Warriors for the Human Spirit
Valerie Jones graduated from the College of Saint Benedict in 1994, with exactly the amount of flannel and Birkenstock that you’d imagine.
She earned a double major in French and philosophy but, in retrospect, it seems like her path has been shaped as much by one piece of advice she gained here as it was by either of her majors: S. Mary Helene Juettner once told her, “When things are hard and you don’t know what to do, our only job is compassion.”
Val went on to pursue a master’s degree in women’s studies – during which she wrote her thesis on Catholic women who prepare and serve funeral dinners as a form of faith and volunteer expression.
She dedicated herself to a 20-year career serving others in the nonprofit sector before finding her way back home to Saint Ben’s as our Executive Director of Alumnae Relations. She has an intense and enduring passion for volunteerism – both personally and professionally – and led the push to have Saint Ben’s certified as a Service Enterprise by the Points of Light Foundation. We were the first college in the country to earn that distinction.
She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband and dog, she enjoys books, sewing, growing organic vegetables, music of all kinds, root beer and she loves Saint Ben’s.