November 04, 2019
Sister Carolyn’s influence permeates former tutors’ lives
By Ealish Brawley ’14
Sister Carolyn Sullivan, O.P. ’02G, who retired in June as assistant director for tutorial services in Providence College’s Office of Academic Services, leaves a legacy of counsel, spirit, and kindness that continues to influence and inspire the student peer tutors she supervised and mentored.
“She made a connection with ‘her kids’, which really impacted how they carried themselves in the Tutoring Center, at PC, and beyond graduation,” said Jonathan Gomes, associate director for tutoring and disability services.
Sister Carolyn, who served PC for 25 years, was born in Rhode Island and raised on Long Island, N.Y., where her family moved during her father’s U.S. Navy career. Educated by the Amityville Dominican Sisters in grammar school and high school, she was inspired by their faith in God, their joy, and their good teaching. Teaching was something Sister Carolyn always wanted to do. After graduating from high school, she yearned to have the same joy and purpose as her former teachers.
She worked as a legal secretary for a year in Washington, D.C., and in 1961 entered the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, Long Island. She studied education at Molloy College while teaching first, third, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in several schools on Long Island. In 1977, she moved into administration as an assistant principal and then principal. During a sabbatical year after leaving administration she served the Diocese of Rockville Center for two years in their mission in Hondo Valle, Dominican Republic, an outpost village on the border of Haiti.
Sister Carolyn had ties to the College long before she began her service. Her father, the late Cmdr. Francis J. Sullivan ’34, and brother, Francis J. Sullivan ’67, graduated from PC, as well as her niece, Jennifer Sullivan St. Jean ’93. Sister Carolyn herself earned a second master’s degree, in theology, from the College in 2002.
It was through a connection of her brother’s that she learned of an opening on campus. In 1994, she returned to Providence as director of community outreach and training in the College’s Balfour Center for Multicultural Affairs. Two years later, she transitioned to the Office Academic Services as coordinator of tutorial and testing services. She was named assistant director for tutorial services in 2005.
Her work in the Tutoring Center included interviewing, hiring, and overseeing tutors; planning development retreats and workshops; and scheduling study sessions. Sister Carolyn quickly endeared herself to students — especially the tutorial staff — with her advice, wisdom, and warmth. She viewed her position primarily as that of an educator, not an administrator, she said.
Jacquie DeSisto Mazick ’10 & ’14G, a former writing tutor, said, “Sister Carolyn felt that we, as tutors, could always be learning and improving. She was always innovative and getting us to think outside the box.”
In her position as associate director of prospect management in Brown University’s Division of Advancement, Mazick often uses skills she learned in the Tutoring Center. “Sister taught me how to be organized and efficient, and how to work with others as a colleague, a counselor, and a supervisor,” she said.
In addition to improving her tutors’ skills, Sister Carolyn was a constant caring and compassionate presence in their lives, and she always made students and other visitors feel welcome, said Mazick.
After daily morning Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, Sister Carolyn would walk around campus and pray the rosary. Even though these moments before the OAS opened were frequently the only quiet ones in her day, she invited students to walk with her and talk about their academic and personal struggles and triumphs. Sister Carolyn described the relationships she built this way as “a bit of my payback and my joy.” Her deliberate efforts to check in with her tutors regularly, both in casual conversations and scheduled meetings, built relationships of trust and confidence.
“Sister and I formed a special bond because I really appreciated having someone looking out for me and offering advice,” said Laura Frackiewicz ’18, a former math, physics, and psychology tutor and tutor mentor. “I loved talking with her because she made me feel important and always made me see the bigger picture.”
Frackiewicz, now a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Gynecologic Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, appreciated the compassionate approach she learned from Sister Carolyn.
“She made us all put ourselves in the shoes of those we were tutoring and to always be kind and empathetic,” Frackiewicz said. “Every day I work with cancer patients, and I bring the same sense of confidence, trust, and understanding that I did while tutoring.”
Many of the bonds that Sister Carolyn formed lasted far beyond students’ years at PC. The parents of Conor McManus ’07, a former math and accounting tutor, invited Sister Carolyn to join them for his graduation luncheon because they attributed much of the person their son had become to her tutelage.
McManus said, “Sister Carolyn is incredibly kind, gentle, supportive, and caring; each and every student who walked into our Tutoring Center felt welcomed because of sister and the way she taught us to treat others.” Like many of her former tutors, McManus, who is now a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ assurance practice, keeps in touch with Sister Carolyn via phone calls, Facebook messages, and Christmas cards.
During her last retreat with the OAS, Sister Carolyn lovingly was voted “most likely to attend a tutor’s wedding,” and with good reason. The time she spent getting to know her tutors as individuals has landed her name on many a wedding guest list. “What a delight it was to have sister on the dance floor at my wedding,” said Mazick.
With permission from her Dominican Leadership Team, Sister Carolyn will continue to live in Providence for her retirement. Her most recent tutors are thrilled she will be available to meet up with them during the year to walk and share lunch. Her immediate plans included travel with family and friends and volunteer work in her parish.
But what Sister Carolyn looks forward to most about retirement is getting up a little later each morning and having leisure time to pray and read for the sheer pleasure of it. She is excited about the opportunity to stay in Providence, where she was born.
“That is also part of the joy I feel,” she said. “I love the word ‘joy.’ It is a deeper down feeling than ‘happy.’ I am delighted and so grateful to be staying here.”
