Sister Receives Alumna Honor
May 16, 2018
Mount Marty College (MMC) teacher education professor S. Candyce Chrystal is being recognized beyond her work at the college and Sacred Heart Monastery.
Chrystal received the Distinguished Alumna of the Year award from Marquette University in Milwaukee last month. She had attended the university to receive both her master’s and doctorate degrees in educational psychology, which she received in 1989 and 1991, respectively.
Prior to that, she had received her degree in education from MMC in 1973. Upon graduating and joining Sacred Heart Monastery that same year, she taught at various elementary schools in the area, including in Hartington, Nebraska; Sioux Falls and Yankton.
“I thought that if I got a master’s in educational psychology, I’d be able to come back home and teach at the elementary grade level again,” she said.
However, she didn’t want to attend just any school to achieve her degree.
“(The monastery) sponsors a private, faith-based college and we think that makes a difference,” she said. “I thought that if we’re doing that, we need to find a faith-based school I can go to.”
A private, Jesuit-run school, Marquette University fit those requirements, along with its good psychology program, she said.
While taking classes, Chrystal kept busy by doing substitute teaching at inner-city elementary schools, as well as working as a teaching assistant and a graduate assistant at the university. The latter gave her a taste of teaching at a college level.
“I appreciated all the experience I received and the people I met while there,” she said.
Though she initially intended to stay until she got her master’s, she ultimately stayed on for her doctorate after being given two assistantships that paid for the rest of her time there.
The monastery prioress at the time also helped with that decision, Chrystal said.
“My prioress, in her wisdom, had said, ‘Don’t come home until you’re done,’ because oftentimes when you’re going for a doctorate, you’ll eventually go back to your regular life and not have time to finish it,” she said.
Upon graduating with a doctorate in educational psychology with an emphasis in reading instruction, Chrystal returned to Yankton and learned that a teaching position had opened at MMC.
She was eager to get back to teaching at the grade school level, so she initially committed to only filling the position for one year.
After nearly 30 years, however, she said doesn’t have any immediate plans to go elsewhere.