Head of School Rene Gavic offers a message of gratitude and hope this Thanksgiving.
Awards
The Alumnae Association is proud to honor excellence among its constituents. The following accolades are given annually to those people who best fulfill the criteria of the awards. Please click on the tabs for more information about each award and to see a list of past winners.
Do you know an exceptional Vis alum? One who has gone above and beyond all expectations? A woman who has contributed mightily to her parish, her career or her community? Then nominate her for the Visitation Distinguished Alumna award. It’s easy!
You can learn more about the criteria and complete an online nomination form or download a printable nomination form to be emailed or mailed to the Alumnae Office.
AWARD CRITERIA
- She graduated from Convent of the Visitation School in St. Paul or Mendota Heights, MN.
- She has contributed significantly to her parish, her career and/or her community.
- She has been nominated by a graduate, faculty or staff member of Visitation School.
Please consider your classmates, your friends or any other Vis grads that you know. In order to nominate that special alumna, please complete this form explaining what makes her so very valuable to the Visitation community and why we should celebrate her uniqueness.
Please mail your completed nomination to:
Visitation Alumnae Office
2455 Visitation Drive
Mendota Heights, MN 55120
You may also email your completed nomination to Stephanie Rust Johnson '99.
The Visitation School Distinguished Alumna award is given yearly at a celebratory breakfast held during Reunion Weekend.
Visitation has many rich traditions, including the recognition of student excellence. Begun in the mid-1900s, the DeChantal Award for Excellence was given annually to a senior student who was representative of all that Visitation stands for, a young woman who best exemplified the qualities inherent in a well-rounded individual.
In 1995, after a hiatus of several decades, the Visitation Alumnae Association reintroduced the DeChantal Award to the student body as a way to recognize individual excellence. Each year, recipients from the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools are chosen based upon a set of criteria set forth in the Portrait of the Visitation Learner. Included in the Portrait are such categories as religious character and values, academic/intellectual development, aesthetics, citizenship/global responsibility, interpersonal relations, leadership, physical development and technological knowledge.
The Visitation Alumnae Association is pleased to have the opportunity to recognize excellence among its future constituents. We hope that the DeChantal Award reinforces the importance of the Visitation school motto, "Not For School, but For Life."
Mary Rosacker Owens was a member of the Visitation Class of 1967 and her connection and commitment to the Visitation community were constants in her life. Mary never said no to Visitation. For years she volunteered on committees, including chairing Merrie Market and enthusiastically serving as president of the Parents' Association. Throughout the years, Mary was active in the Alumnae Association and served on staff as Director of Alumnae Relations. Mary Rosacker Owens died on December 30, 1998, after a short battle with cancer. Mary’s family and friends established a scholarship fund in her memory, awarded from 1999-2015. Each of those years a Visitation senior was selected by the Alumnae Association to receive the Mary Rosacker Owens Award of $1,000 to be used for tuition at a college or university. The recipient was a student whose contributions might have otherwise gone unrecognized and who best emulated Mary’s enthusiasm for the school, her commitment to volunteerism and her deep love for the Visitation spirit.