2 minute read
A Creative Catholic
A CREATIVE CATHOLIC
D’AMBROSIO MERGES CATHOLIC FAITH WITH ENTREPRENEURIAL ZEAL
Marcellino D’Ambrosio is an Ave Maria University alum who attended the university during its first year in Ave Maria, Florida (2007). D’Ambrosio laughed as he described the wildlife he encountered at Ave Maria, which included boars and alligators invading the new walkways and even a renegade snake stealing its way into the academic building. When asked why he chose a university just starting, D’Ambrosio shared how he received a call from an admissions advisor who told him he should go to AMU. “I was like ‘Okay, that sounds interesting. What’s the school about? What’s there?’ They responded, ‘Well, nothing really, but you can start it!’” Surprisingly, this attracted D’Ambrosio. He felt an incredible sense of peace and excitement in pioneering a new school.
Blazing new trails has become a theme for D’Ambrosio, who has since co-founded Sherwood Fellows, a marketing company empowering organizations to articulate why they exist and how best to fulfill their mission. Sherwood Fellows’ creative team uses visual language, story-telling, and campaigns, to successfully communicate newly honed missions. D’Ambrosio remarked, “What I learned at AMU was how to dig incessantly for the truth. When you have to write all of the time and everything you write is torn apart over and over again, you have to learn how not just to recite what you think is going to work or get the grade.” This skill of mining for truth has formed how he guides clients to search for their mission. D’Ambrosio shared AMU provided the invaluable opportunity to practice leadership, explaining that what made AMU unique was how it empowered students who were excited to see a “blank canvas they could write on.”
D’Ambrosio recalled while founding Sherwood Fellows, he wanted to find a way to unite with Catholics in the creative field, attributing this desire for community and mentorship to his experience of communal learning and lively discussion at AMU. In 2015, D’Ambrosio cofounded Catholic Creatives, an organization uniting Catholic innovators, ministers, artists, and entrepreneurs virtually and in-person, through events like the annual Catholic Creatives Summit.
Instead of viewing the community competitively, he strives to foster opportunities for collaboration and mentorship. When reflecting on the role of the laity, D’Ambrosio explained,
“I think the call of the layperson is a creative and innovative call right now because it’s not being done.” In order to bring God into the world, Catholics are called to live counter-culturally. Even raising a family requires going against the grain. As an entrepreneur, D’Ambrosio has explored the role of Catholicism in the workplace. Often when people address the topic of Catholic businesses, they assert these companies should pay employees better, but D’Ambrosio thinks this is missing the deeper call of the faith. “Catholic businesses should love people really well, and money is a part of that, but it’s much more about how you care for them.” At Sherwood Fellows, D’Ambrosio and his team work to provide employees with opportunities to develop personally and professionally, explaining that, “Healthy human beings produce good fruit.”
As D’Ambrosio reflected on his time at AMU in conjunction with his current endeavors, he described his Alma Mater’s mission as a school for training the laity in pioneering and in blazing new trails for the church, “Because that is what I saw happening when I was there. I really believe in what Ave Maria University is, and who she can be.”
Madeleine O'Rourke, '20
