Mary M. Keys '84

For Mary M. Keys ’84, Ph.D., now a professor of political science at Notre Dame, her love of the liberal arts began at home as a young girl and while a student at Oakcrest. 

“When I graduated from Oakcrest, at first I thought of becoming a journalist or a marine biologist,” she says. “But after my first two years of college, I realized I loved higher education, especially political science, philosophy, and the Great Books. That passion led me to attend graduate school in political theory and to achieve my goal of becoming a professor.” 

Even today, Mary believes that the Oakcrest education she received had a direct impact on her future studies and work. 

“I had many excellent teachers at Oakcrest, and I’m grateful to them all,” she says. “The classes that influenced me most in the long term were the humanities courses: history, art history, literature, philosophy, and theology. These challenged me to grow as a person intellectually, morally, and spiritually and helped me grow in understanding of the human condition, our origin in and call from God, and our world. My teaching and scholarship focus on the humanities portion of political science, incorporating dimensions of philosophy, theology, history, and literature.”

Mary attended the Yuma campus of Oakcrest, and although the school was small and had few amenities, she immediately thought the school was a perfect fit for her at her first visit with her mother and the Head of School, Patricia O’Donovan. 

“Miss O’Donovan emphasized the challenging academics, exciting but also scary for me at age 12. Next, I remember her sitting with me on a Saturday morning while I took the entrance test. I had heard about the school later than most incoming students, so I was the only one taking the exam. Later, I was so happy to hear I was accepted to begin seventh grade that fall.” 

The academic rigor that Mary experienced at Oakcrest she believes continued to shape her in the years to come, especially when she attended Boston College for her undergraduate degree in political science. She remembers one particular instance where she was shocked to receive a C on her first political theory paper, but because she had received even lower grades on quizzes and homework at Oakcrest, even when she had worked hard, she was able to pick herself up and begin again.  

“It was easy to rebound,” she said. “Later, my grades were up and the professor asked where I learned to write and where I went to high school, so I could proudly tell him about Oakcrest.”

At Oakcrest in the 1980s, Mary played tennis and basketball, while also contributing to the yearbook staff and the service club. During her senior year at Oakcrest, Mary was the Editor-in-Chief of the Crescens yearbook and the Class of 1984 Valedictorian. Outside of school, she volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity in Washington, D.C. helping teach classes in Christian doctrine for children and serving in the soup kitchen. “I learned a lot working with the sisters and the youth, they helped me much more than I could assist them,” Mary remembers. 

As a professor today, Mary believes that “The fruitful integration of faith and reason and the centrality of the human person in society and politics are two aspects of my Oakcrest education that I hope have helped me in my own life, teaching, and scholarly writing. The generous example of the teachers also inspires me in my teaching at Notre Dame and in my interactions with students at other universities.”

Mary returned to Oakcrest in 2002 to deliver the commencement address and she did so again in 2023. Watch her most recent address here.