Awardee: Professor Dr. Patricia Ann Broderick, O.P. Ph.D
Saint Thomas Aquinas College- 2018 Hall of Fame Award
Acceptance Speech: due_ Friday, October 5th , 2018
Award: Ceremony-January 25th ,2018
Date of Taping: October 10th , 2018
Today’s Date: October 4th , 2018
Speech by Awardee in gratitude: I think of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican Friar, and his teacher and mentor, St. Albert the Great, as I reflect on the imminent honor that has been bestowed on me by the President, Vice President, Distinguished Committee and Board of Trustees of St. Thomas Aquinas College. As I accept my grand inductance into the Hall of Fame, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill
as I think of the theological works of St Thomas Aquinas himself within his writings, The Summa Theologica, for example, the work that teaches us that “humility is truth”, that we can enjoy our intellects and share this joy, proclaim it!. I reflect on the likely cognitive and deep emotions of St. Albert the Great as it is told that he enjoyed the fame of St. Thomas of Aquinas and St Albert took delight in all of his student’s well-deserved acclaim. Gleaned from my readings of the works of these two unique Dominican Scholars, I gather that St. Albert the Great was proud of his student. Thomas.
After all, St. Albert the Great gave his all to St. Thomas and St Thomas built on Albert’s knowledge and education and grew from his teacher’s wealth of knowledge. Thomas must have relished in Albert’s kindness in him. Indeed, Albert’s sheer gift of giving of himself to all his students, not only Thomas, I think, was his crowning glory. “The student should be greater than the teacher”. Albert said.
How filled with wonder I am and I always have been at the utter depth of knowledge and open willingness to pass on his inheritance of intellect to his students who are not blood actually so to speak at least, if we turn to the vernacular momentarily. Thus, you see, Thomas and Albert are friends of mine and I have modeled my scholarly and religious and spiritual life after these historical figures of Dominican teachers par excellence, who are the Saintly Thomas and Albert .
I wish to share with you that the spiritual and intellectual wealth I own in the spirit of the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, is wealth that cannot be calculated in mere decimal points! I owe my joy in discovery, my joy in study, in spiritual depth to God as he has come to me through the great minds of the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill. I thank, oh such an understatement, the Sparkill Dominican Sisters in Aquinas High School and St Thomas Aquinas College for giving me the unique gift of wealth in intellect and happiness and peace within this gift of discovery, the gift of joy in my studies, the gift of sharing my gifts with my students, with doctors, with nurses, biomedical engineers, network engineers, electrical engineers, neuroscientists, chemists, physicists, pharmacologists, worldwide, with the Dominican Sisters, with my peers, with all with whom I cross and criss cross paths in all walks of life. Now, with my brain developed by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, myself and my team perform Live Imaging in the Epilepsy and Parkinson’s patients to diagnose and treat the dreaded
diseases that unexpectedly beset us and we use the name, BRODERICK PROBE® nanobiosensor, named after my father.
Oh, how readily Sr. Mary Louis Yeager, Sr. Joanne Therese, Sr. Edmund Marie, Sr. Joan Dolores, Dean Enda, Sr. Catherine Anthony, Sr. Anita, Sr. Marie Jean, Sr. Katherine Bernard, Sr. Barbara Paul, S. Miriam Joseph, Sr. Rose Genevieve and Sr. Noreen Therese, Mother Kevin, Mother Evangelist Marie,
Sr. Eileen Donovan, Sr. Bridget O’Sullivan. Oh dear, I cannot stop nor do i want to stop. But, I must stop for, at least, now. Thank you St. Thomas Aquinas College, Aquinas High School!. Thank you the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, NY, USA and Pakistan, for my inner peace in the study of the soul and its relationship to the brain. Thank you, Sr. Mary Louis Yeager, who I asked, “Do you think I could be a good nun? Sr. Louis
said,” oh yes, a good nun, a nun with a sense of humor, a nun filled with fun, a nun who is an excellent student and an excellent teacher”.
Thank you, my family, and friends, for encouraging me to enter and remain a Sparkill Dominican. I did so, truthfully, with fear and trepidation, the most wonderful act of my life here on this grand earth. Thank you, God, for directing me in this path as a Sparkill Dominican with a special vocation as
Medical Professor, in Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences in the City University of New York School of Medicine and NYU Langone Neurology and Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Here and throughout my life, with Physician Assts, Medical Doctors, Undergrads and yes, High School Students, also working with and in India, Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, UK, USA, Mexico, Canada to name a few, and importantly, in concert with St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great, “the student should be greater than the teacher” resounds within every one of my
neurons to give myself to anyone who comes to me to learn so that we can share our art of discovery for humanity.. What a lucky girl I am!!!!!!
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