Pioneering Educator
Reflections from beloved professor Maureen C. Stefanini
Dr. Stefanini was hired at Worcester State by Helen Shaughnessy in 1967 to train student teachers. She reinvented her career in the 1980s after serving as one of the first female Sloan Fellows at MIT and went on to teach accounting, entrepreneurship, and business leadership for women. At Worcester State, she gave back in countless ways, serving as the advisor to the Sigma Beta Delta business honor society and the Kappa Delta Pi education honor society and serving on the Scholarship Committee.
This year, her longtime friend Karen Tessmer, associate athletics director, visited with Dr. Stefanini to reflect on her time at Worcester State.
Dr. Maureen Stefanini
Karen: Maureen, what was the class of 1958 like?
Maureen: The best class ever! It took us ’til now to recognize that we were top of the ladder. It’s a small enough group, so there’s very few people you didn’t know. One member of the class, Tom McGrain, initiated entrepreneurship opportunities, and that was the start of entrepreneurship at Worcester State. They had a dance every Friday night and organized bus trips to New York and D.C. Many of those alumni came back to my classes and talked to my students about internships and entrepreneurship.
Karen: Looking through the yearbook, I see most students were education majors because it was Worcester State Teachers College in the fifties, right?
Maureen: Absolutely. That’s why you see so many women there. The choices were limited. You could teach, and so there were a lot of elementary educators.
Karen: How big was the campus in 1958?
Maureen: It was the one building, the Administration Building as we know it now. We used to sit on the curb side where the pillars are, waiting to be picked up. We had to go to assemblies every day and would sing “Faith of Our Fathers.” If you missed an assembly you had to write a letter of apology to the president. One time I missed it and had to write a letter to President Sullivan.
Karen: What drew you to be in the teaching profession?
Maureen: Since I was a little girl, I had a pink table and chair set, and I used to stand in front of it and be a teacher.
Karen: How did you cross paths with Helen Shaughnessy?
Maureen: She hired me for my teaching position there. When she looked at my record and she looked at the materials, she asked me to join the Quota Club that she was in and the Friday Afternoon Club and the Guild of Our Lady of Providence. We knew her at Worcester State because she had a presence. She was always well dressed, happy, and friendly. We didn’t have this list of bosses. We worked together. So she was an icon, a legend here at Worcester State. And you could walk to her house, and plenty of times we did when she had a small cape at the back end of the college. She organized class reunions for her class for 45 years.
Karen: Helen was an influence on you and then you influenced other people following in her footsteps. I have student-athletes who had you, and you were one of their favorite professors. They’ve gone on to do great things in the business world, and you were instrumental in helping them. What was important to you as a professor?
Maureen: I wanted them to get good jobs or get into good schools, be prepared, and have fun along the way.
Karen: What do you think is important to remember as Worcester State celebrates its 150th anniversary?
Maureen: We have good students. They’re hardworking. They have something to prove and they’re going to prove it. Believe me.
