Partners Fall Winter 2015 Index

Marquette University Names First James Foley Scholar

Marquette University’s J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication awarded its first James Foley Scholarship to Jacob Zelinski, a University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy graduate who began his freshman year at Marquette this fall.

	Jacob Zelinski

Foley, a 1996 Marquette graduate who became a freelance journalist covering war zones, was detained in Libya in 2012 while reporting on the ouster of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Following his release and return to the United States, Foley later was captured in Syria, where he was beheaded in August 2014 at the hands of militant extremists from Islamic State (ISIS) after 636 days in captivity.

Zelinski, who plans to major in theatre arts and digital media, explored Foley’s character in an essay titled “Why James Foley is my hero.

A painting of James Foley commissioned during Marquette University’s Mission Week hangs in the school’s Alumni Memorial Union  Courtesy: Marquette University

To receive an award in honor of someone so loving and selfless to all those he encountered as well as so brave and truthful in all of his endeavors was amazing,” Zelinski wrote. “James Foley is the type of man I strive to be every day, and I could not be more honored and humbled to be the first Foley scholar.” According to a university news release, the James Foley Scholarship was funded by 1,373 donors contributing more than $320,000. Foley, who would have turned 42 on October 18, was also memorialized this year in a Mass of Remembrance with the Foley family at Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee, as well as at a Rosary for Peace service at Marquette’s St. Joan of Arc Chapel.

Visit www.marquette.edu to learn more.

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John Carroll University Commemorates Martyrdom of Church Women in El Salvador
John Carroll University is commemorating the 35th anniversary of the martyrdom of the four church women — Maura Clarke, MM; Ita Ford, MM; Dorothy Kazel, OSU; and Jean Donovan — who were brutally murdered by Salvadoran national guardsmen for their work on behalf of the poor during El Salvador’s civil war.

Joining John Carroll for the special program, “Bearing Witness: The Living Legacy of the Church Women of El Salvador,” are Ursuline College, Notre Dame College, the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, COAR (Community Oscar Arnulfo Romero), and the InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF).

“Bearing Witness” consists of four events. The first, “Like Grains of Wheat: The Enduring Legacy of Maura, Ita, Dorothy, and Jean,” was a lecture held at John Carroll in September. Ursuline College hosted an evening with former members of the Cleveland Mission Team in October, and Notre Dame College and IRTF will present a film, dinner, and discussion on November 17. The anniversary of the four church women’s martyrdom, December 2, will be observed with a prayer service at the Ursuline Educational Center’s Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity. People interested in attending must register at www.ursulinesisters.org/35.

Dr. Edward Peck, vice president for Mission and Identity at John Carroll, said the idea for the collaboration came from John Carroll president Fr. Robert Niehoff, SJ, who toured the site of the church women’s death last year.

“We are celebrating the many different ways we as institutions and parishes have been inspired by their living witness to the Gospel and to solidarity with those on the margins,” said Dr. Peck.

In addition to these events, John Carroll is offering a semester-long course on the church women, which will culminate in a John Carroll and Ursuline College immersion trip to El Salvador for the December 2 anniversary commemoration.

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Women’s Ignatian Leadership Salon Inspires University Administrators
Female administrators from seven Jesuit colleges and universities met at Xavier University in Cincinnati, for the inaugural Women’s Ignatian Leadership Salon, August 11–12. Attendees included representatives from Xavier, Creighton University, John Carroll University, Loyola University Chicago, Marquette University, and the University of Detroit Mercy, as well as Campion College in Canada.

The conference aimed to advance leadership capacities through an emphasis on Ignatian reflection, sharing, and experience-focused workshops. Its name stemmed from its introspective focus on women’s professional experiences in the vein of Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises.

Dr. Debra K. Mooney, Xavier’s chief mission officer and assistant to the president for Mission and Identity, was one of the event’s facilitators. She said the conference’s Ignatian context was key.

“It was Ignatian, because we really emphasized people’s reflection on their personal experience and conscious understanding of choices they make and desires they have in their career and vocation,” said Dr. Mooney. “It makes it different from traditional professional development opportunities, which are oftentimes skills-based, such as ‘how to do something better and more effectively.’”

Participants in the Women’s Ignatian Leadership Salon at Xavier University

Leadership and faculty in attendance included women who serve in roles such as director of campus ministry, vice president of mission and ministry, provost, department chair or dean, as well as professors.

The conference included speeches, discussions on women’s experiences in the workplace, and other professional development activities. Featured topics were strengths, impression management, stereotype threats, virtuous leadership, and institutional culture. The women not only talked about their strengths as leaders and how they actively developed their talents, but also discussed instances when a negative gender stereotype might have impacted them at work and how they overcame that negative expectation.

“It was a place to talk about things that may have been painful or challenging but also a place to talk about joys,” said Dr. Mooney. “They’re all a part of life.”