Villa Maria College - Yearbook (Erie, PA)

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DEDICATION The quiet intimacy of its halls, the hushed silence of the chapel when its only light is the red flicker of the sanctuary lamp penetrating the wall of darkness . . . the cam- pus in early Fall or late Spring as a gentle breeze rustles through the leaves toward the rosy evening sky, above the slate gray roof of the college ... or perhaps just the soft stream of snowflakes hurrying down past a dormitory window in winter time . . . This is Villa Maria . . . meditative . . . reflective . . . these were its moments of thought and quiet joy. Its thought is the product of instruction, and of the study by its student body, of minds maturing under the careful guidance of professors in various fields, and of the self -development of the individual girl. Its joy is that closeness to God and Our Lady of every student of Villa Maria, for here is bom her incentive for higher education and the pursuit of her vocational goal. Here is that refuge from the world, that time to gain the insight of self needed by all potential leaders in the world. Villa Maria College has truly given its students that necessary spiritual bulwark. Yet many were the hours of its lighter moods, as girls gathered in friends ' rooms, to laugh and talk over birthday cakes or informal dormitory parties. Christmas time brought its beloved traditions, the Hanging of the Greens and the Bishop ' s Dinner- girls in multi-colored gowns, carrying lighted red candles in a procession to the dining room, and the dinner itself followed by Archbishop Gannon ' s delightful, but thought- provoking Christmas talk. Christmas vacation, too, was immediately prefaced by the caroling of the hymns in the early hours of the morning on the day for traveling home, as sleepy -eyed girls trooped through the college halls to the convent, where they gathered on one of its wide staircases to sing to the nuns . . . Spring brought the annual Gym Show, its gay dances and competition which were the cooperative product of the entire student body. Scanning back over four years between the first bewildering day at the school, and the day of graduation and departure from the college, one sees lasting friendships made, and spiritual, educational, and social goals realized. For the Sisters of Saint Joseph, it has meant the celebration of the centennial of the establishment of the order in the diocese of Erie, and in 1926, the building of Villa Maria College on Eighth Street. There has been growth; there has been a maturity gained in those thirty -five years; there is now the readiness for the greater opportunities which the new college will offer. The future for the graduates of Villa Maria stretches ahead as a misty field, un- known and untried. As this last class graduates from the old college, a chapter in the story of Villa Maria College will come to a close. For some of the graduates the future will be certain and immediate; for others, it remains relatively uncertain and distant. For the faculty and the undergraduate students, it will mean relocation in the expanded educational and residential facilities of a larger campus. Ahead lies a challenge for Villa Maria College as a whole, and for its students, faculty members, and its graduates as the individuals who make up the college. The need for its expansion, present for some time, has been met in the construction of the new buildings on West Lake Road. To this new college will be taken the character and traditions of Gannon Hall, which in those new surroundings will continue to be the heart of the school for its students, as scholarship is its head, and as spiritual growth is its soul. To the growth of Villa Maria College in these three directions in the past, to its present achievement, and to its future development, the Graduating Class of 1961 dedicates its yearbook.

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FROM OLD TO NEW OUR LADY ' S GROTTO CAMPUS ENTRANCE PROPOSED BUILDING FOR V. M. C. New location: West Lake Road

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HIS EXCELLENCY, ARCHBISHOP JOHN MARK GANNON Bishop of Erie