EMILY GLENN ’08 OFFERS SAGE ADVICE AS FALL WISDOM OF WOMEN SPEAKER

Glenn then turned the clock back 20 years to when she was a freshman at RJ. She shared her initial reluctance to attend Regis Jesuit, but how being aware of God’s presence, the first step of the Examen, opened her eyes to the many new opportunities awaiting her. She joined the first Girls Rugby Team and played oboe in the concert band. She recounted that the same awareness of God’s loving presence took her to continue her Jesuit education at Regis University, where she earned a degree in science. With a solid foundation from high school and hard work, Glenn graduated from college in just three years.

Not sure what to do next, she shared that she proceeded to the next step in the Examen, gratitude. Seeking to give back, Glenn volunteered with the Alum Service Corps (ASC), a program that places Jesuit high school and college graduates in Jesuit high schools to teach for a year. She found herself at DeSmet Jesuit, an all-boys school in St. Louis, an experience she recalled as simultaneously joyful and terrifying. Also, one in which she discovered a knack for and a desire to teach. She encouraged the students gathered to strongly consider taking the time to spend a year volunteering as part of their own paths as both a mechanism to give back and for self-discovery. 

Following her ASC year and wanting to pursue education as a career, Glenn returned to her alma mater as a science teacher. She also got involved with immersions, chaperoning multiple annual trips to New Orleans to help with the post-Katrina rebuild. Additionally, she became a supporter of the Special Olympics Club as her brother Tyler was, and is still, one of the athletes involved with RJ's Unified Teams. After seven years back at Regis Jesuit, Glenn recognized a movement of spirits calling her to seek the next step in her career. 

The 2019-20 school year found Glenn at her third Jesuit high school, Xavier College Prep in Palm Desert, California, this time as an administrator. She recounted the challenges of navigating the COVID pandemic at a new school and in a new role, as well as dealing with things like scorpions, snakes and spiders in unexpected places—something she was unused to. Glenn also noted that she appreciated the beauty of her surroundings—simultaneously being able to see palm trees and snow-covered mountains—as well as her colleagues and the students she engaged with. 

Five years in at Xavier, Glenn recounted feeling the spirits again were moving and calling her back home. This school year, she returned to Colorado to assume the helm at our sister school, Arrupe Jesuit in north Denver. As a new principal, she is learning the ropes of another Jesuit school with a different model—new challenges but in familiar territory. 

Glenn concluded her presentation by returning to her initial question, “How is God calling you to be a man or woman with and for others in our world today?” and shared Fr. Pedro Arrupe’s, SJ quote about the importance of falling in love with the purpose that will decide the course of your life. Her talk provided a sound message for our students to ponder in these final days of the first semester and was another amazing installment in the Wisdom of Women Speaker Series.