North Central students record lives of Villa St. Benedict residents

When North Central College student Brittany Kulbeda went to Villa St. Benedict in Lisle recently to interview three elderly members of the retirement community, she thought their life stories would be somewhat similar.

She found out differently.

Sister Joanne Williams, a resident of the neighboring Sisters of the Sacred Heart Monastery, had grown up in Lisle, entered the religious order at 15, and spent much of her career as a teacher and principal in a school in a poor neighborhood in Chicago.

"In teaching, favorite memories were always seeing children succeed," Williams said. "Ninety percent of the students went on to a good high school."

Barbara Dinon, president of the Villa St. Benedict Residents Council, had been widowed at age 41 with eight children, subsequently rose to a high position in a bank and remarried at the age of 69.

Perhaps her early years growing up in a family of modest means and living through World War II prepared her to be an over-comer.

"Back in those days, I think everyone coped with the obstacles of life," she said.

Villa St. Benedict resident Fran Welch, a former employee of United Airlines, loves to travel and tried parasailing at age 70.

"I want to sky-dive but my children are not in favor," she said.

Kulbeda, a college freshman from Bartlett, smiled and shared laughs as she went through her list of prepared questions and tape-recorded the answers.

"I never heard of an opportunity like this, so it was very intriguing," she said. "We're asking questions about how their life was back then and that's interesting to me."

Kulbeda was gaining extra credit for her interviews in a class on the history of physical education taught by Professor Jerry Gems at North Central.

Gems said the sports history part of the class is just a hook to help students look at how culture evolves over time. So when Villa St. Benedict expressed an interest in having students record oral histories of residents, he was in favor.

"I thought it would be beneficial to them, not just to learn history, but to practice history," he said. "They have a greater appreciation of what some of the previous generations have come through."

North Central College freshman Andrew Evans of Naperville said it was naiveté on his part when he asked Villa St. Benedict residents Paul and Audry Girard if they had eaten at restaurants during their younger years.

"They both responded by saying no, it was the Depression. We never went out to eat. They also said there was a lot of rationing of foods," he said.

North Central freshman Michael Swanson said he found the spirit of a teenager in 91-year-old Jane Adams, who spoke of her travels across the world. Swanson also was impressed with how the hardships endured by 78-year-old Maria Pylypczak, a World War II refugee from the Ukraine, had not dimmed her bright personality.

"She found work baby-sitting children, picking radishes in Indiana and cleaning in a cafeteria," he said. "Once she began learning English, she started working in factories."

Courtney Shomo, outreach coordinator at Villa St. Benedict, said the oral history project is loosely based on National Public Radio's Story Corps. Copies will be given to residents, as well as stored in the archives of Villa St. Benedict and North Central College.

"The Learning Legacy program has enabled the residents to open up and share their life stories while recording the information for generations to come," she said. "I really feel this program has allowed residents to celebrate their lives and accomplishments."

Shomo said some students have found the experience so interesting, they have requested to do more interviews. Not quite 10 residents were interviewed during the first month. Shomo said she hopes to continue the program during the summer with more college students and perhaps Scouts conducting the interviews.

Paul Girard said he and his wife found the interview a good experience and look forward to sharing a CD of it with their family.

"I'm sure the kids would get a kick out of it," he said. "It's nice to see young people in college taking a program such as this."

Dinon, who has worked on the genealogy of her family, said she wished she had recorded the histories of her own older relatives.

"I did do some of it with my mother," she said. "I wish I had done this with my father, grandmother and grandfather."

Gem said the oral histories will be of interest to genealogists and to academics like himself. Now working on his ninth book, Gem said he has used similar oral histories in his research.

"Scholars will use these things in the future," he said.

North Central College archivist Kim Butler said the Villa St. Benedict histories will be stored in the archives' suburban studies section, which documents changes in the western suburbs since World War II. The recordings not only tell the stories of older residents, but demonstrate the work North Central students are doing, she said.

"I have looked at the transcripts and they look like they were pretty good interviews," she said.