Prayer, Late Nights Powered 8 Abilities' Creation

The 8 Abilities that are the hallmark of an Alverno education weren’t created overnight. Instead, they were the product of years of discussion, debate, collaboration, prayer and hard work.

“We prayed day and night and worked like there was no tomorrow, all together,” recalls Sister Bernardin Deutsch ’53, one of the many Alverno faculty members who helped bring the 8 Abilities to life.

The 8 Abilities were created during the early 1970s amidst a national conversation about the need for graduates to demonstrate their competence in key skills. Alverno’s then-president, Sister Joel Read ’48, empowered faculty to take up this challenge, and the result was the unique way of teaching and learning that distinguishes Alverno today.

In May 1971, faculty gathered for an annual meeting. As Deutsch remembers, one faculty member was at the podium, sharing the qualities that defined an Alverno graduate, and Sister Georgine Loacker ’47 stood up in the audience and asked: “‘But how do we know that they are that way? We have no evidence.’”

The question set off a storm, Deutsch recalls. “People just stood up from the audience, saying ‘you’re right!’ I just sat there, stunned. It was so exciting.”

The journey to creating the 8 Abilities was officially underway. Faculty began working to create a framework for competency-based learning, focused on communication, problem solving, effective citizenship and valuing in decision making. Their careful study produced the remaining four abilities: social interaction, analysis, developing a global perspective and aesthetic engagement.

Dr. Vivien DeBack ’54, former nursing division chair, joined the Alverno faculty in 1972 after hearing about the exciting work and discussions taking place.

“All the excitement was at Alverno, and I wanted to be part of it,” she recalls.

In fact, the excitement was contagious. The work DeBack became immersed in at Alverno inspired her husband Lev, a science teacher in Franklin.

“He loved this stuff. He incorporated outcomes and assessment into his work, and he was one of the first assessors at Alverno,” she says.

DeBack and the nursing faculty worked to integrate the abilities into the nursing curriculum; for example, identifying nursing behaviors that represented problem solving. She knew that the abilities would capture what differentiated a great nurse from a good nurse.

“It felt like a breakthrough. This was doable!” she says.

That didn’t mean there weren’t questions as to how the abilities related to clinical skills. DeBack recalls: “One faculty member came into my office and said, ‘Just tell me, when we’re all done with this, is there a nurse there?’”

Some faculty throughout the College questioned whether this new way of learning could destroy Alverno as a liberal arts college. But Read and other administrators met the challengers head on, allowing the faculty to focus on the work.

“Nobody knew how much work it was going to be,” says Deutsch. “When you had a cup of coffee, you didn’t talk about the ball game last night. You talked about: How did that assessment go?”

Late nights were typical.

One night, Deutsch was preparing an assessment due the next day when she was hit by a wave of exhaustion. She remembered what Sister Austin Doherty ’54, one of the main architects of the abilities, had recently told her: “‘The time will come when we will be finished with this and we won’t have to work so hard.’”

Deutsch continues: “I thought to myself that this time would never come. I was physically drained. But my next thought was that I will never be bored, and the energy came back. So I finished the assessment and went home.”

The 8 Abilities debuted in 1973. While Alverno has experienced many changes in the past 50 years, Deutsch and DeBack agree that Alverno’s mission – and the way in which the abilities are foundational to that mission – has held true.

“The relevance of the abilities is still very real,” Deutsch says. “Whatever our next step is, I know we will continue to assist students to prepare themselves for their future in the world.”