What's Happening

January 10, 2025, Providence, Rhode Island – After nearly 40 years of ministry at Providence College and 50 years living in Rhode Island, Sister Gail Himrod, OP, received a special gift to remind her of the long-time connection as she was preparing to move to the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse in Adrian, Michigan. 

Sister Gail was presented with the Laudare Medal as a sign of gratitude for her years of ministry at Providence. Father Joseph Guido, OP, Prior of the U.S. Eastern Province of Dominican Friars, made the presentation at the conclusion of Vespers in the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas Priory. The friars founded Providence College in 1917.

“I was very surprised and overwhelmed,” Sister Gail recalled. Sister Gail holds a bachelor’s degree in music and English from Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, a master’s degree in music history and musicology from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in music education and music history from Boston University.

While taking a semester of courses at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Sister Gail often went to the Dominican House of Studies for liturgy and to use its library. While there, she met a Dominican Friar from Providence College and told him about her newly completed master’s degree. “He told me they were trying to start a music major at Providence,” Sister Gail recalled. “He asked if I was interested, and I was because I wasn’t doing anything with my degree.” In November, the friar asked her to submit her resumé. 

Sister Gail began her ministry at Providence College in the 1974-1975 academic year. By that time, she said, Providence was offering music courses but still needed to develop the degree program – a project in which she became heavily engaged. Tasks included studying music programs at nearby colleges, writing materials, and created proposals presented to the Committee on Studies.

“There were specific history and theory courses outlined for a music major,” Sister Gail recalled. Students needed to take the courses and private lessons for their instrument to be declared a music major. 

Sister Gail also led the Music Department’s efforts to gain accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). “The initial accreditation inquiry began with my attending the yearly national meetings in order to determine whether we were ready for this step,” she recalled. She directed the department’s self-study and drew up the required documentation. After the NASM visiting team’s report and Providence’s response, the college was accredited to offer music major, Sister Gail said. 

In her ministry at Providence College, Sister Gail taught courses including History of the Middle Ages, Music in the Classical Era, Women and Music, Music and Society, and Music Appreciation. She also chaired the Music Department at various times and served on the Faculty Senate. Her committee work included the Diamond Jubilee Committee, preparing for the celebration of Providence’s 75th anniversary, and the Centennial Committee, planning for the college’s 100th anniversary in 2017.

Sister Gail also played the organ for nearby parishes. For about five years, she served as assistant organist for the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, often substituting for Dr. Alexander Peloquin (1918-1997), the Cathedral organist and Director of Music Ministries, as well as a noted composer, director of the Peloquin Chorale, and composer-in-Residence at Boston College. Sister Gail has been gathering material for a biography she hopes to write of Dr. Peloquin.

While she served the college in a variety of ways, Sister Gail has also placed much focus on the students themselves and is pleased with the lives of many of her students after graduation. “You hope they will become proficient in whatever areas they were involved in,” she said. Her former students have not disappointed her. Many are music educators in public elementary and high schools and some became private teachers for instruments or voice, conductors, and performers.   

Sister Gail’s identity as a Dominican Sister was also key at Providence College, a Catholic and Dominican school. Her work at the college and her mission as an Adrian Dominican Sister have never been separate, she said. A major part of her ministry was her Dominican presence. “Whether it be in a classroom or walking around campus or something else,” the presence was always important, she said. “I was a Dominican – not just Gail Himrod but I was Sister Gail Himrod. I was a Dominican Sister working alongside the Dominican men and women.”

November 25, 2024, Washington, D.C. – For more than 50 years, NETWORK, a social justice advocacy group, has been working with Catholic Sisters and other people of faith to lobby for social justice in national public policies, grounded in Catholic social teachings. What began in 1972 as an organization training Catholic Sisters to lobby for justice in the political sphere now extends to training the next generation. 

“We have a long history of working with college and high school students over our 52-year history,” said Chelsea Puckett, Grassroots Mobilization Outreach and Education Specialist. In the Fall of 2023, NETWORK launched the Young Advocates Leadership Lab (YALL), with chapters of college student advocates established in several colleges and universities, she explained. 

Through NETWORK’s involvement with Barry University, Chelsea said, she learned that a named fellowship was an effective way to keep the connection between NETWORK and the universities sustainable. Barry University was founded by and is sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Now, heading up each campus chapter is a Carol Coston Fellow, named for Adrian Dominican Sister Carol Coston, OP, Founding Director of NETWORK. 

“We wanted to give them a way to connect, and who better than Carol Coston?” she said. 

Last Fall, NETWORK hired 10 Fellows to lead YALL Chapters at colleges in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, California, Florida, and Ohio, Chelsea said. Nine of the YALL Chapters are established in Catholic universities – including Barry University. 

Meg Olson, Senior Grassroots Mobilization Organizer for NETWORK, sees in the students today the same spirit that led 47 Catholic Sisters to establish NETWORK. “Our students stepped in and said yes,” she said. “I think about that ability to trust the Spirit and say yes, just the way that Carol said yes” to establishing NETWORK.

The first cohort of Carol Coston Fellows began their work in March 2024. After taking the summer off they became involved in social justice advocacy in the fall of 2024. “They all joined us in our mission to work for justice,” Chelsea said. In the first year, the Carol Coston Fellows attended a conference in Washington, D.C., where they lobbied Senators; wrote letters to the editor; and built coalitions on their campuses with campus ministry, offices for mission, and women’s leadership institutes. “They collectively registered more than 1,000 people to vote on all the campuses,” she said.

In addition to working directly with the Carol Coston Fellows, Chelsea said that during on-campus visits, she also works with the students organized by the Fellows. “I’ve been really impressed by the coalition building that is happening on campuses,” she said.  

Meg said the Carol Coston Fellows were also involved in NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus and Friends program, in which Sisters and other advocates ride a bus during election years to pre-determined cities, where they hold rallies and town hall meetings to educate local voters about the issues involved in the election. Carol Coston Fellows attended events at the bus stops in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Miami. They met the bus riders and people attending the events to “get a better sense of NETWORK’s mission,” Meg said.

“In Philadelphia, a student from St. Joseph’s University spoke at the [Nuns on the Bus] event,” Chelsea said. One 20-year-old public policy major, she added, had “an incredible ability to share her lived experiences with the challenges in our healthcare system.”

Although they work on separate campuses, the Carol Coston Fellows have formed their own community as well. At the beginning of the academic year, the Fellows gather in person. Meg said she is impressed by the “incredible community that they forge together. It seemed they had been friends forever.” They also learn from one another during Zoom sessions, she added. 

“We’ve learned how challenging voter registration can be in a time of heavy voter suppression,” Chelsea said. “Our students in some states were very discouraged.” Much of the experience in voter registration depends on the state. For example, Wisconsin had very early deadlines for voter registration.

“I’m very proud of the work that they’ve done in the last nine months,” Chelsea said. “I have learned a lot from them in their leadership.” Four of the Carol Coston Fellows are returning next year, while others are graduating. 

Chelsea and Meg are preparing to bring together the next cohort in March. Interested students at colleges and universities connected with NETWORK can apply and are asked to write essays, participate in several interviews, and submit recommendations from faculty and staff.  

“We really want to emphasize that this fellowship is open to folks of all backgrounds, including other religious and secular backgrounds,” Chelsea said. “Most importantly, it is open to people who want to do the work to build a beloved community,” a community envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in which “everyone is cared for, free from poverty, hunger, and hate.”

NETWORK recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, but Chelsea and Meg are already looking to future anniversaries. “I hope the next time NETWORK celebrates its big anniversary, this program is part of it,” Chelsea said. “I hope there’s a lot of longevity and that we can develop a new generation of activists working for justice for all.”
 

Caption for above feature photo: Imani, a Carol Coston Fellow at Barry University in Miami, staffs an information table for National Voter Registration Day at the university.
Photo Courtesy of NETWORK