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Creighton Prep Receives Historic $10 Million Gift
Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha received a $10 million gift — the largest in the school’s history — to establish and endow Loyola Scholars: The Heider Academic & Leadership Achievement Program. Given by the Heider family, the gift will help future generations of young men to receive a quality Jesuit high school education.
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Loyola Scholars is a year-round, three-year academic and leadership achievement program serving middle school males in the Omaha metro area who are academically talented, have leadership potential, and whose households have significant financial need.
By nurturing gifts of the mind and spirit, Loyola Scholars strives to form young men of faith, scholarship, leadership, and service, ready for a college preparatory education.
“I am profoundly grateful to the Heiders for their remarkable generosity and philanthropic leadership,” said Fr. Tom Neitzke, SJ, president of Creighton Prep. “Mary, Mark ’73, Scott ’81, and Cindy are truly men and women for others. Their commitment to giving back, to Jesuit education, and to building community has set a new standard not just here at Prep but far beyond.”
“My brother Mark and I had great experiences at Prep,” said Scott Heider. “We’re honored to be in a position to make a difference through the Loyola Scholars program that will welcome new students to the Prep family and introduce them to Jesuit values and ideals.”
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Loyola Academy Becomes First Jesuit Fair Trade High School
By Finian McNulty, Class of 2018
Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., has become the 17th U.S. high school and first Jesuit high school to receive fair trade certification from Fair Trade Campaigns, a grassroots movement whose mission is to empower schools, communities, and universities to buy from companies whose products are created fairly and safely.
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To achieve this distinction, Loyola created a student committee and facilitated awareness campaigns, displays, and discussions in theology classes, as well as an educational booth at the school’s Earth Day Fair. The committee educated students and teachers on how fair trade is involved in their lives and offered fair trade products in the school’s cafeteria and bookstore, such as shirts from Alta Gracia Apparel company.
The certification further advances Loyola Academy’s Jesuit motto of being “women and men for others.” Products that conform to fair trade criteria give workers protections against exploitation, as well as opportunities to break free from poverty. By choosing fair trade products, Loyola Academy helps protect the environment and create opportunities for marginalized producers.
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Red Cloud Indian School Hosts Chicago Leaders Event
Red Cloud Indian School hosted a reception to raise awareness and support for its mission on November 3, 2015, at the University Club of Chicago. The gathering featured Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich and Fr. George Winzenburg, SJ, president of Red Cloud.
Archbishop Cupich, who spent 12 years as bishop of Rapid City, has a special relationship with the school, a Jesuit ministry that has served the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for more than 125 years.
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Red Cloud, a K–12 school of 600 Lakota students, is a beacon of hope among a population of more than 30,000 Lakota. The Lakota people’s per capita income of $9,136 makes the Rez, as it is known, arguably the poorest county in the United States. Each year, Red Cloud graduates go on to top universities, including Creighton, Dartmouth, and Stanford. At the school’s heart is a curriculum of Lakota language, science, and math, complemented by spiritual formation that prepares students to earn a college degree and return home to be leaders who “give back to their community.”
“Through the generosity of benefactors from across the country, Red Cloud provides a high-quality, values-based education absolutely tuition free,” said Fr. Winzenburg. “Our goal with this event was to thank existing benefactors and raise awareness among other Chicagoans who have a spirit of generosity and understand the power of education to help those in the greatest need.”
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| Photo by Joe Simon
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Xavier University and Bellarmine Chapel
Dedicate Memorial to Salvadoran Martyrs
Members of the Xavier University and Bellarmine Chapel communities in Cincinnati dedicated a memorial to the Salvadoran “Martyrs of the University” on November 15, 2015. The memorial, which consists of “altar-tombs,” a plaque, wooden cross, and image of Blessed Archbishop Óscar Romero, honors the six Jesuit professors and their two
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lay companions who were murdered by the Salvadoran military during the country’s civil war. Following their deaths in 1989, the Xavier community conferred posthumous honorary doctoral degrees on the martyrs.
The memorial’s dedication service included a procession and reflection from Fr. Daniel Hartnett, SJ, Bellarmine Chapel’s pastor, who personally knew several of the martyrs.
“The memorial is beautiful and effective, conducive to reflection and involvement of the pilgrim viewer,” said Fr. George Traub, SJ, Jesuit scholar at Xavier’s Center for Mission and Identity. “The cross gave meaning to their lives and deaths and can give meaning to ours.”
The memorial, designed by artist Karen Heyl and made possible through a donation by the Beckman family, also includes a Peace Garden, representing a faithful response to the war, in which 75,000 innocent civilians disappeared or were murdered.
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Jesuit Prepares for MAGIS
and World Youth Day 2016 in Poland
Brad Held, SJ, is serving as U.S. project director for MAGIS 2016, the two-week Jesuit program leading up to World Youth Day (WYD) 2016 in Krakow, Poland. MAGIS will gather 2,000 young adults from Jesuit schools and parishes around the world. Its 2016 theme, “To Give and Not to Count the Cost,” comes from Saint Ignatius’s Prayer for Generosity and ties into WYD’s theme: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
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Held, who is studying theology at Boston College, is helping Jesuit parishes and the 28 U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities to send groups of students to Poland.
MAGIS participants will come from a variety of countries and spend three days in Central Poland, followed by pilgrimage, service, social/cultural, and artistic experiments throughout Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Attendees will regroup in Czestochowa, Poland, to reflect and pray before joining thousands of pilgrims in Krakow from July 26 to 31. Pope Francis will attend the final three days of WYD.
“The young adults I’ve worked with are looking for an experience of mercy and forgiveness in their lives,” said Held. “MAGIS will be a very powerful experience of that.” Visit www.magis2016.org/en/ for more information.
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University of Detroit Jesuit High School
and Academy Appoints New President
Father Theodore (Ted) Munz, SJ, will become the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy’s 29th president on July 1, 2016. He will succeed current president, Fr. Karl Kiser, SJ, who oversaw tremendous growth throughout his 14 years of service to the school.
A Cincinnati native and St. Xavier High School and University of Detroit graduate, Fr. Munz was the team leader for the founding of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago from 1994 to 1996.
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He served as president of Loyola Academy in suburban Chicago from 1996 to 2009 and later as treasurer of the Midwest Jesuits. Currently, Fr. Munz serves the Jesuit community at the University of Detroit Mercy.
“I have a special affinity for U of D Jesuit, having had my first teaching experience here in 1976,” said Fr. Munz. “We must set a high bar for our students in their formation as young men who are religious, intellectually competent, loving, open to growth, and committed to justice. We must also prepare our students to be leaders in service, particularly to those most in need. I look forward to serving our students, our community, and our mission.”
A farewell celebration will be held for Fr. Kiser at the end of the current school year.
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