Reporter's memories stirred with school's campaign

Ages ago, my first journalism internship was at Chicago's Catholic New World.

The bi-weekly is the official paper of the Chicago Archdiocese, Cardinal George the publisher.

I'm sure then-editor Tom Sheridan didn't give me the job because of experience.

As a Villanova English major, I didn't have much.

I made it a point to call him every week from the pay phone in my dorm at National University of Ireland Galway, where I was studying abroad for the semester.

Fed up, I'm sure, with my excessive pestering, Sheridan agreed to give me a job when I returned to Chicago for the summer.

The first few weeks of the internship were frustrating for both of us.

Sheridan was a consummate newspaperman who had been at the Sun-Times for 25 years before moving to the New World.

Some days, I thought he was going to kill me.

I wrote stories like English papers, with long, rambling sentences, jargony quotes and a way-too-formal vantage point. I was clueless to journalists' lingo - slug, kicker cap, nut graphs, and ledes were all Greek to me. Not to mention AP style.

Still, Sheridan never lost his temper - even after I knocked a rather expensive clock off his desk one afternoon.

The turning point at the internship came when I was assigned a piece on the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis' soon-to-be-opening retirement community in Bartlett, Clare Oaks.

With more men and women religious retiring than entering orders these days, the Sisters were taking a proactive stance, providing retirement living for the community and for themselves.

Writing that story, it was like feeling a light bulb go on in my head. After Sheridan's coaching, I had a better idea of what questions to ask during my interviews, how to organize my quotes, what the point of all this was.

It was the first published effort that I was truly proud of.

I'd forgotten all about that story until this week, when I received a news release on Clare Woods Academy's capital campaign kickoff, to take place today.

Bartlett Academy, also run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, has, since 1968, educated children with special needs.

A replacement school is badly needed, and officials estimate the cost to be between $12 and $14 million.

Despite the increasing number of their own to take care of, the nuns have donated the first $1 million toward the new school.

The theme of today's event is "Because their dreams matter ... mission possible."

Like Sheridan nudging me along the way, the Sisters, with persistence and a little innovation, are guiding students on the path to achieve their dreams.

I've still got quite a ways to go, but can't tell you how lucky I feel that someone worked with me on mine.

Want to help the school? Call (847) 902-3664.