STA Honors Mother Evelyn O’Neill Awardees

March 9, 2023

At a ceremony held this morning in Goppert Gymnasium, the STA community honored the student and community recipients of the Mother Evelyn O’Neill Award. This award recognizes excellence in leadership, community service or educational reform.

Out of six student nominees, two – seniors Riyan J. and Stella H. – were named the 2023 recipients. Both are active in numerous organizations and causes in the community.

• Riyan dedicates much of her time to Awesome Ambitions, Freedom Inc., Sisters in Christ, Project Sankofa and the STA Black Student Coalition. She recently spoke at the 2022 Human Relations Event honoring civic leader and civil rights activist Alvin Brooks. As the event’s final student speaker, she brought the crowd to their feet after detailing her plans to carry forward Mr. Brooks’ legacy of bringing people together and representing the best of our community.
• Stella has done extensive service work with Gordon Parks Elementary, Youth for Change, Lead to Read KC, and is involved with STA Campus Ministry. She is committed to social justice and racial equity, and works to engage parishioners from two urban Catholic parishes in Kansas City, Missouri – Visitation Church and St. Monica Church – in meaningful dialogue to promote the advancement of interracial relations and spirituality.

This year’s community award recipient, Mary Williams-Neal, was born in a sharecropper’s shack on the corner of a cottonfield in Mississippi where she picked cotton with her parents. As a young adult, she moved to Kansas City with her three young children and began making Kansas City a better place for her family and the entire community. Ms. Williams-Neal served as Kansas City’s 3rd District City Councilwoman from 1995-2003 and continues to serve as a Commissioner on the Board of Parks and Recreation. Currently, she is CEO of the Get Ahead Club, which she founded in 1998. Ms. Williams-Neal strives to put others first, always keeping an open door so she can help others by mentoring, listening and doing. As someone who exemplifies service, her mantra is, “Let’s treat each other well.”

2023 Mother Evelyn O’Neill nominees and awardees: (seated) Mary Williams-Neal, community awardee; (standing, l. to r.): Taylor H.; Emma H.; Jillian P.’ Riyan J., student awardee; Rose O.; and Stella H., student awardee

About Mother Evelyn O’Neill

In 1908, Mother Evelyn O’Neill, a member of the faculty, was appointed Superior of St. Teresa’s Academy, then located at 12th and Washington Streets in downtown Kansas City. Though Mother Evelyn and all associated with the old Academy loved it loyally, businesses were being built on all sides and many realized the need of a new site for the school. Mother Evelyn was determined to make the necessary change.

In securing permission for a new location and in arranging for the loan to finance the undertaking, Mother Evelyn displayed an unshakable faith in divine providence and the intercession of St. Joseph, as well as a heroic degree of courage, humility, and perseverance. Added to these virtues, Mother Evelyn possessed a zeal for Catholic education, an aesthetic sense, and great foresight, which enabled her to envision a future for the Academy she loved so dearly.

Mother Evelyn died at Nazareth Convent in Lemay, Missouri, on December 26, 1938, at the age of 79 and in her 62nd year of religious life. Most of those 62 years were spent at STA.