Being All That I Can Be

“My goal in life has always been to be fully human and fully alive”—these words of Sister Bonita Gacnik describe the busy, active, and energetic life of this Benedictine sister and associate professor of mathematics and computer science.

As a Benedictine and a teacher, S. Bonita feels she has a special opportunity to model Catholic, Benedictine values in the classroom and to mentor future leaders of society. As an educator, “I have the opportunity to help students realize their potential, their giftedness and broaden their vision for themselves and expand their views of the world.”
             S. Bonita working with
             Abstract Algebra students.

S. Bonita was 36 when she entered community. She owned her own home, was active in her parish and well established professionally. Knowing the challenges a professional woman faces in deciding to choose monastic life, she feels a special call to work with other professional women discerning a call to religious life. “I came to Sacred Heart Monastery,” she says, “because I felt a call to religious life. I continue to believe it is as a Benedictine that I have the opportunity to realize my full potential as a human being.”

S. Bonita knows what it means to work for what is important. Her family had a paper route when she was in grade and high school. Moneys earned were used to pay tuition for the four in her family to attend parochial school. In college she worked in dietary at Colorado State Hospital, 20-30 hours a week. After graduating from Southern CO State College, Pueblo, she worked for 14 years in  Scientific Computing doing software design, development and consulting at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. Since entering community in 1984 she has earned master’s degrees in math and computer science, an Education Specialist Degree in Computing Technology in Education, and a Ph.D. in Computing Technology in Education. She has been on the faculty of Mount Marty College since 1989.

S. Bonita has a great love of the elderly, nurtured by her work in the monastery care center. She has always had one of the residents as a “buddy.”

She loves nature, sports, and handyman-type projects. She enjoys golfing, bike riding,  rose gardening, working in photography, and feeding birds and squirrels.

S. Bonita shows her love of nature by seeing that squirrels have winter food.

“Two events stand out as significant experiences that have enriched my monastic life,” she says, “the death of  my older sister, S. Carolyn, and the monastery fire in 1997.” Her sister was diagnosed with cancer when S. Bonita was a novice.  “This was a painful journey for me, but also a time of abundant blessing.” “The fire was a time of ‘one heart and one soul’ becoming physically and spiritually personified for our community, the college, hospital, Yankton, the surrounding area and the state of South Dakota.

S. Bonita is the daughter of  the deceased Stanley Sr. and Viola Gacnik of Pueblo. Her brother Stan and twin sister Connie live in Pueblo.