Part of her strategy in approaching change is planting seeds early and often to make it possible for everyone else to move along with her.

As with the transition to co-education, Vale leveraged this approach and her intense faith to acquire the Sugarloaf property. She had been looking at the property for many years and could not stop praying that the college would somehow obtain the property. When she told others of this dream, she recalls that people would just laugh and shake their heads. Vale was not at all discouraged, for she believed that God wanted the college to have the property to continue its mission. She kept praying and planting those seeds.

When she met with representatives from Temple University, long before they had decided to sell Sugarloaf, she explains, “I had a very alternative motive.” Though she was meeting to discuss the leasing of parking spaces and rooms for student housing, she had hoped the discussion would lead to Temple’s rethinking how they were using the property. This is exactly what happened. In August, Chestnut Hill College purchased the 32-acre property, which is now called SugarLoaf Hill.

Vale is thrilled at the many opportunities the acquisition of this property offers the college. One of these is the chance to become more closely integrated with the Chestnut Hill community. In discussing this relationship, she poses many questions that she hopes are answered in the months and years ahead: “How can the college help the economic growth of Chestnut Hill? How can the college be a positive source of life to the community and how can the community enhance the experience of the students?”

Growing in relationship with others is central to the mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the college. The Chestnut Hill College Sisters of Saint Joseph Legacy Program began three years ago. Vale calls this program a “life-changing process” involving prayer, retreat, research, and reflection.

They decided that the college must have an active, inclusive love of all people so everyone will know how to work meaningfully, collaboratively and respectfully with one another. The next question was how to make the mission live? Vale explains, “This is very much a continuous process. We are asking ourselves, ‘What does an educational institution look like if it is focused on relationships, and how does every aspect speak to warm, welcoming relationships?’” They determined that it all starts with the Sisters, staff and faculty. “The only way to set the hearts of our students on fire is to allow them to catch that fire from us,” she insists.

Vale is convinced that Chestnut Hill College students have caught that fire. “When they leave here,” she says, “they know that they are loved by God, they love God, they serve others with a well-formed social consciousness and are dedicated to the care of the earth.” The academic experience is a crucial piece, though just one element of the total experience. Vale says, “The students are taught not just how to make a living, but how to make a life.”