Tick, tock, tick, tock. Cathy Lee stands in Sacred Hearts Academy’s new Innovation Center, her mind racing. The soaring, light-filled room is familiar to the Academy alum—years ago she was a student here, in Mrs. Lopez’s biology class, the clock on the wall a constant reminder that she was behind. Though biology was one of her favorite classes, Cathy’s mind wandered if she wasn’t conducting experiments or doing other hands-on activities, and her pen filled the margins of her notebooks with doodles and poems. “Miz Rodrigues, would you please pay attention?” The rejoinder always snapped her back to reality.

Today, standing in the same space, it’s a far different reality for an alum who soared despite—and because of—her unconventional learning abilities. Now a successful interior designer, Cathy was tapped to redesign this room, and as a gift to her alma mater, waived her professional fees.

It’s a more fitting assignment than the school could have known. Despite admonitions in the classroom, Cathy thrived in the Academy’s nurturing environment, taking to heart its underlying lessons and forming lasting friendships. She can still recite favorite cheers from her years on the cheerleading squad and laughs about her multiple infractions for wearing her skirt too short. It was at Sacred Hearts, where she enrolled in her sophomore year, that Cathy realized that she learned differently from others. Classes in traditional areas were often frustrating, but she excelled at creative writing, speech, art, photography—anything that encouraged outside-the-box thinking.

Coupled with her own creativity and personality, the combination of strong discipline, moral values and work ethic instilled by her parents and the Sisters and teachers at Sacred Hearts Academy would take Cathy to the top of Hawai‘i’s interior design world. Here, the girl who couldn’t sit still in the classroom became a teacher. Through her own company, Cathy Lee Style, she led interactive design workshops that taught thousands of local homeowners how to style their own spaces. For years she was the featured design expert on KITV’s morning news program, Good Morning Hawai‘i. Her weekly column, Celebrate Style with Cathy Lee, ran in the Sunday editions of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. For her career achievements, philanthropic contributions and community leadership, Cathy in 2014 was recognized as one of the Academy’s Distinguished Alumnae. In 2018 she ended up where she never dreamed she would be: delivering the keynote speech to 164 girls at the school’s 2018 commencement ceremony.

When she learned that Dr. Lawrence Tseu had made a significant donation towards the renovation of her old science classroom, Cathy knew she wanted to pay it forward. The Innovation Center would be the Academy’s first STEAM environment, giving girls the tools and space to collaborate on science, technology, engineering, art and math projects. “It was a deeply personal project for me because I didn’t just want to design a space for great students to excel,” she says. “I wanted to design a space where girls like me could also discover that their brain is a beautiful thing—and that when they can harness all that crazy creative energy, their potential is limitless.”

Envisioned by Cathy, Sacred Hearts’ new Innovation Center would be inclusive. It would speak to girls of all ages and learning abilities. Symbols on the back wall—the universal symbol for female overlapped with the SHA logo, a lightbulb and an infinity sign—tell Academy girls that with imagination, they can do anything. A giant dry erasable art wall lets students imagine (and color) outside the lines. Tables that are rearrangeable invite collaboration with peers. They’re also height-adjustable for students from kindergarten to high school; a grassy area in a corner invites play by younger girls. Custom light sculptures draw the eye up, where tech-related symbols laser-cut into the lights remind girls that tech and other STEAM subjects are as wide open to them as to boys. For students like Cathy, who was constantly shaking her leg and tapping her pencil, there are even “fidget chairs” specially designed to help students calm their bodies and engage their minds.

Today Cathy smiles at the irony: A girl who often felt one step behind has designed Sacred Hearts’ Innovation Center. “I am proud,” she says, “to be empowering Academy girls to embrace their uniquely beautiful minds and soar to new heights.”