Fellowship of the ring

by Gloria Cowdin and Christina Elias

As an all-girls Catholic school, STA has always upheld the ideals of sisterhood as one its most important values. Founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1866, the school’s emphasis on the bonds of sisterhood have grown with each graduating class. Despite each passing year that signals the end of a class’s time at STA, many alumnae carry a memento throughout their lives of the sororal bond they made here.

The most widely-recognize and cherished of these keepsakes is the STA class ring.

According to junior Lily Cosgrove, the class ring will act as a reminder of time spent at STA.

“The ring is symbolic of everything [your class has] gone through together,” Cosgrove said. “So it’s just something you’ll carry with you for the rest of your life.”

Class rings have not always existed at STA. According to Terry Egelhoff, who works in the development office and graduated from STA in 1961, students received class pendants instead of rings in the early 1900s.

“There weren’t rings, there were medals–medallions,” Egelhoff explained. “It’s got the crest on it . . . [you can]  go over to Goppert, on that flipboard [with all the classes], if you flip back into the 1900s, you’ll see pictures of some of the graduates and they have these medals. They didn’t have [class] rings in those days.”

Egelhoff explained that after the medals, STA transitioned to rings with designs different from the medals. These rings were primarily given to the classes of 1961 and 1962 before STA developed an idea for an original ring design incorporating the crest from the medals. The class of 1963 was the first to receive the current rings.

“They used [the different] ring for a couple of years; that happened to be my year of graduation that they used that ring,” Egelhoff said. “So for sure it was ‘60 and ‘61. Anyway, after they used that for a couple of years they didn’t like it, so they went back to this ring. I got myself one of these [current rings] because I lost mine.”

One of Egelhoff’s friends, class of 1962 alumna Cathy Hughes Marx, originally received the same ring as Egelhoff. She still has her class ring, in addition to her mother’s (a 1932 alumna) medal and a modern ring Egelhoff surprised her with a few years ago as a gift.

“I am very happy to have one [ring] like yours,” Marx admitted. “Like the students have right now. People don’t really recognize my other one as a St. Teresa’s ring. I am very proud to wear my ring.”

The STA ring is manufactured by the company Jostens, which is responsible for distributing class rings, yearbooks, graduation apparel and more to schools around the country. Current Jostens representative Jeff Heline has worked with STA for 25 years. According to Heline, Jostens has made the STA class rings for over 50 years.

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According to junior Bella Meisel, excitement about the class ring begins as soon as freshman year. Meisel does not have any other relatives who have attended STA, and almost did not come here herself. As a result, she wasn’t initially aware of the treasured class ring tradition.

“I found out pretty quickly [getting a junior ring] was a big thing,” Meisel said. “People were obsessing over them. Like, saying they’re so pretty and [talking about] sisterhood and all that . . . I got excited to get one.”

For some students, however, the expense of a class ring is not feasible. Orders for rings are placed sophomore year and much of junior year is spent planning the ceremony and dance. Last year, Cosgrove and then-sophomore Maggie Knox decided to start a fund to buy two classmates, Violet Cowdin and Audrey Carroll, their class rings. Cosgrove’s older sister, Emily, who received a ring from her classmates, was the inspiration. They created a Facebook group to spread the word and keep it a secret from the two girls.

“Split up between that many people, I felt like we could do it,” Cosgrove explained.

Before the end of their sophomore year, the class of 2016 had raised $666.08, but the gift was kept secret from Cowdin and Carroll until this winter. The morning of March 11, members of the junior class revealed the surprise to Cowdin and Carroll. They will now receive their rings with the rest of their class during their junior ring ceremony April 8.

According to Cosgrove, this kind of surprise could easily become an official STA tradition, although she thinks it already happens naturally almost every year.

“I think [this surprise was] kind of unique to STA because the whole ring ceremony is such a bonding experience,” Cosgrove said. “I think it’s just special because the girls understand that [it’s a bonding experience] and want everybody to be included that wants to be included.”