By KYLE ADAMS
Former Chronicle Contributing Writer
Sister Sean Peters and Ken Scott have touched hundreds, if not thousands, of students’ lives over the past several decades during their time at Saint Rose. At the end of last semester, they each decided it was time for a new path, as they both announced their retirement from the college. However, it isn’t just the lives of students that Sister Sean and Ken have touched. Because of their commitment to connecting students to the outside world, and making service learning part of their education, they have helped to make the world a better place.
As a student who was involved in the community service office, I found myself in the Pineapple House listening to Ken’s stories of past trips and plans for the future quite often. Early in my freshman year, he spoke about how Hurricane Irene destroyed the workshop of a local baseball bat manufacturer. He was an older gentleman and had been in business for decades, but wasn’t able to clean up and rebuild by himself. So, Ken gathered up Saint Rose’s baseball team, took a bus down to the shop and helped the man rebuild.
Ken connected that story with me because he took the time to get to know me, and baseball was probably all I talked about. It was his way of telling me that no-matter what your interests are, there are always ways to give back and to serve others. While I never got the opportunity to help rebuild a baseball bat shop, I was able to serve the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, twice, as well as participate in the Washington, D.C. service trip.
Ken and Sister Sean have represented everything that The College of Saint Rose is supposed to be, at least according to its mission statement. “The College delivers distinctive and comprehensive liberal arts and professional programs that inspire our graduates to be productive adults, critical thinkers, and motivated, caring citizens. Our engagement with the urban environment expands the setting for educational opportunities and encourages the Saint Rose community’s energetic involvement and effective leadership in society.” These two icons on campus have taken the words “caring citizens,” and not just ran, but sprinted to the finish line with all they have accomplished. In order to be a leader in society and become that caring citizen, you need to be shown why it’s necessary. Ken and Sister Sean have done just that.
The Pathways Programs are a way for incoming, first-year students to get acquainted with campus prior to classes starting, and both Ken and Sister Sean had a hand in a program. Ken founded Urban Launch, a community service immersion experience, directly in Albany. Sister Sean worked with the Arts Encounter group, connecting students with an interest in the arts to one-another and what the Capital Region has to offer.
They also each had a hand in founding some of the service trips that have become staples of experience Saint Rose offers. In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, Ken worked with an organization called lowernine.org to bring a group of students to New Orleans to help rebuild in the most impoverished area hit by the storm. In 2014, he would help put together the San Francisco service trip. In 2005, Sister Sean founded the Guatemala service trip, the only trip that takes students out of the country. There they work with children and families living in extreme poverty.
Sister Sean took an interest in guiding some of the college’s spiritual clubs. As Ken’s devotion to the environment grew, he advised the Environmental Club and formed Earthpeace. He also guided a group of students in leading the Poor People’s Campaign rally at the New York State Capital, of course with the help of Sister Sean and the rest of the spiritual life staff.
It is no secret that their presence on campus will be missed, but the work that they have done will live on through the programs they have created and the students they have touched. If there’s one thing you can do to honor their time at Saint Rose, it’s to be involved. You don’t have to go on a service trip across the country to get involved, you can serve right here in Albany. There’s a food pantry across the street, RISSE is less than five minutes away and there are homeless shelters in need of volunteers all across the city.
They would want you to follow your dreams, and when someone tells you that you can’t do something, prove them wrong. Join a club that you are interested in. Be nice to the environment, because we only have one planet. When you see something wrong, take a stand against it. Be kind to others, even if it doesn’t serve your own self interest. Lastly, they would want you to vote; it’s 2020.
No amount of words can describe what these two have meant to the Saint Rose community, but their legacy will live on.
Kyle is a graduate of the Class of 2018. He majored in communications with a concentration in film and new media. After participating in Urban Launch as a freshman, he went on four service trips, including New Orleans, twice, Washington, D.C. and the United Nations. He now works as a Sports Reporter for the Times Community Newspapers in the Hudson Valley.
Rachel May
“Ken Scott is a light you didn’t know you needed with wisdom that shakes your core. He is so immensely thoughtful, kind, and endearing that you often don’t realize when you’re walking away from a conversation, that he’s left you with something profound. I had the honor of accompanying him on the D.C. trip as a freshman, and again as a senior student leader. Both trips altered my life for the better and Ken absolutely played a role in that.”
“Sister Sean has a contagious laugh that warms your insides that perfectly coincides with her stories of “the olden days” and her past trips. I’d like to think that her trip with me in 2016 was her favorite as we pushed ourselves as a group to be better and do better for the kids we met and the literal volcano we climbed on our single day off. She opened my eyes to a different way of life and explained the trip perfectly. When you come back from Guatemala, you do not fit where you fit before and that’s okay. Her presence will be greatly missed within the STROSE community.”
Rachel is a graduate from the Class of 2018. She majored in social work and now works at a children’s social service agency in Boston, Mass. Rachel participated in the Guatemala, New Orleans and Washington D.C. Service Trips, while at Saint Rose.
Marina Ferreri
“I would not have wanted my Saint Rose experience without Sister Sean and Ken. They instilled in me a love for my fellow human, and helped me to live out the college’s mission of service every single day. It is not an exaggeration whatsoever to say that I am a better person because of their influence.”
Marina was a member of the undergraduate Class of 2017 and the graduate Class of 2019. She served as a graduate assistant for the Community Service Office and attended many service trips, including the Washington D.C. trip in 2018.
John Dion
“I think that we present our mission to the public through our mission trips and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of the DC and Guatemala trips. I have learned so much from Sister Sean and Ken from these experiences. They have been great mentors. Honestly, I am a litter nervous about leading the Guatemala trip because Sean was such an amazing guide for the students and I, as we navigated the experience. I hope that I can lead the trip in a way that makes her proud.”
John is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Saint Rose and had been a faculty adviser on the Washington D.C. and Guatemala service trips over the past couple of years.
Beautiful story of two people who put students first and widened the students lives to think of others first.
Congratulations to S. Sean and Ken for being prophets for “goodness, truth, and beauty” in a culture that often is myopic, twisted, self-focused. They have touched the inner core of compassion in the hearts of both colleagues and students. Those who have experienced their call to serve have grown in compassion, kindness, and awareness of God’s great gifts to us in these United States, yes, and even here in Albany; and have found ways to share them with others by relating to those in need. God bless you, S. Sean and Ken. Your legacy will be celebrated far and wide in the lives of Saint Rose alums.