Cate Alumnae Make History with Distinguished Alumna, Faculty Home
Twenty-six years after the first young women accepted diplomas from Cate School, Cate alumnae made history by honoring the first female to receive the School's coveted Distinguished Alumni Award and dedicating a new faculty home in a very special joint ceremony.
One the evening of Saturday, June 6, over two dozen Cate alumnae and alumni, former parents, faculty, and friends came together in the new LEED-platinum certified home of Cate faculty members Patricia and Patrick Collins to take part in a live feed presentation with Mona Khalil '84, this year's Cate School Distinguished Alumna. Mona is the first female Cate graduate to receive this honor, which has previously been given to alumni who have distinguished themselves in the fields as diverse as finance and entertainment.
Criteria for award nominees include notable professional and/or personal success, loyalty to the school, and commitment to bettering the lives of others in keeping with the Cate School motto: Servons.
Mona, Senior Legal Officer of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, resides in Vienna, Austria. Although the presentation occurred at just after 2:00 am by her time, Mona's face on the large video screen radiated energy and delight at seeing her classmates and friends as she expressed her gratitude for the honor.
The serious and important nature of her work with the U.N., however, became evident when Mona remarked, soberly, that she was often up at that hour, preoccupied with world events.
As he presented her award, Headmaster Ben Williams spoke at length about Mona's contributions to Cate School and the world. Mona, a Saudi national, was one of the first girls to attend Cate when the school became coeducational in 1981.
Mona graduated from Cate in 1984 with highest honors, taking a number of the school's notable academic prizes before leaving for Harvard University, where she graduated in four years with an A.B. in Government, cum laude, and an M.A. in Middle East Regional Studies. While at Harvard, Mona, who is of Palestinian descent, founded the Arab-Israeli Student Union. She went on to Georgetown, where she earned an M.S. in Foreign Service and the J.D. that would lead her to accept a position as legal counsel to the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO). Mona was the first female Saudi to be employed as a lawyer by the Saudi government.
Mona was hired by the U.N.'s Office of legal Counsel in New York in 1993; in 2005, her new position with the International Atomic Energy Agency inspired her move to Europe, although her work takes her around the globe.
Always loyal to her school, Mona has stayed in close contact with the Cate community, giving generously of her time and experience when asked. When Headmaster Williams presented Mona with her award, the gathering of her friends, thousands of miles away, burst into spontaneous, loud, and enthusiastic applause.
Clearly touched, Mona responded by saying "thank you" in the five official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Looking around at her friends, she reminisced about their days as schoolmates, and how the idealism and passion of their youth continued to inspire her into her adult life. It was because of lessons learned on the Cate Mesa, Mona said, that she continued to believe herself capable of making a difference in an often troubled world.
Making a difference in their immediate world, all the Cate alumna present, including Mona on the video screen, then turned their attention to Cate trustee and lifetime Carpinteria resident Monique Parsons '84, who dedicated the home in which they were standing.
As the first Cate building entirely funded by and named for the women of Cate, Alumnae House, said Monique was a symbol of all the positive outcomes of coeducation on the Mesa. Its dedication represented all the lessons of power, possibility, and service to others that Cate faculty strive to teach all students.
Monique also noted how appropriate it was that the house, newly constructed to the highest environmental standards, was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Collins, who were influential teachers during the transition to coeducation almost thirty years ago.
Also dedicated on the same evening was the "79er Faculty Home," another LEED-platinum certified home funded and named by Cate's Class of 1979.
Print Page
Email to a Friend
RSS
Director of Alumni Relations
Director of Development