St. Catherine University: A Saint Paul Institution Built Around Women’s Education

St. Catherine University, commonly known as St. Kate’s, is a private Catholic institution in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1905 as the College of St. Catherine, it was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet under the leadership of Mother Seraphine Ireland. The school takes its name from St. Catherine of Alexandria, described in the source material as a fourth-century Egyptian lay philosopher.

The institution was created as one of the Midwest’s early higher-education institutions specifically serving women. That founding purpose remains central to how St. Catherine describes its academic structure: its baccalaureate programs are for women, while its graduate and associate programs are available to women and men. The college adopted the name St. Catherine University in 2009.

The university has an average annual enrollment of about 3,700 students. Its stated focus includes recruiting and enrolling minority students and students who are older than the traditional college age. That emphasis is also reflected in the history of its adult-education offerings. St. Catherine’s Weekend College, now called College for Adults, was the second program of its type in the United States and the first in the Upper Midwest, according to the supplied material.

St. Catherine also has a notable place in the history of Hmong higher education. The university was the first private college in the nation to launch an effort aimed at attracting, welcoming and retaining Hmong students. The source identifies St. Kate’s as home to one of the country’s largest populations of Hmong scholars.

For Saint Paul readers, the university’s history provides a local example of how a Catholic college founded for women expanded its educational mission while retaining a women-centered undergraduate model. Its programs now span traditional bachelor’s study, graduate education, associate degrees and offerings designed for adult learners.

The available information does not describe the university’s policies concerning LGBTQ students, faculty or staff, nor does it provide details about campus organizations, gender-identity rules or current inclusion initiatives. What it does establish is the institution’s long-standing connection to questions of educational access: women’s higher education, adult learning, minority enrollment and Hmong student participation. Those features place St. Catherine within Saint Paul’s broader history of institutions working to reach students who have not always been centered in conventional college models.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.stkate.edu/about/history/ - https://www.stkate.edu/academics/institutes-and-centers/cwl/amp - https://www.stkate.edu/academics/institutes-and-centers/catie-center - https://www.stkate.edu/academics/institutes-and-centers/center-for-stem - https://www.stkate.edu/academics/academic-enhancement/antonian-scholars - https://www.stkate.edu/academics/academic-enhancement/global-studies Image rights Photograph description: Derham Hall , St. Catherine University , St. Paul, Minnesota , USA. Creator: Bobak Ha'Eri. License: CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2009-731-MN-StKates-DerhamHall.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.