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“BE UNCOMFORTABLE” AND OTHER LESSONS FROM WISDOM OF WOMEN SPRING SPEAKER
“Allow yourself to be uncomfortable. That’s where growth happens.” This was just one of the many lessons Meghan Klassen imparted to a standing-room-only crowd at RJ’s spring-semester installment of the Wisdom of Women Speaker Series. Klassen, who currently serves as the executive director for Anchor Center for Blind Children, shared numerous nuggets of wisdom in her presentation “Listening to the Call and Embracing the Unexpected.”
Klassen grew up in a family of seven siblings, with her four brothers attending Regis Jesuit. This was before the addition of the Girls Division, so Klassen attended a public high school, an experience she describes as “outstanding…for different reasons.” Recognizing that there was something more offered in Jesuit education, she attended Creighton University, where she earned a degree in journalism. During undergrad, she engaged in an immersive study abroad that took her to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. That experience, combined with an Ignatian discernment of spirits, later led her to leave a job connected to her field of study to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC).
Klassen was assigned to San Antonio, Texas at an agency that offered respite care and childcare for low-income families who had children with disabilities—a place and placement she did not expect to be but now sees as exactly where she was meant to be. She shared that both her experiences in the DR and in JVC taught her that we “can learn so much about ourselves when the distractions of our daily, privileged lives are stripped away…[and] can work with and learn from people who are very different from [us],” and, “Relationships can grow and change with honesty and vulnerability.” She also shared, “We have so much to learn from the poor.”
Following her JV year, Klassen discerned that she wanted a different career path, so pursued a master’s degree is early childhood special education from the University of Texas. She shared that going to UT was not part of the original plan, but that is where God led her. It was during this time that she married RJ alum and theology teacher, Matt Klassen ’98.
After completing her degree, Klassen taught in a bilingual first-grade class in a Title 1 school then moved to a preschool with a 50/50 ratio of children with and without disabilities—a model she noted she thinks all learning environments could benefit from. A job opening in theology at Regis Jesuit for Matt, led to another opportunity for discernment for their family, which by then included their older daughter, Murphy, now a freshman at RJ. Klassen shared that they were happy in Austin, but the prospect of Matt teaching at his alma mater and all of them being back close to family was where God was leading them.
Klassen found a job teaching at a school with a similar model to the preschool she worked at in Texas and began teaching there shortly after her daughter Norah, an incoming freshman, was born. A year later, the role of executive director at that school opened and, encouraged by a board member, Klassen applied. She served in that role for the next eight years, doing everything from personnel management to fundraising to removing dead animals from the playground. She shared that she believes leaders should not ask anything of their workers they are unwilling to do themselves—another nugget of wisdom.
An opportunity presented itself to Klassen in 2019—the role she currently holds at Anchor Center for Blind Children. Again, it was not something she was seeking, but she remained open to listening and discerning where God was calling her next. She began in January 2020 to find herself having to make big decisions for an organization and its community she was just getting to know as the pandemic took hold. Klassen recalls leaning on the relationships she had with other schools, including those at Regis Jesuit, to help guide her decision-making. She imparted that relationships and collaborative problem-solving have served her as greater assets than either of her degrees. In closing, Klassen shared the story of walking part of the Camino Ignaciano in the summer of 2022, the year that also marked the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius’ journey from Loyola to Manresa. A series of seeming coincidences leading up to, during and following her decision to make the nearly 70-mile journey alone continued to show her how God continues to help guide her path. She left the group with these final lessons:
- Allow yourself to be uncomfortable. That’s where growth happens.
- Allow the unplanned to happen. It’s almost always better than the plans we create for ourselves.
- Be honest and vulnerable.
- Know when to, and don’t be afraid to, ask for help.
- Let the mission (of your organization, your faith, your family, whatever it may be) be your anchor. If we remain rooted in the mission, we can’t go wrong.
- Women have a place in leadership! We have a unique and valuable perspective to add, and we definitely deserve a place at the table.
Following the presentation, a young man in the audience asked, “What can guys do to support women’s leadership?” Klassen astutely responded that men can ensure women are invited to and represented at the table. They also need to hear and see the men in their lives model the value and capability of women as leaders. She expressed how grateful she is for the men in her life who modeled that for her and made her journey to leadership possible – wise words indeed!
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