Features

Benedictine Values Through the Lens of Career Services

By Elizabeth Lachermeier (elachermeier@css.edu)

April 17, 2025

At St. Scholastica, we are fortunate enough to be regularly reminded of the Benedictine values, but will our time after graduation prove to be the same? How can we ensure our career life will be filled with these values? Mary Anderson and Breanne Tepler from Career Services shared  their experiences with these values in the career world.

Anderson shared an example of hospitality in action that she observed from one of her co-workers while they hosted a group of high school students. During this time, Anderson saw Mary Meyer exhibit the value of  hospitality not just towards the students, but towards her fellow co-workers as well. 

“And even for the staff that were presenting, you just felt that she was so thoughtful to make sure you were comfortable in what you were doing,” Anderson explained.

The value of stewardship was observed in the actions of local businesses, particularly Maurices. It is through Maurices that the College has acquired much of its clothes in the professional clothing room. 

“Breanne will reach out to them and say ‘Hey, we are running low on these kinds of things, would you consider donations? And they’ve said yes every time,” said Anderson.

All of the jobs and experiences the College connects students to fall under the value of love of learning. Tepler has observed this, as Career Services is part of the Center for Experiential Learning. 

“The whole focus of experiential learning is gaining experience outside of the classroom,” she said. 

Because experience is essential for learning, jobs outside of college provide numerous opportunities to keep this value alive. Anderson wanted to ensure that her job prioritized the value of community. 

“I wouldn’t want to work in a place where [community] wasn’t important. We want to all feel like we belong, and that means that we work hard together, but we also have fun together, and sort of carve out time to do both of those things,” Anderson said. 

Tepler advises students to focus on this value as they transition into the workforce. 

“One of the areas that students are struggling with post-pandemic is networking and finding mentors or people that they can go to to help debrief. That network is something that I think young alumnus notice [is valuable] right away,” said Tepler.  She also stated that students could contact them for assistance in forming these connections.

Regarding the relationship between employer and employee, Tepler emphasized the value of respect. 

“In my role, I work with employers who want to be on campus, they want to engage with students,” she explained. “I’m going to ask a lot of questions about what the internship might be like; ‘is it respectful to the student?’”

She also felt that students have been doing a better job in recent years asking for respect from their employer. 

“Over the years what I’ve noticed in students is that more and more they are being advocates for themselves, which is fantastic. Every time I notice a student stand up for something or question something, I know that they are seeking respect. I know that they’re seeking communication and understanding; it’s not oppositional,” said Tepler. 

Anderson claimed that the most important value in the workplace is determined by the individual. Students should identify their own values of importance. “They might be Benedictine values, or they might be different, but I think the idea is, if you have identified those, when you hit difficult situations, you go back to them,” Anderson said.