Saint Mary's College Chicago East Alumnae Club

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Saint Mary's College Chicago East Alumnae Club

Check out our website (https://www.smcchicagoeast.com/) for the latest club events, news, membership and how to join.

The Chicago East Club has over 1500 members in the Chicagoland area, and is one of the most active alumnae clubs in the country.

06/03/2026

On Monday, June 29th, the Chicago Cubs are celebrating the students, alumni and fans of Notre Dame. The special offer includes a ticket to the Cubs-Padres game at Wrigley Field and a special-edition Cubs/Notre Dame cap.

The Notre Dame Clubs of Chicago, Lake County & Aurora/Fox Valley and the Saint Mary's College Chicago East Club are purchasing a block of Terrace Reserve Outfield seats.

The tickets are $95 and also include admission to the Home After Dome Pregame from 5-7pm at Moe's Cantina Wrigleyville, 3518 N Clark. Admission includes free heavy appetizers and drink specials. If you don't plan to attend the pregame, tickets are $80 and include the special edition Cubs/ND cap. All ages are welcome!

If you don't plan to attend the game or you already have tickets, you can join us at the Home After Dome Pregame. Your $15 registration includes heavy appetizers and drink specials.

We hope you can join us in welcoming our newest Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College alumni to the Chicagoland Area!

Get your ticket by June 25 to guarantee a spot!

More information and tickets are available on our website!

06/01/2026

✨ Read along with us this month! For June we are discussing PROJECT HAIL MARY (2022) by Andy Weir. This month our genre is "page to screen" and we selected the #1 NYT bestseller that is now a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. Weir is also the author of THE MARTIAN (2011) that went on to become a 2015 blockbuster starring Matt Damon. ✨

About the book:
Hailed by USA Today as “an epic story of redemption, discovery, and cool speculative sci-fi,” Project Hail Mary is an irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

05/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to Spring Spirits 2026! This was our largest event in years and sold out 3 weeks before the event! We had an amazing group of over 50 Belles from all different class years attend.

Thank you to our hostesses, Megan Weiland ‘03 and Jackie Ferguson ‘06, who reached out and offered to host this event for us. They worked so hard to get us in the beautiful Hotel Zachary and put together a great evening for us. Their generosity to cover the cost of the event ensured that 100% of our ticket sales, silent auction and raffle go towards the scholarship fund.

Spring Spirits is our biggest fundraiser for the Chicago East Endowed Scholarship fund. The scholarship is given annually to Chicago-area Belles. For the 2024-2025 school year, the scholarship awarded $26,300 total to three students (roughly $8,700 each).

Thanks to a record high attendance of 50+ Belles and all the generous Belles who participated in our raffle and silent auction, we raised over $4,150 for the SMC Chicago East Endowed Scholarship! Thank you to all the generous Belles who attended Spring Spirits and helped us have such a successful evening!

If you were unable to attend Spring Spirits but would still like to donate to the Saint Mary’s Chicago East Endowed Scholarship fund, you can do so on our website.

04/27/2026

Join the ND Club of Chicago and SMC Chicago East Club to provide lunch service to Lincoln Park Community Services at their Lincoln Park location (600 W Fullerton) on Saturday, May 16th.

We will be volunteering in person - cooking and serving lunch together for 40 residents. Please wear closed toed shoes and arrive at 10:45am. This is always a popular event, and it so fun to make a meal with your fellow Belles and Irish!

Make sure to RSVP via the link in our bio or on our website in order to attend! Space is limited!

04/21/2026

Last week, 10 Belles gathered for a lively discussion of debut novel, Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino. We loved the drama, the chaos, and just how off-the-rails everything got. This book gave us plenty to react to and we did.

One of the most divisive conversations of the night: Would you pull your offer on the murder house? The group was split right down the middle. Half of us said absolutely not—dealbreaker. The other half? Shockingly willing to proceed…though some had very real concerns about ghosts.

Thank you to Alyssa '13 for being our discussion leader!

Basia '19, as always, was an incredible host treating us to her sourdough (complete with a French cross and a house design), homemade pretzels and the "themed" food.

All in all, a fun, dramatic, and delicious night with just the right amount of chaos—both on the page and in our discussion.

📚 Read along with us each month!

04/13/2026

Join us for our next SMC/Chicago Talks Zoom Series on May 12: "2026 Jobseeker's Guide" led by Rose Baldonado ‘19.

Speaker:
Rose Baldonado ‘19, Lead Recruiter, Motion Recruitment

Topic:
Attend this webinar to hear from a recruiter on:

- How to clearly communicate your value
- How to stand out in a crowded market
- Where AI helps & hurts you in the processs

All attendees who sign up will receive a link to the Zoom webinar. Make sure to RSVP!

About SMC / Chicago Talks:
This is a virtual series where we will feature Belles from all years, industries and backgrounds to speak on topics you want to learn about and give advice. Each zoom webinar will be one hour and include a discussion from our featured Belle and a Q&A.

04/06/2026

❤️‍🔥 For our second romance / fantasy spin off book club meeting in May, we are reading POWER OF DRAKEN by Alex Lidell - The first book in the "Fated to the Draken Riders" series.❤️‍🔥

We will be meeting on May 6th to discuss the book. Read along and RSVP via our website to attend the meeting in person!

📚 About the book:
The next generation of the bestselling Power of Five must find their fated mate—and Kai’s just happens to be human... and his sworn enemy.

ROWAN

I’m an alchemist, not a soldier. But when your mother is an ambitious war hero and your rare magic is the key to defending the kingdom from draken-riding fae, you don’t get a choice.

So here I am—gritting my teeth through brutal drills, hiding the growing dizzy spells, and wondering how much more my defective body can take before it breaks.

Then the three most powerful men claim me for their squad, and my world tilts. Kai, Kyrian and Logan are gorgeous, cold, and far too dangerous. Their every glance is a challenge, every touch sparks heat I can’t ignore. It feels like fate is pulling us together—whether I’m ready or not.

But the trio hides dangerous secrets. They are fae. Enemy agents sent to steal my magic and tear apart all I’ve swore to protect… and I may already be too deep to escape.

04/02/2026

✨ Read along with us this month! For April we are discussing BEST OFFER WINS by Marisa Kashino. This month our genre is a book by a debut author. Many have started to read and the reports are in: it's UNHINGED! ✨

About the book:
An insanely competitive housing market. A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino’s darkly humorous debut novel, Best Offer Wins, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success―and obsession. How far would you go for the house of your dreams?

Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian ― and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track ― Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand).

A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged―but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.

Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Best Offer Wins is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.

A USA Today bestseller * A Good Morning America Book Club Pick * A Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick * An ELLE Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025 * A BookRiot Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025

“It starts out feeling pretty light and fun, but I promise you, you have no idea where this story is going.” -Taylor Jenkins Reid, recommended for her Must-Read Book of 2025 in TIME Magazine

03/30/2026

Join us for our first Barre for Belles class! 💪 🔔 💙

Each month, alumna Claire Kenney '10 will host Barre for Belles - a barre class to benefit our SMC Chicago Endowed scholarship fund! The first class will be on Sunday, April 12th at 3:15 pm.

Pulse, shake, and sculpt in this 45-minute barre class! Move through isometric movements in this high-energy barre class. After class, renew your energy with a complimentary B12 shot from Viva la Med Spa.

Date: Sunday, April 12 3:15 - 4:15pm
Location: The Barre Code - 436 N LaSalle Blvd, Lower Level

🎟️ Get your ticket for the class on our website or via the link in our bio!

03/23/2026

Last week, 14 Belles gathered for a riveting and spirited discussion of Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor—a fresh and compelling retelling of The Great Gatsby from the women’s perspectives. 💚

Everyone loved the layered storytelling and the added murder mystery element. There's strong interest in both revisiting The Great Gatsby and reading more from Jillian Cantor.

A standout theme of the night was how the novel challenged us to rethink these iconic female characters. Many of us found it difficult to fully like them, given their limitations and dependence shaped by the time period. It sparked thoughtful conversation about how much has changed—or not—and how grateful we are to have more independence and agency today.

A huge thank you to Genevieve for being an incredible host. She leaned into the theme and period serving chicken à la king and deviled eggs, mixing up gin rickeys, and treating us to macaroons...alongside plenty of wine. Special shoutout to Basia for her sourdough chocolate chip cookies!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, many wore green, adding a festive touch to an already wonderful evening. ☘️

📚 Read along with us each month!

Address

Chicago, IL
60602

Website

http://www.smcchicagoeast.com/

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