MEDIA RELEASES
ContactJessica Mackinnon
jmack@dom.edu
(708) 524-6289
Michigan City Resident Receives Dominican University Exemplary Service Award
Mary Anne Brown Parenty, a resident of Michigan City, IN, has been honored with Dominican University’s Exemplary Service Award. This award is presented annually to volunteers who give extraordinary service to Dominican and the wider community, exemplifying the spirit of the university.
Since 2004, when she celebrated the 50th reunion of her 1954 graduating class, Parenty has dedicated one day per week to the university’s archives, organizing and preparing a finding guide for the correspondence of late Dominican University Professor Sr. Candida Lund, OP.
Parenty worked for many years as a French and English-As-A-Second-Language teacher at Loop College (now Harold Washington College). She also has worked as a secretary to her husband in his psychiatric practice and as a student, assistant and teacher in the culinary arts certificate program at Boston University.
On traveling from Michigan City and donating so much of her time to preserving Dominican’s history, Parenty explains that “it is not often we are able to revisit and contribute to an institution that was deeply significant in our lives. Being a volunteer has given me that opportunity.”
Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution
offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Dominican offers 50 undergraduate academic programs in
the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences and 15 graduate programs through the Graduate School of
Library and Information Science, the Brennan School of Business, the School of Education, the
Graduate School of Social Work, and the School of Leadership and Continuing Studies. In the 2008
issue of America’s Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report again ranked Dominican University in
the top tier of Midwest master’s level universities and as a “best value” for the tenth consecutive
year.
“As a student I wanted an intimate community. As an aspiring journalist I wanted a big city. Dominican gave me both—and so much more.”
Tracy Samantha
Schmidt
2005
TIME Magazine
