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Hi, my name is Janet Bentham and I go by Jan Bentham and I'm a graduate of Saint Paul's. I first started coming to Saint Paul's quite some time ago, so my relationship with the university

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is very long standing. Initially I came with the Teachers Additional Qualification Course and Religious Education, and I took part one, Part 2 and part three and then took part in the Summer

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institutes Sierra and Sybil as a teacher. And then I became a facilitator in the additional Qualification courses when they were happening at Saint Pauls. All this to say that Saint Paul's kind of gets in your

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blood and all of that studying led me to my masters of religious education. I was I was kind of engaged by the learning. It was so much broader than what I had experienced as a Catholic. So,

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and and and I can think of actual courses that that that blew me away like Old Testament with Douglas Fimbo which was a distance he was he was on a screen but I it was just so stimulating and so enriching. So I think of

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course as like that that that really opened new worlds for me, you know Christology with with Professor Bloomquist and and studying with Father Peter Sanders who is now works with the Catholic Board of Education.

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My Masters in Religious Education was instrumental in my career as a teacher. After many years of teaching elementary and high school religious education, the the MRE went led me to a leadership position in the

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school board and I eventually became the coordinator of Religious education at the Ottawa Catholic School Board. I just think of all the people along the way who were so supportive and encouraging Miriam Martin and Myrtle Power,

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who who just really gave me a passion for catechesis and for religious learning with with children and adolescents and adults. And so my

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my role at the Catholic school board also created real partnerships with Saint Paul's that that were that flourished throughout the years. And I was really lucky to be able to be involved in a

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teacher, as a teacher, in the additional qualification courses when they were here and all sorts of different opportunities working with Catholic women in leadership and

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and with educators. So I was kind of when I retired, which was about six years ago, I, you know, really was thirsting for more learning at Saint Paul's because when I finished my Masters of Religious

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Education, I really felt that empty space of that stimulation that I had at Saint Paul's. So I went on to the Graduate Diploma and Transformative Leadership, the graduate certificate which I completed

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last spring. Another moment for me at Saint Paul's was in 2017 that was awarded the Eugene Jameson Award, which was quite a humbling and surprising moment for me and I I really hold that

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in my heart. And working with the oblates has been further gift from all of this. So, as to what Saint Paul's means to me now and what it's done for

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further in my life here now in in retirement, I seek out opportunities for leadership in parish life and diocesan situations. I've done a lot of work with Pearson Publishing

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though, around religious education, and that's because of my learning at Saint Paul. So it never stops and and you're always kind of networking and meeting people and finding new ways to put your learning

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to good use. So congratulations to Saint Paul's because it is the best place to learn and has been a wonderful place for igniting passion in me.