Spirit day encourages globalization

AMANDA SNOW STAFF WRITER

Many students expressed a strong interest in taking steps towards reaching out to the world in justice and compassion when Cabrini's spirit day arrived on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Cabrini Day celebrates St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, otherwise known as Mother Cabrini. Educator of the heart, Mother Cabrini was convinced that education should include the whole person, head and heart.

Patron saint of Immigrants, Mother Cabrini was the first American citizen named a saint by the Catholic Church. She is the only woman to have her name on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

To kick off the day, there was a mass held at the Brockmann Memorial Chapel. Sister Mary Louise Sullivan, faculty in history and political science and president emeritus, gave the homily: "Mother Cabrini, Citizen of the World."

Following mass was the "celebrity brunch" held in the cafeteria. This was for the entire campus, where the food was served by volunteer faculty and staff members. This had a big turn out because many of the students had fun watching their professors serve them food.

Some of the teachers would even scold the students for trying to serve themselves. "Quit taking my job!" Professor John Brown, a math instructor, jokingly said.

After lunch, an assembly of the whole took place in the Widener Lecture Hall at 12:30 p.m. The international club opened this meeting with a spectacular and thoroughly diverse display of global welcome. Each member got up and greeted the community in their own native tongue.

When the crowded room had been welcomed and made comfortable, Dr. Antoinette Iadarola, president of Cabrini College, got up and said a few inspirational words. She talked of how the Cabrini community was a part of the future as citizens of the world.

"It's unlikely that you will leave, today, with solutions to all the various issues presented to you," Iadarola said, "but the future is in the hands of our students. God bless you and thank you all!"

Awards were given out after this speech to Renee DiPietro and Kyle Esterbrook, for "Charles A. Mastronardi Service and Leadership."

"Thank you, but it's not the award itself that I am happy for receiving. It's the opportunity and experience that we get, to actually go out and see the outside world," Esterbrook said, "That is our gift."

Another award was given to a Cabrini graduate, Azeen Keramati, for the "Annunciation House Border Education Program of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico," program.

Upon receiving the award, Keramati stated that it was not an award just for her. It was to be for all those people who have gone through the border house and had the opportunity to experience the way those that live in that area cope.

A group of panelists got up, after the awards were given out, and talked about different issues that need to be taken care of in our world today.

Lisa Learner, from the fine arts department, showed a display of pieces produced by her students. The theme of their art was seeing through other people's eyes in the world. She even handed out mirrors with picture of different people pasted on them. They had cut out holes where the eyes should have been in these pictures. This let the mirror shine through, allowing the viewer to see their own eyes.

On the back of these mirrors, Learner had placed a quote by Marcel Proust to enhance the meaning behind her theme. The quote went like this: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

The other panelists that followed were Dr. Jean Mouck, a medical missionary sister who spoke about global health issues; Maureen Heffern Ponicki, a coordinator of the "Democratizing Global Economy Project," sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, who spoke about how we can work on democratizing the global economy; Dr. Clara Haignere, a faculty member of Temple University's department of public health who talked about food and global priorities and finally Lenore Palladino, a staff member of the Students Against Sweatshops who talked about the struggle against sweatshops on college campuses.

They ended the meeting with a kickoff to the hunger and homelessness campaign committee.

The next event after the assembly was the choice of the students. This was when the special interest groups set up in different locations and students got to choose which meeting they wished to attend. These choices included world poetry readings, encounter on the border experience, or students against sweat shops.

Cabrini Spirit Day came to a close with an induction ceremony for the Delta Epsilon Sigma, or the national honor society for Catholic colleges.