Due to technical difficulties with the podcasting audio, parts of the audio have been edited and a transcript has been added.
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Theme Music (0:20)
Host: Izzy Christensen (0:31)
Welcome back to a look through the years. My name is Izzy Christensen and I’ll be your host today. With me, I have four alumna that have made their journey back to Regina. Let’s welcome Annie Tully, class of 92, Ellie Rich, and Elizabeth McCann, class of 09, and Laura Chang, class of 08. I’d love for you all to tell me a little bit about yourself and your experience at Regina. Ms. Tully, would you like to start? Yes, let’s start with you.
Ms. Tully (0:53)
Okay, let’s start by age. So what do you want to know exactly? Just about my experience generally.
Host: Izzy Christensen
Tell me about yourself.
Ms. Tully
Okay, I’m Annie Tully. I graduated in 1992. When I went to Regina, I was super involved. I was trying to outdo my sisters and was vice president of student council. I was captain of the cross country team and I was on the track team. That’s about general about me.
Host: Izzy Christensen (1:21)
Who want’s to go next?
Mrs. Chang (1:22)
I’m Laura Hogan, or Laura Chang. I graduated in 08. But I was the captain of the lacrosse team for…I did volleyball, swimming, ambassadors, which I’ve always been interested in.
Ms. McCann (1:30)
I’m Elizabeth McCann, class of 2009. I played golf, softball, bowling, from the Ambassador Club, yearbook, and Student Council.
Ms. Rich (1:37)
I’m Elli Rich, I’m class of 2009. I’m a bowling team, I was with the Smalls and Tennis Soccer team. I was an ambassador club because my mom is Pattie Fuentes and she forced me to do a lot of things. I was involved in this thing called Snowball. So it was like between Regina, New Trier, and North Shore Country Day. And I was in the digital music club. And I was in student council.
Ms. Chang (2:02)
Oh! I was on the newspaper.
Host: Izzy Christensen (2:02)
Was it a class at all, or no?
Ms. Chang (2:03)
It was a journalism class. The room over here is yearbook and it is where the newspaper was. And it came out every other week.
Ms. Rich (2:11)
It was the Crown. And we had little news stands outside of the cafeteria. And you would see what it was.
Ms. McCann (2:15)
It was exciting. It was. Yeah.
Ms. Chang (2:16)
You would think it is impressive, but it was just the computers and you go in there and you type it out into a program and then Dr. Burke would bring it to a printer and then pass it out.
Ms. Rich (2:28)
I think some members and some students would have to go in the morning to pick it up before if it was ready. And then she also had like press passes. So like some of our students would try to get access to legitimate things.
Ms. Chang (2:37)
Well she knew a lot of people.
Host: Izzy Christensen (2:42)
Let’s get to the questions, now. What made you come to Regina?
Ms. Tully (2:47)
I guess I just think again I’m a million years old and it just was sort of I think so I was just sorta …I went to Queen of All Saints for grade school The options were not that like we just it was sort of not an option at all. I also thought it just school.
Ms. Rich (3:01)
I shadowed here. My brother went to Notre Dame for four years. And here I am and here I am again.
Ms. McCann (3:08)
Yeah, I’m an only child, so it was kind of up to me. But my mom went to Immaculata, which was an all-girls school in the city. That closed. My aunt went to Scholastica, and I could tell that was on its way out. So it was pretty much Regina or Loyola. But I felt really comfortable here. I enjoyed all my experiences. And I didn’t want to go where the rest of my class was going, St. Mary of the Woods was going, even though, we still had 12 who came here.
Ms. Rich (3:24)
So, my mom started to work at the end of my seventh year at Edgebrook and I think they were like have a tour here, have a tour here even before I didn’t have an option when my mom had a job here.
Host Izzy Christiansen (3:43)
What is your favorite memory?
Ms. Rich (3:43)
There are a lot of good ones.
Ms. Tully (3:43)
Oh, I know. So, our roles. You used to do more of a skit when you hosted it. So she and I were Bill and Ted. And Bill and Ted, that’s an adventure. So I watched Bill and Ted, VHS tape, like pausing, writing down quotes from the movie. We like pausing. But that was fun. And I’m glad, like, it’s the juniors on student council who still post that.
Ms. McCann (4:07)
I actually said that, too.
Everyone:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Ms. Tully (4:11)
And now it seems like they got a couple of jokes, but they’re phoning it in. Right. We need costumes.
Ms. Rich (4:17)
Do you remember that variety show when the teachers did that —
Ms. McCann (4:22)
Oh yeah, that was good.
Ms. Rich (4:22)
But mine is… We have a friend, Analisa, who she is, she’s incredible, such a huge supporter of the show. She’s so funny. And for two variety shows.
Ms. McCann (4:33)
I was going to say which one are you.
Ms. Rich (4:33)
Both of them. One performance was senior year and one was junior year, Brittney Spears. montage. And she lip-synched Brittney Spears and she had different outfits.
Ms. McCann (4:47)
She just had a snake around her shoulder.
Ms. Rich (4:48)
She was crawling down the stage singing in front of the nuns. When we were here, we had nuns and they always sat in the front rows. She is crawling on the stage singing “I Did It Again,” or “Toxic Girl” as she is playing with her snake.
And then her senior year, she did an iconic performance of “Good Morning Baltimore” “Hairspray.” And she had the wig and the performant and the hairspray.
Ms. McCann (5:08)
Halfway through the performance the wig fell to right here and she couldn’t see and she just ran with it the whole time.
Ms. Rich (5:15)
She delivered and it was like one of those, it was like when Katherine Starmann played “My Heart Will Go On” and everyone was just like this is so brilliant and amazing and everyone was just screaming at the top of their lungs and she was….
Ms. McCann (5:28)
People were crying, I think I was.
Ms. Rich (5:28)
But she was lip syncing and singing at the same time.
Ms. McCann (5:33)
And just running around the stage like amazing.
Ms. Rich (5:35)
And she, it like made my day. It was just one of those things like nowhere else could somebody do this and bring like laughter and joy and just like, verbiage.
Ms. Tully: (5:43)
We all agree this is one for the archives.
Ms. McCann (5:48)
Remember that rally we had when we met at Union Plaza. It was during Gnimocemoh, right. And we just…All we did was decorate our cars and caravan over here and honk our horns and play “We Will Rock You,” and we got into so much trouble.
Ms. Rich (5:49)
I got in trouble.
Ms. McCann (6:01)
And Molly Freund
Ms. Rich (6:02)
I had nothing to do with the organization, but I was called down to the office.
Ms. Tully (6:08)
Why you? Why did you get called? Why did they assume it was your fault?
Ms. McCann (6:12)
I think they picked someone from class council and Molly got chosen.
Ms. Rich (6:17)
I didn’t get in trouble alot, but…
Ms. McCann(6:17)
You were often out of uniform. You wore Uggs all of the time.
Ms. Rich (6:23)
They were allowed and I only wore them freshmen year. I didn’t get in trouble a lot. I got in trouble by my mom. It was, like, a lot of the teachers would snitch on me if I did something bad in class. “Here is another one, Patty.” And my mother would track me down.
Ms. Tully (6:36)
A lot of teachers will talk to me about Alice and I will tell them to call Conan. I don’t want to know.
Ms. Rich (6:39)
Pattie was like “Give it to me. Tell me everything she is doing. I did get in trouble a lot.
Ms. Chang (6;44)
I just wanted to have a party. So the entire class got here super early and we brought a city pool and pool clothes and had a surfing party. It was fun, though.
Ms. McCann (6:54)
We had a better class.
Ms. Rich
We did have a better class. We had a bigger class and a better class.
Ms. McCann and Ms. Rich (6:53)
We are fine, the class of ’09.
Ms. Tully (6:59)
Wait, I want to say one more thing about variety show. I know I’ve told you this before, but I’m pretty sure my class accidentally started that tradition. The best tradition because there was like, so during variety show my senior year, all of my, I had a whole group of friends that were like doing the parody of Beverly Hills 90201. That’s the original. Like Brandon and… And in their down time they were joking and said we should do like some type of interpretive dance. So, we all wore black and they went on stage and they all froze and then I have a very weird sound interpretation. They all stood in a pose and I came out in a flowy skirt and ran around them doing a monkey call and I collapsed and everyone just fidget. Then the next year.
And then the next year, I remember the girls behind me being like, yeah, that girl is a year year behind us and I hated that. It was weird. I tried to escape that, and it’s kind of weird. And then when I became a teacher, literally, like decades later, I go to the variety show, and I see them doing this thing. And I was like, I think that’s what happened when we started. And it’s just like evolved into this.
This is going to definitely hurt you.
SOUND OF MONKEY CALL
Ms. McCann (8:32)
How did you discover you could do that? I do not know.
Ms. Tully (8:36)
Okay. But I was very well known for it.
Ms. Rich (8:36)
If it was now, it would be on the screen, the pod, the internet right now.
Ms. McCann (8:39)
Do you remember the Dirty Dancing skit at the Variety Show? We should bring that back.
Ms. Rich (8:39)
So at the end of our Variety Show, the senior class would be the Dirty Dancing skit, and ours was great because we had Katie Trella, who was tall and Katie Monik, who is Nurse Marti’s daughter.
Ms. McCann (8:46)
So you took like the tallest and shortest person every year.
Ms. Rich (8:46)
And they did the dance together and you call it Dirty Dancing. Yeah. Yeah. And it was very fun. I think Mark was the best. It was. Yeah. Yeah, he knew the dollars. The last question is, what made you come back to Regina? Did you like spicy?
Ms. McCann (8:49)
They should bring this back.
Host Izzie Christiansen (8:49)
The last question is: what made you come to Regina?
Everyone (8:49)
Laughing.
Ms. McCann (9:03)
Because it is exciting?
Ms. Rich (9:03)
Because of the monkey call.
Ms. Tully (9:12)
I mean, okay, so I literally, I had a whole previous career in arts administration, and then I had a few bad days and I was like, I think I want to be an English teacher because I always thought I would. And then I had to graduate, and I was talking with my cousin at Notre Dame and they said, I ” Hey, Regina’s hiring, and I was like, that would be hilarious…
Ms. Rich (9:30)
I also did not think I would work here. Um, my family is really important to me, so I applied and it was the most rigorous interview process. My mom interviewed me. It would be as if your mom interviewed you to work for her and you are just sitting there thinking of everything she taught you as a parent and about life, so it was very nerve-wracking. Then I interviewed with Joan Kitchie and then had another interview. That was a lot of interviews. Then, I got hired here and I love what I do and one of the many blessings working here is working with my classmate.
Ms. McCann (10:17)
In a weird way, I kind of always thought I would work here. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a teacher, so I saw myself coming back here, but I am not a teacher. But I did start coaching golf right after I graduated college. And then I got involved in the alumni board. And then I was close to Diane Garvey, who had a position before me. And she recommended me the job. And it’s fun working here.
Ms. Rich (10:40 )
You better say that. It’s a side-eye. You better say something.
Ms. McCann (10:42)
No, it is fun. We’ve got a lot to do. She was mean to me.
Ms. Rich (10:45)
I was not. I’m kidding. I had no friends in high school. I was two.
Ms. McCann (10:45)
I was kidding.
Ms. Rich(10:46)
I didn’t have friends, maybe two. Three.
Host Izzy Christianson (10:54)
Well. Through the years, we all shared that same sense of community and have made memories that last a long time. Thank you all for joining me to share about your school experiences and being a part of mine. Next week on A Look Through the Years, we will be talking through the lives of Taylor Swift. Once again, I’m your host, Izzy Christian. See you next time.
Everyone(11:14)
Yay!
Music 11:16