Alumni Stories

By Dana Larkin Sauers '74, P'99, P'03, P'03, P'09

The June 2002 wedding of Cheryl O'Brien '92 and Jim Murren '92, held at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Abbottstown and officiated by Jim's uncle, Rev. Joseph F. Gotwalt '56, had a unique component. The couple had asked Cheryl's senior honors English teacher, Mrs. Dana Sauers, to recite Sonnet 116. Cheryl had memorized it as an assignment from class years before. Some friends from that class mouthed the sonnet along with the rendition. 

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Dr. O'Brien, an Associate Professor at San Diego State University (SDSU) in the Political Science Department and the new Director of the International Security and Conflict Resolution (ISCOR) Program at SDSU, has carried much from her family and Catholic education into her life's journey. Whether it was her engaged work ethic learned on the farm, academic excellence and investment modeled by her older brother Robert, dedication to social justice issues, community sacrifice and service, a defined prayer life supported all. These are what drew her to top academic institutions. These experiences led her to work with people experiencing poverty in Washington, D.C., and Paraguay, alongside Spanish-speaking religious leaders who minister to women and children on the streets. 

"I volunteered for the Good Shepherd Volunteer Corps for a year in the U.S., helping homeless families. I became their first international volunteer, moving to Paraguay to live with the nuns / Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who remain great role models for their social justice actions and simple living." O'Brien stood with the activist nuns, students, and farmworkers in Asuncion for days during "La Lucha," a struggle for democracy against an authoritarian military regime that responded to the protest with violence. O'Brien also did outreach in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia as a Good Shepherd Volunteer.

Later, working for an environmental nonprofit with her husband, she served in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and briefly in Ghana; in Ethiopia, the team was facing challenges of corruption, and O'Brien reached out to the local Good Shepherd Sisters, who saved the project, which supported the poorest neighborhoods as well as refugee camps.

As an academic, O'Brien has conducted field research in Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Mexico, and Costa Rica on two principal areas of her research agenda:  gender-based violence and food security. 

When asked "What are your fondest memories of Delone Catholic?" she responded: "My friends, including my future husband, the teachers, Henny Noel (who was the janitor), cheerleading, and Coach Sue Arigo gave me my fondest memories of Delone. These women teachers ARE my favorites for their role modeling, intelligence, and passion for teaching: Ms. Mary Furlong, Mrs. Dana Sauers, Miss Barb Buehler, and Miss Anne Kerr. I also appreciated Coach Tom Staub, who was a good teacher and a kind, fatherly figure toward me. And while I never took a class with Mr. Gerry McBride, he was my freshman homeroom teacher, and we stayed in communication all my years at Delone – sometimes I would take a bathroom break from a class, and I would knock on his door on the 2nd floor of the old building, and he would kindly and mischievously tell his class to wait a second, and he'd come into the hallway, and sing and do the Chiquita Banana dance to make me giggle, and then tell me to get back to class with his dear smile."

"Ms. Furlong and I were planning a research trip to Africa, a continent where both of us had worked and loved.  We were going together that summer when she passed. She wanted to be along with me while I conducted research."

"A beloved man at Delone was Henny Noel, who loved Notre Dame; he asked me if he could tell people he was my grandpa – I was thrilled, because he was so kind, and I had no living granddad. Henny was someone who noticed students in need at different times, and he visited me at Notre Dame and would tell people I was his granddaughter; he passed away before I got onto the Notre Dame cheerleading squad, and I prayed for 'Grandpa' Henny at the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) Grotto on campus the night before try-outs; I like to think he was cheering me on during the try-outs. I visit my 'Grandma' Noel (Henny's wife,Joan) whenever I am home. I remember other people from Delone fondly, but there is not enough space to say more."

There have been obstacles in Dr. O'Brien's life both near and far. "One life challenge for me was the sudden loss of my father on the day before my 13th birthday. He was drafted twice into the Army during a time when the government could draft a man twice within six months of his return. My uncle said my dad had 'a black cloud hanging over him' after he returned from Korea. An uncle told me my father showed PTSD symptoms from the Army before he married. He was a devout Catholic; I would attend church with him on weekdays in the early morning – he tried to get help through the hospital and through prayer, however, my family did not discuss his death. I'm sure everyone in my family felt pain about his death, and I hope that they can talk about him and how much he loved his family."

"In retrospect, it would have been helpful if Hanover had local child/youth counseling for surviving families of suicide. It wasn't until I could afford a trained therapist in EMDR in my late forties when I got the counseling needed to process this and its profound impact on me in several ways.  If anyone is struggling with harmful thoughts, please get help. If we don't talk about mental health as a valid medical concern, then we stigmatize it, and people silently suffer. The brain is a physical organ that can be harmed by different traumas or by chemical imbalances." 

More recently, challenges have involved "vision impairment for my age... given that I hope to live long, and my condition is worsening more quickly than my doctor expected.  The difficulty is trying to adapt to my deteriorating vision while working full-time in an eye-intensive job." 

"Originally at Delone, I had thought about being a medical doctor, and Ms. Buehler was particularly encouraging of me in the advanced science classes that I took there; however, I remember thinking that would not be a wise long-term career path for me due to my eye condition, which would worsen greatly before retirement age. Years later, I saw Miss Buehler, and she said she was surprised I hadn't gone the medical route – but I did not tell her about my eye condition or rationale for not pursuing that type of career.

As an incoming first year who wanted to be on an athletic team, I was told by Delone's visiting doctor during a general examination for all incoming athletes and held in the faculty lounge of the cafeteria that I should not be permitted to join the cheerleading team because of the risk it posed to my good eye; after I pleaded my case that this was the only sport the doctors permitted me to do in middle school and that I wanted to do something athletic because I had a lot of energy that I wanted to get out, Athletic Director Coach Tom Staub was the person in the room who spoke up for me and asked the doctor to sign off and allow me to be a cheerleader – cheerleading was not considered a sport, and that fact helped persuade the doctor. That was the first time I met Coach Staub." 

Dr. O'Brien, by about age 25, was already considering earning a Ph.D. to be a professor, but she "wasn't sure what discipline to pursue. After working on violence against women for nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad, I returned to university in my thirties to earn a Ph.D." O'Brien's degrees include a Ph.D. in Political Science from Purdue University (2013) and an M.A. in Political Science (2009). Science; Towson University, 2007, Graduate Certificate, Women's Studies; Harvard University, 1998, Master of Education, Graduate School of Education; and University of Notre Dame, 1996, B.A., Sociology; & B.A., English (Literature). Dr. O'Brien's "research agenda centers on gender and global public policy in non-Western contexts. Gender equality is a key component of global and regional political agendas, as evidenced by global policy directives that advance the need for women's empowerment. My research in this field has evolved around two distinct, yet interrelated strands, the first focusing on development, particularly food security, and the second on violence, primarily violence against women."

Since a young age, Dr. O'Brien has considered her relationship with the Blessed Mother sustaining. "Mary is a feminine spiritual figure whom I appreciate as a woman, and who is approachable for prayer, meditation, and for her familiarity. My mother, grandmother, and other relatives had Mary statues in their gardens or homes. My mother gifted me with a BVM statue. Since I was little, I often tagged along with my father during his farmwork, mechanic work, or other tasks. Sometimes we would split up his work time and go to church to pray the rosary as we knelt in front of a beautiful statue of the BVM; I especially loved being with my father, and he was especially connected to the BVM. Jim and I have a simple, unpainted BVM statue in our backyard garden in San Diego that we bought over the border in Mexico."