Honoring Ignatian Ideals and Service
By Erin Hussey '05
12 Nov 2008
At the third annual Anniversary Awards Dinner on April 26, the Alumni Association honored recipients of the Ignatian Award and Bannan Award. The Association also announced the establishment of the Paul L. Locatelli, S.J. ’60, Award, to be given annually to recognize a University employee or affiliate who has given distinguished and outstanding service to the Alumni Association and the University.
Ignatian Award
Established in 1981, the Ignatian Award honors alumni who exemplify the University’s ideals of competence, conscience, and compassion through their service to humanity.Hon. Diane Brenneman ’68
Now a magistrate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Brenneman served with the Peace Corps in India and taught in California and Washington, D.C. After completing a law degree at Georgetown University, she served as a clinical supervisor in the Family Law Clinic of the Antioch School of Law and then became a full-time professor and dean. Her most cherished work has been with the DC Bar Pro Bono Program, the Women’s Bar Association, Legal Counsel for the Elderly, the Archdiocesan Legal Network, and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
As a judge, Brenneman is charged with ensuring that more than 1,200 individuals with mental retardation living in the District get the services they are entitled to receive. She has touched the lives of many, particularly those who otherwise might have been lost within the judicial system.
Katie (Thompson) Rice ’04
A year after graduation, Rice moved to South Africa to work with a nonprofit charity caring for children orphaned or abandoned because of HIV/AIDS-related illness and violence. Katie was put in charge of the medical clinic and, with only a few books as her guides, performed emergency medical procedures, worked tirelessly to obtain needed medications, and offered comfort to dying children.
After helping to obtain funding to help build a water purification system for a village in Kenya and doing additional volunteer work in Ethiopia, Rice moved to Palo Alto, where she now lives with her husband, Jesse. She mentors teenage girls at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, continues to work with AIDS patients, and is a full-time graduate student at SCU.
Jocelyn Sideco ’99
Sideco was working with Marquette University Ministry in September 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. She traveled to New Orleans to volunteer with Operation Helping Hands, a Catholic Charities group organizing housing projects. When it came time to depart, Jocelyn instead took a leave of absence from Marquette and moved to Louisiana to work with the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus.
She created and still manages a program that involves volunteer groups in reconstruction efforts. She coordinates with agencies, arranges housing, and even prepares meals. More than 4,000 volunteers from various Jesuit and non-Jesuit colleges, parishes, and provinces have volunteered through the network she has built—including alumni from Santa Clara
Charlie Steinmetz ’75
For two decades Steinmetz helped run the family business, Tiernay Metals. When the business was sold, the family established the Steinmetz Family Foundation, dedicated to supporting education of underprivileged children. Through the foundation, Steinmetz has worked with a local Rotary Club and the Catholic Education Foundation to launch initiatives including the Big Yellow Bus Program, which funds field trips for inner-city children to visit aquariums, concert halls, and archeology exhibits.
In addition he actively serves on a number of boards, including the Archaeological Institute of America, the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archeology, UCLA Library, and St. Lawrence of Brindisi Elementary School.
Bannan Award
The Louis I. Bannan, S.J., Award honors those who have shown distinguished service to the Alumni Association and University.
Molly & Ralph Gomez MBA ’74 are active and enthusiastic supporters of SCU, serving on the Board of Regents and as University Ambassadors, as well as attending most SCU sporting, social, and religious events.