Volunteer of the Year Award - 2019: Jeanine Sterling '76
2019: Jeanine Sterling '76
From remarks by Dolly Duffy '84, executive director of the Alumni Association as she presented this year's award:
This year’s recipient of our Volunteer of the Year Award probably could have received this honor in any of the past 15 years or so, but it’s so appropriate that she’s winning it this year with our theme of God, Country, Notre Dame, given how that phrase reminds us of Father Ted. Her story, more than most, is so linked with Father Ted’s.
As many of you know, before he became president and shortly after World War II, Father Hesburgh helped establish and served as the chaplain of Vetville, the on-campus housing community for married veterans. Vetville thrived for 16 years and was home to hundreds of veterans and their families. One of those veterans was Pat Sterling, Class of 1961. His daughter Jeanine, who spent her early years calling Notre Dame’s campus and Vetville her home, is our honoree this afternoon.
The Hesburgh connection doesn’t stop there, as Jeanine is also one of the University’s true pioneers. She is a proud member of the first four-year class of women who graduated from Notre Dame in 1976. I don’t have to tell any of you in the audience of the incredible admiration and affection Father Ted had for Jeanine and the rest of those trailblazing women. All of us alumnae who followed in their footsteps owe them a debt of gratitude, so Jeanine, on behalf of the women of Notre Dame, thank you.
Despite what I’m sure were some challenging times during those early days of coeducation, Jeanine graduated with a passion for Notre Dame that has been on display ever since. The volume and diversity of her service to the University and leadership in the Alumni Association might be unparalleled.
She served from 2005 through 2017 as a board member for the Notre Dame Club of Detroit. Her responsibilities and impact are too far reaching to list them all, but to name just a few:
Jeanine was the club’s first student/parent liaison, creating a suite of programming supporting the club’s current students and their families.She edited and completely revamped the club’s newsletter.She served as the club’s webmaster.
But perhaps her role with the club in Detroit that had the widest impact was as the chairperson of the club’s alumnae outreach committee. After serving on the club’s board for a year, Jeanine and her fellow female board members decided to try to address the troubling lack of women attending club events.
They proposed a formal outreach to Notre Dame women in the area, and it became a huge success. The programs they set into place continue to flourish today.
But more than that, their work also got noticed by the folks here at the Alumni Association, and helped to inspire the creation of the wonderful organization we now call ND Women Connect.
When the Alumni Association formed its initial “Alumna Initiative” committee in 2006, Jeanine was recruited to be one of its leaders because of her work in Detroit. She went on to serve on ND Women Connect’s national steering committee through 2014.
Similar to her work with the Detroit club, Jeanine’s contributions to ND Women Connect cannot easily be summarized -- because she did just about everything. She managed and maintained the website, created and wrote the email newsletter, launched the ND Women Connect Facebook page, created the Field Director role for ND Women Connect, managed the onboarding process for each new local chapter, and -- again, this isn’t even the full list -- even co-managed the 40th Anniversary of Coeducation program at Reunion 2013.
While Jeanine moved on from the ND Women Connect board, we simply could not let someone of her talent, drive, and passion get away from us, and so in 2017, she joined the Senior Alumni Board as a regional director.
For NDSA, Jeanine took over the Facebook page and is the editor of the revamped Golden Domer email newsletter.
As you can see, Jeanine could’ve been given this award for her work with any one of these three groups. But the enormous impact she has had on three of our organizations -- and countless Notre Dame alumni and friends -- is really astounding.
I know I speak on behalf of the University when I say how grateful we are for her dedication and leadership. And if I can take the liberty, I’m confident that Father Ted is incredibly proud of this loyal daughter of Notre Dame.