The Magazine of St. Ambrose University | Fall 2012
Ambrosians Answer the Call to Serve ALSO INSIDE: Ven. Somnieng Houern Works to Transform a Nation
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The Magazine of St. Ambrose University Fall 2012 | Volume XXXVIII | Number 3 Managing Editor Linda Hirsch Editor Craig DeVrieze
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Staff Writers Jane Kettering Robin Ruetenik Staff Assistant Darcy Duncalf Contributing Writers Sue Flansburg Emilee Renwick Ted Stephens III ’01, ’04 Designer Sally Paustian ’94 www.sau.edu/scene scene@sau.edu Photo and illustration credits: Greg Boll: page 5, 8–9; John Mohr Photography: front cover, inside front cover, pages 4–5, 17–20, 28, back cover; Kevin Schmidt: front cover; Dan Videtich: front cover, inside front cover, pages 1, 3, 6, 10–11, 23–24, 29. Scene is published by the Communications and Marketing office for the alumni, students, parents, friends, faculty and staff of St. Ambrose University. Its purpose is to inform and inspire through stories highlighting the many quality people and programs that are the essence of St. Ambrose’s distinguished heritage of Catholic, values-based education. Circulation is approximately 23,000. St. Ambrose University—independent, diocesan, and Catholic—enables its students to develop intellectually, spiritually, ethically, socially, artistically and physically to enrich their own lives and the lives of others. St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, Iowa 52803
2 Under the Oaks There’s a new school on campus and some familiar faces were back for Homecoming 2012. Read about a cage fighter wrestling for his education, then see how an old Fighting Bees point guard has made a career of making “helpers.”
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Features 10 Service
Alumni Profile 26 Search for Justice
The call to serve is one Ambrosians tend to selflessly
Brian Farrell ’95 began a lifelong search to understand
answer. On campus, however, service also is intentional,
the evolution of justice and the law during his time at
programmed into our curriculum and taught by
St. Ambrose. That search has led to a yearlong appointment
example.
in Sofia, Bulgaria, as a Fulbright Scholar.
12 Meet the Servants The chance to serve the homeless showed an SAU junior how to ”love someone where they are;” former student leaders learned how to “Bee the Difference” and work within their community; and a professor continues to “pay her blessings forward.” Read these powerful stories of Ambrosian service in action.
17 Service While Learning St. Ambrose classrooms have become a laboratory for
28 Alumni News The spring service trips Fr. Edmond Dunn considered a valuable learning experience continue through the Gift of Giving; new Vice President of Advancement Jim Stangle ’82 has found his way back to St. Ambrose; the legacy of a late alum’s twin passions for Sox and Bees will continue; and working with youth keeps another alumnus young.
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service as more faculty members embrace volunteerism and community assistance as an educational tool.
21 ‘I Will Do Every Day…” Venerable Somnieng Houern ’10 is determined to transform Cambodia one child at a time. Now pursuing a master’s at the prestigious Kennedy School of Government, the Buddhist monk recalls how he left SAU a better servant than when he arrived.
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“I love the program and I love the fact that they treat you like an adult.”
UNCAGED:
In the octagon cage as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter, Brandon “HighVoltage” Adamson stands alone. In a St. Ambrose University ACCEL adult learning classroom, Adamson is definitely not alone—stark contrasts to his classmates in demeanor, background and tattoo total notwithstanding. Adamson said he appreciates the ACCEL program’s team approach to learning, one where students and professors purposefully work together to enhance the skills and knowledge of one and all. “Everybody is trying to better themselves,” said the 32-year-old father of two. “You get treated with nothing but respect and everybody helps each other.” Adamson is a native Californian and high school
MMA Fighter at Home in Adult Learning Classroom
dropout who came to the Quad Cities in 2000 to launch his fighting career under the tutelage of MMA legend Pat Miletich. Calling himself a product of the school of hard knocks, Adamson said he is happy to share a perspective born of experiences few of his fellow adult learning students know. His classmates help him in return. “A lot of the people I go to school with work at
Deere and Company, work at ALCOA and they are older,” Adamson said. “But at St. Ambrose, everybody realizes you have bills to pay, kids to feed and a career to build. “I love the program and I love the fact that they treat you like an adult.” After a decade of training and fighting professionally, Adamson steps into the ring only occasionally now. His focus mostly is on the classroom and making a better life. Adamson stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a growing legion of adult learners who bring a common set of goals to the St. Ambrose ACCEL program: a desire to learn, grow and improve their long-term job-market prospects. “It’s just wanting for more in my life,” he said. Learn more about accelerated programs for adults at sau.edu/Scene
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New School of Education Meets Fresh Classroom Challenges The process of educating educators is changing, and the new SAU School of Education stands ready to meet the challenge. As part of the College of Health and Human Services, the School of Education brings teacher education undergraduate programs, graduate programs and the Children’s Campus under a single umbrella. Combining the graduate and undergraduate programs—which previously operated separately within the former College of Education and Health Sciences—allows the School of Education to better organize and create a curriculum that meets the need of students as well as the demands of state and national accrediting bodies. “It puts all of our resources together so we can employ them in a much more effective way,” said Thomas Carpenter, PhD, the school’s director. “We are one big school with lots of programs and lots of interchange of ideas.” Dean Marple, EdD, a professor of secondary education at St. Ambrose since 1989, said the synergy between undergraduate and graduate programs has brought a new energy. He said new projects and approaches are being implemented as well. Meanwhile, classroom challenges aren’t deterring students from pursuing careers in teaching. Undergraduate enrollment in the School of Education this year is up 5 percent from a year ago.
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The Makings of a Serial Entrepreneur “Become a serial entrepreneur,” is not the standard answer to the question: “What will you do after graduation?” “building connections and learning how to accept Kalli McCleary doesn’t give standard answers, feedback.” however. Nor does she dream standard dreams. Sometimes, she said, it has been the questions, Treating entrepreneurship as a profession takes a not the answers, that have impacted her the certain personality. And McCleary, a senior marketmost. “I really stop and listen when (Professor of ing major due to graduate in December, might just Marketing Studies) Frank Borst says, ‘Well, Kalli, have what it takes. Her experiences are certainly how are you going to go about this?’’’ numerous and varied. The short answer, of course, is any way but the In the past year, she has participated in two standard way. “Startup Weekend” incubator team exercises across “I’m not a nine-to-five type of person,” she said. the Midwest. At those forums, business ideas were “I enjoy all aspects of a business. I have so many pitched and teams were formed around the top conthings I want to do each day; so many things I want cepts. A 54-hour frenzy of building business models to learn about.” and validating their market worth ensued. In her first And as a good friend said to her recently, “I “startup,” McCleary’s one-stop-shopping website definitely don’t see you working for anyone else.” idea won top votes by her team and received kudos from the judges. An artist and fashion designer as well, McCleary has designed T-shirts for student clubs and created art for community events. This past summer, she applied her talent, education and experience to launch a business: researching, creating, packaging and marketing soy coffee. “I really enjoyed the process,” she said. This semester, McCleary is engaged in a marketing internship with a retail incubator in downtown Rock Island, Ill., working in social media and print marketing for the “Shoppes on Second.” McCleary said St. Ambrose professors have both pushed and encouraged her. “One of the biggest ideas that has stuck with me is to work smarter, not harder,” she said, describing college as a time of
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homecoming The Alumni office ordered up a picture-perfect weekend for Homecoming 2012 and we’ve got photos to prove it. After reunion gatherings and a standing-room-only turnout for Cornel West, PhD, on Friday night, the Killer Bee 5K, Bumble Rumble and Taste of St. Ambrose led into the Homecoming football game, where even a double OT loss to Grand View didn’t entirely mar the mood. See additional photo galleries at sau.edu/Scene
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Who is SAU?
Stella O’Rourke
“the service of being present” Mention the name “Stella” on the
Stella Tidbits
So, What’s ‘Service’?
St. Ambrose campus and it’s not a movie
She grew up on a farm near North English,
Caring enough about others to do what’s
(old or new) that comes to mind. What
Iowa. The population of students living on
right, big or small, according to O’Rourke.
comes to mind is service—with a capital “S.”
campus is bigger than that of her hometown.
“Building, feeding, conversing, whatever it
Stella O’Rourke ’05, ’07 MOL, outgoing
The high school homecoming queen
director of co-curricular service and justice
became “painfully shy” as a first-year
ministry, spearheads many of the larger
Ambrosian (and stayed in her room a lot).
service initiatives on campus: Urban Plunge, Bee the Difference Day, Ambrosians for Peace and Justice, semester and spring break service trips.
She’s been to Ireland, India, Europe and South America.
Conversing? The “service of being present” means we stop to talk, really listen, really pay attention, said O’Rourke. “Whether I
An Ambrosian, Through and Through
stop typing in order to give a student my
As a little girl O’Rourke visited campus
undivided attention or listen carefully to the
with her father, who had spent a year at
story of a homeless man in Chicago.”
St. Ambrose. She remembers him holding her up and pointing to the window of the Davis Hall room where he lived. “I’m going to go (to school) where my daddy went,” declared little Stella. After earning both undergraduate and graduate degrees at St. Ambrose, O’Rourke was hired as a member of the Campus Ministry team in 2008.
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takes.”
Secret Passion She has a “ridiculous obsession” for RipStiks (a type of skateboard. Ask her).
In Her Words “I think in terms of blessings; I hope that everyone has their basic needs met.” “I have the job I prayed for.”
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Vatican Librarian To Celebrate Feast of Saint Ambrose Monsignor Cesare Pasini, one of the world’s foremost scholars on Saint Ambrose of Milan, will meet with students, faculty and community members; give a lecture on the patron saint; and concelebrate the Feast of St. Ambrose Mass—one week early— this December. “Msgr. Pasini oversees the Vatican’s library of books and manuscripts,” said Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant ’80, director of the university’s Academy for the Study of Saint Ambrose of Milan. “His office literally sits above one of the greatest collections of Western culture. “He is a steward of this collection—one that doesn’t just belong to the Church but to the human race. It contains some of the greatest achievements of our minds and our creativity. This is the man who has been charged with preserving them.” Fr. Grant said Msgr. Pasini’s talk will center on the idea that one chooses to surrender one’s own will and desires out of a sense of duty and responsibility to God. He will offer a combination of the theology, biography and spirituality of Saint Ambrose. “He will discuss the Christian call to put one’s self to the service of others, especially the poor and marginalized,” said Fr. Grant, who has previewed the lecture with Msgr. Pasini. “This is something that Ambrose took very seriously. It is through
this way of living that the Monsignor believes one becomes closer to God. “Msgr. Pasini himself is a very spiritual, holy man, modest and self-deprecating and deeply passionate about the Church and the role the Church can play in the world,” Fr. Grant continued. “These are also attributes he sees in Saint Ambrose.” A priest of the Diocese of Milan, Msgr. Pasini is the founding member of the Academia Ambrosiana, a research institute housed within the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, also in Milan. He is a frequent writer and chief editor of Studia Ambrosiana, a journal on the study of Ambrose and the late ancient period. As prefect of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome, he recently oversaw a major development program that included physical plant renovations and construction, digitization of books and resources, collaborations with global research institutions and exhibitions for the Musei Vaticani. Through the Academy for the Study of Saint Ambrose, SAU now has a collaborative partnership with the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Fr. Grant is currently finishing an English-language translation of Msgr. Pasini’s book, “Ambrose of Milan: Thoughts and Actions of a Bishop.” It will be published in 2013.
If You Go “Progressing with Freedom Toward Humility: Images and Thoughts of Ambrose of Milan” Sunday, December 2 at 5 p.m. Rogalski Center Ballroom A Lecture and Q&A with Msgr. Cesare Pasini Feast of St. Ambrose Mass Sunday, December 2 at 6:30 p.m. Christ the King Chapel Concelebrated by Msgr. Cesare Pasini and the Most Rev. Martin Amos, DD Homily by Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant ’80
For more information on the visit, as well as the Academy for the Study of Saint Ambrose of Milan, visit www.sau.edu/Scene
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by Craig DeVrieze
“It’s always
‘yes’
with Ray. That really sets the stage for the expectations of us as coaches, as Ambrosians, and then what we expect of our student athletes as well.” —Dan Tomlin ’05, ’10 MBA
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Creating ‘Helpers’ is in Coach Ray’s DNA
facultyPROFILE
B
ack when sports pages were animated and language was
lively, old-time scribes called them “helpers.” Today, the basketball statistic credited to the player who makes a pass that leads to a basket is better known as an assist. By any name, Ray Shovlain ’79, ’82 MBA dished a still-schoolrecord 968 of them as a gritty St. Ambrose point guard from 1975 through 1979. “I couldn’t shoot very well,” Shovlain said of his propensity for putting the ball in the hands of more capable scorers. “I just kind of dribbled around and passed guys the ball when they were open. It worked out well that way.” The old point guard wasn’t finished assisting St. Ambrose when he hung up his No. 14 jersey. And the number of Fighting Bees “helpers” he has created in the ensuing three decades cannot be contained by a record book. Shovlain has been an instructor in the College of Business since 1982 and head basketball coach since 1983. After he was named athletic director in the spring of 1993, he and his coaching staffs began requiring Bees athletes to participate in four service projects each year while also attending a pair of personal growth seminars. Athletes contributed 7,850 hours to a record total of 61,425 service hours amassed by SAU students, faculty, staff and administrators in 2011–12. By the most conservative of estimates, SAU sports teams have put in more than 75,000 hours of service since 1993. The athletes’ service reflects not just the core of the St. Ambrose University mission, but also the heart of Ray Shovlain. “It all starts at the top, and the example we are given by our athletic director is one of service,” said Dan Tomlin ’05, ’10 MBA, a former St. Ambrose athlete who now leads the track and field teams. “I mean, I can’t tell you the number of times he has shoveled someone’s sidewalk or helped them move. “It’s always ‘yes’ with Ray. That really sets the stage for the expectations of us as coaches, as Ambrosians, and then what we expect of our student athletes as well.”
When he joined the SAU basketball team in 2009, Justin Tiner certainly never expected to put up Christmas lights at a senior center, swing a hammer for Habitat for Humanity or distribute meals to the hungry at Thanksgiving. “It’s good,” Tiner said of the expectation to serve. “It makes you grow as a person. That’s one thing Coach Ray taught me. It’s a great gift to play ball and all, but the gift of giving back is even more special.” Teaching is what Shovlain dreamed of doing as a boy, but instead he majored in accounting. After a year of crunching numbers for a Muscatine business, he hurried “home” to St. Ambrose for a $500 per year job as an assistant basketball coach in 1980. Once he found his way to the front of a classroom, Shovlain never looked back. Voted Faculty Member of the Year by students in 1989 and 1993, Shovlain has made a choice to continue teaching one to two classes per semester, even while amassing 557 wins over his first 28 seasons as basketball coach and while supervising the university’s expanding athletic program. The combination works. Shovlain coaches his students and teaches his athletes. “We have to develop people at their highest level,’’ he said. “Challenging athletes outside of the gym is really what I think the focus of college athletics should be.”
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Junior nursing student Molly Gabaldo gave a sandwich to a homeless person in Chicago’s inner-city last winter and happily discovered she had fed a hunger inside herself. Brea Christiansen ’11 still remembers the wide-eyed joy of Davenport grade school children as they opened Christmas presents one not-so-long-ago December. Perhaps the biggest gifts those children received that holiday season, the presents were bought and proudly delivered by Christiansen and her St. Ambrose track and field teammates. Men’s Basketball Coach and Athletic Director Ray Shovlain recently encountered an unfamiliar but beaming young man who exclaimed “You’re Coach Ray.” The man then thanked Shovlain ’79, ’82 MBA for lessons he learned a decade earlier at a National Youth Sports Program summer camp for underprivileged QC youngsters hosted by St. Ambrose. Ambrosians serve in myriad ways on a daily basis and, in the doing, they discover that the familiar saying is genuinely true: Service is its own reward. Here, however, service is not left to its own devices. Yes, for many Ambrosians, service is instinctual, but at St. Ambrose, service also is intentional. And service is institutional. University Chaplain Charles Adam ’82 said the Ambrosian call to serve also is foundational, a basic pillar upon which Bishop John McMullen began to construct his earliest vision of a school rooted in diocesan heritage and committed to molding future community leaders. The call to service is a tradition handed down over our 130-year history by such champions as Rev. Bill
from across the curriculum lead first-year students in
O’Connor ’29, Rev. Jack Smith, Sr. Ritamary Bradley and
Urban Plunge, an array of one-day service projects that
Msgr. Marvin Mottet ’52, individuals who showed the
span the Quad Cities.
way both in thought and in deed. That tradition contin-
“Through Urban Plunge, I think we have been very
ues through the examples of modern-day campus icons
intentional about letting new Ambrosians know this is
like “Fr. Chuck,” “Coach Ray” and Professor of Education
our vision, this is our expectation,” Fr. Adam said.
Rachel Serianz, PhD. Today, service is taught at St. Ambrose literally from 10
a student’s first days on campus, when staff and faculty
The teaching carries on in the classroom, where service assignments increasingly are part of the cur-
Service St. Ambrose will be recognized as a leading Midwestern university rooted in its diocesan heritage and Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Ambrosians are committed to academic excellence, the liberal arts, social justice and service. In this issue of Scene we complete our look at the university’s vision statement. Here, we explore the meaning and significance of service so that we may more wholly understand its place within the vision and the university’s mission.
riculum in every college and almost every major. And it
children in his native Cambodia out of poverty and
reaches the fields of play, where athletes like Christian-
despair before he enrolled at St. Ambrose.
sen discover a capacity to serve others is as valued in
Venerable Somnieng Houern ’10 said he carried
Shovlain’s athletic department as the ability to pitch,
the spirit of Ambrosian service home after his years
catch, run or shoot.
on our campus, and stressed he left here a better
How rich, deep and inspirational is our tradition of service? It is rich and deep and inspirational enough to
servant than he was when he arrived. “Education is not just what you learn in a book,”
have informed the service vision of a young Buddhist
he said. “St. Ambrose prepares us to work and re-
monk who already had committed his life to lifting
spond and be part of our community.” 11
“
stories by Susan Flansburg
Doing this work, for the first time I have begun to understand how to love someone where they are. It’s really more important than giving them lunch. It’s about being willing to recognize the need in this world for kindness and peacemaking.” —Molly Gabaldo Nursing major, Bloomington, Ill.
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Service impacts those who are served, but, as importantly, it affects the servants. Study Ambrosians who answer the call to serve and you begin to see how service becomes more than a feel-good activity. It becomes a way of life.
Meet the Servants:
Our Faith in Action
T
. . . . The Service of ‘Being’ he faces of the poor and homeless are the faces of loved ones to St. Ambrose junior Molly Gabaldo. They include the hungry children who line up for
lunches served out of the back of a truck. They include men like Terry, who lost his wife in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, and was himself badly hurt trying to rescue her. Plunged into grief and hopelessness, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and homelessness. They include teenagers like Khalid, trying to live his life in the midst of a deadly gang war. Gabaldo doesn’t know when or how it happened exactly, but the nursing major from Bloomington, Ill., feels profoundly called to be with the poor. And whether she is handing out sandwiches or helping provide care at a community health center is not the main thing, she said. Being there, listening, connecting is. “Doing this work, for the first time I have begun to understand how to love someone where they are,” she said. “It’s really more important than giving them lunch. It’s about being willing to recognize the need in this world for kindness and peacemaking.” Gabaldo traveled to New Orleans—still far from healed after Hurricane Katrina—in 2010 and 2011. She didn’t hammer a single nail. She just listened. “I was given the opportunity to learn how to serve through ‘being’ instead of ‘doing,’” she explained. “And it was a difficult thing to learn.” Last December, Gabaldo was part of a St. Ambrose Campus Ministry group that a rode a late night “bread truck” through the most deprived areas of Chicago’s South Side. What she encountered that winter night was like something out of a movie: children in various states of dress, people crowded around fires burning in trash barrels, reports of nearby shootings and knifings.
“It increased my passion and drive,” she said of the experience, which led her to a summer month of volunteering with Chicago’s Port Ministries. “It’s humbling and beautiful to not only serve the poor, but to serve the poor from their doorstep and enter into a piece of their lives. It’s a type of service of being, of genuine concern. It’s partaking in a small piece of solidarity with those whom we serve.” Gabaldo said her experience at St. Ambrose has helped broaden her understanding of the definition and potential of peace and social justice. “I was truly called here,” she said. “Peace and social justice themes are worked into every class in this school. I love that.”
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. . . .Bee the Difference
“
att Tigges’08 and Katie Vogt Purcell ’09, ’11 DPT remember one scene in particular from the inaugural Bee the Difference Day in 2006, a day they helped co-organize as a Student Government Association (SGA) project. Created to promote good will between students and campus neighbors, that day’s projects ranged from cleaning neighbors’ gutters to raking their yards. Tigges and Purcell were traveling from one project to another to check on progress and offer assistance to the students at work there.
People are all the same. We all need help at different times and in different ways. ” —Matt Tigges ’08
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One project stopped them. “This lady needed her garage cleaned,” Purcell said. “Her mother had owned the house and died. She was trying to sort through everything and was overwhelmed.” “It was a huge job,” Tigges added. “The furniture was all mildewed. It had to be loaded onto trucks and lots of it taken to the dump.” “We ended up with 20 or 30 students helping,” Purcell recalled. “Students kept coming over to help after they finished their other jobs. It was amazing. We got it done.” Bee the Difference Day has become a campus staple over the past six years, providing an easy opportunity for students to dip their toes into the idea of service.
“We saw people who weren’t that into service get involved,” Purcell said. “Afterwards, we heard from a lot of them. They thanked us for our part, and it made me realize how big an impact this program was having.” Emma (Crino) Folland ‘08 first proposed the Bee the Difference Day project to the SGA after hearing about a similar project at another school. She since has instituted a neighborhood service project at Washington Middle School in Clinton, Iowa. “The best feeling I get is when once-skeptical students ask me if we can do this again next week,” she said. That’s the hidden benefit. Service becomes habitforming. And it changes the servant in ways they couldn’t have foreseen. “I like to believe I’m more humble,” Tigges said. “People are all the same. We all need help at different times and in different ways. It takes all the judgment out of how you look at people. Instead of thinking, ‘They probably put themselves there,’ my reaction has changed to, ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’” Which perhaps is the best lesson of all. Small acts of service—holding the door open for the guy behind you; helping pick up dropped goods; even, as Tigges said, “just listening and talking”—count. “Service is fundamental to Catholic education,” Purcell said. “We are to live our faith in action. That means helping with the everyday stuff.”
A
. . . .Taking Care of Each Other s a young child, Willie Barney ’90 lived among generous and caring family and community members. Although his family “didn’t have much”—no one did in his quiet Mississippi community—they shared what they did have. “If someone didn’t have food, we’d send a plate down the
street to them,” Barney said. As he grew, Barney began noticing differences between his neighborhood and others. He noticed, too, those differences existed in other towns, including Davenport. “I remember driving up the Gaines Street hill toward St. Ambrose,” he said. “I saw parts of my life going up the hill. I remember it like it was yesterday.” After graduation and 10 years in business, Barney moved to Omaha, Neb., for a marketing job. He again saw blighted neighborhoods butting up against more affluent areas. While his family had equipped him with a sense of neighborliness, SAU had equipped him with a sense of social justice and activism that prepared him to act. He began reaching out to faith, community and business contacts for help addressing the problem. “We had seven people at the table in 2006,” Barney said. “There were grassroots people, corporate people, non-profit people. We identified gaps in Omaha’s housing, education, health and employment. We met every other Friday. Our first question was, ‘What has stopped initiatives like this before? What will it take to make it succeed?’” Those Friday meetings eventually created The Empowerment Network, an organization with 1,000 participants that leverages public and private partnerships throughout Omaha to help create healthy, stable neighborhoods, particularly in the North Omaha area. “Omaha is a great city,” Barney said. “There’s a lot of wealth. We have five Fortune 500 companies. But we also have high unemployment and a lot of poverty, especially in North Omaha. There is a lot of African-American poverty there. You can’t have a great city unless all zip codes are great.” In fact, Barney said North Omaha represents one of The Empowerment Network’s greatest successes
“
…my whole experience at St. Ambrose… was about people looking out for each other, whether on the football team or among the student body. Remarkable.” —Willie Barney ’90
in the making. Home to a blighted two-block area that once was known as “the heart of jazz,” the neighborhood is undergoing its first large-scale restoration project, a $12.2 million development with single family housing, an arts and culture gallery and senior residences forming the core of the development. Other partnerships with schools, faith-based communities and social service agencies have resulted in improved graduation rates as well as an increase in minority students who enroll in college. “One person, one school, one church, one business cannot do it all,” Barney said. “But it’s important for each person to do their part. Jim Collins ’69 (St. Ambrose trustee emeritus) modeled that for me. He really encouraged me to give back to the community. I felt like my whole experience at St. Ambrose encouraged that. It was about people looking out for each other, whether on the football team or among the student body. Remarkable.” 15
M
. . . . Service as Worship any wonderful moments occur during the school year for Professor of Education Rachel Serianz, PhD. But one of the best is when she hears a once-sheltered, timid student, fresh back from student teaching at an inner-city school, praise the experience. “Some students are scared even to drive in innercity neighborhoods,” the professor said. “They find children who don’t have enough to eat or wear, but who respond to loving and caring attention. They realize they can make a difference. That’s a powerful thing to learn about yourself, that you can make a difference in another person’s life. It’s empowering.” Serianz should know. As a career educator who also serves as a eucharistic and music minister at Sacred Heart Cathedral, who counsels expectant single mothers and who sits on many university and parish committees, Serianz embodies service. “Why do I emphasize service in the way I live?” she asked. “Throughout my life, I have received from God an abundance of blessings, many of which were most definitely not deserved. In a sense, I am trying to ‘pay forward’ what God has given to me. Service is
“
Service is an act of thanksgiving. Service is a form of worship.” —Rachel Serianz, PhD Professor of Education
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an act of thanksgiving. Service is a form of worship. “We become more compassionate and caring,” Serianz said. “We also become more aware of our limitations, or the limitations of what we can do to help another. There are some people we are not capable of helping. We can’t feed and shelter everyone. But that old line—‘We can’t do everything, but we can do something’—is appropriate.” As for what, exactly, qualifies as service, Serianz echoed a familiar Ambrosian theme: caring presence counts. “Sometimes I think that I take the call to service too lightly,” she said. “Signing up for events and positions and putting in time working on projects: those are the easiest forms of service. Trying to interact with each person I encounter in a way that constitutes service is much more difficult. I struggle with that every day. And always will.” St. Ambrose students have a new opportunity to make that effort this fall with the “Pay it Forward” themed house. Serianz has accepted the request to serve as faculty advisor. “I am truly honored that students asked me to help them realize their calls to service,” she said. “I can hardly wait until we meet and begin brainstorming possible projects we will complete this year. I hope we come up with something radical!”
‘Service Becomes a Laboratory Experience’ by Jane Kettering
S
ervice as part of the St. Ambrose curriculum typically happens without fanfare. Trying to explain it is like pulling on a string that just keeps playing out.
In some courses—a student learning community with a service
theme, for instance—the central lesson is service itself. In majors such as speech-language pathology, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and physical therapy, service is part of the practical learning process. Less obvious examples of service incorporated into the curriculum, however, are no less impactful and, in some ways, more instructional. Like when engineering students enlist can-do imagination to help an autistic Brazilian teen. Or when a local non-profit organization benefits from work provided by a business class. “Service learning has become more of an academic exercise than just part of the extracurricular programs,” University Chaplain Rev. Charles Adam ’82 said of the ongoing growth of service across the curriculum. “Service becomes kind of a laboratory experience.”
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“The power of one person
Learning Through Lydia
learning and earning classroom
of my former ‘kids’—a young
Just blocks from the
credits in the process.
adult now—stopped by,” Klopp
St. Ambrose campus stands the
said. “She was in very bad shape
comfortably cluttered. It has
and needed my undivided
the feel of one of those places
attention. I knew St. Ambrose
borhood, faith-based organiza-
where everyone can belong,
students were tutoring in the
tion that provides after-school
where children can be a little
afterschool program, and that
and summer programs, tem-
messy. Recently, Director Joyce
helped me have the time to give
porary home placements for
Klopp looked around with a
my best to this young lady.”
the children of families in crisis
tender but proprietary air as
Students from all three
and neighborhood ministry and
she talked about her 20-year
St. Ambrose colleges—the
outreach.
ministry at Lydia and the influx
College of Business, the College
of St. Ambrose student helpers
of Arts and Sciences and the
over the past several years.
College of Health and Human
Lydia Home Association. Lydia-Quad Cities is a neigh-
St. Ambrose students increasingly are helping Lydia fulfill its mission, and they are 18
Lydia’s afterschool facility is
“On a recent afternoon one
Services—currently are serving
is far more than what you see.” —Joyce Klopp, Lydia House director
at Lydia. This wasn’t planned,
12 hours of service interacting
although it’s not surprising.
with children, the elderly or
Some are members of
the homeless. Throughout the
a service-themed student
semester, they study intra- and
learning community. These
interpersonal communication
first-year and transfer students
processes, perception, verbal
are taking the same general
and nonverbal clues, and trans-
education courses, led by
actional style at their service
English Professor Owen Rogal,
site.
Women’s Studies Director Katy
“I have them blog ahead of
Strzepek and New Student
time about their assumptions
Seminar Instructor Jennifer
and any stereotypes they hold
Tuite.
about the people they’ll be
The students’ participation started as part of their Urban
serving,” Leonardi said. As their service unfolds, the
Plunge experience, with weed-
students explore the impact of
ing, cleaning, painting and
perception on interactions. “It’s
working with children. During
a great way to apply concepts
program assistance from in-
Work and Women’s Studies
the semester, each learning
from class,” Leonardi said. “And
terns from the Master of Social
interns, along with wellness
community member has a
some take the time to really
Work and Master of Speech-
presentations by SAU Master of
Lydia child pen pal, performs
deconstruct where their per-
Language Pathology students.
Occupational Therapy students.
individual service time at Lydia,
ceptions come from, how they
“They are providing an invalu-
and will join Lydia children at
could change them, how they
able service to our children and
Professor Ann Preston’s com-
the semester-end party with
would interact differently in the
families,” she said.
munication campaigns course
pizza and a basketball clinic on
future.”
This year, students in
are working to develop a PR
A Place 2 Learn
campaign and materials for
students are involved in the
Across the Mississippi River
their “client.” Preston makes
interpersonal communications
Lydia afterschool program,
in Rock Island, Ill., theplace2b
such hands-on service work a
class also are choosing to serve
Friday night neighborhood
recently opened as a daytime
part of her class each semester.
at Lydia. Marianne Leonardi, an
cookouts and also do babysit-
drop-in center, serving home-
assistant professor of com-
ting for a single mom who is
less, displaced and at-risk teens.
twofold,” she said. “The obvious
munication, requires each class
going back to school.
The organization has ben-
one is that it gives them profes-
efited from St. Ambrose Social
sional experience at the pace of
campus. Several students in an
member to complete at least
Leonardi’s communications
Klopp said Lydia also receives
“The value for students is
19
the student learning experi-
learn how to put themselves in
> Women’s studies majors who
ence. Students get great portfo-
someone else’s shoes and gain a
assist agencies with public
can provide lessons that reso-
lio items and demonstrate the
depth of perception,” she said.
relations, grant writing and
nate for a lifetime is obvious be-
ability to make decisions based
“That’s pretty exciting.”
developing policy related to
yond the campus and even the
domestic violence.
greater Quad Cities community.
on quantitative data.” said, “They get glimpses into
Setting A Long-term Course
lives not quite like their own. Different kinds of people, and different types of situations
Just as important, Preston
people live with, things most of our students simply don’t know about.” Preston described her
> Students in a psychology
“I see the students not just
course who assist the SAFER
doing a good deed, but setting
The wide range of service
Foundation in counseling
a course for the long term,” said
merged into the curriculum at
youth who have been incar-
Lydia’s director, Klopp. “The
St. Ambrose also includes:
cerated or involved with the
question is, ‘Are you willing to
> Classes in the MBA and MOL
criminal justice system.
go outside your life?’ The power
programs that incorporate a full day of service at several Quad Cities non-profit sites
> Occupational therapy students who teach basic living skills to refugees from Africa. > And last spring, engineering
students’ reactions as being
as a means of learning and
extraordinarily mature and
enhancing team-building
students designed two vests
empathetic. “They really do
skills.
for a young, autistic Brazilian. The tight squeeze of the compression vest, along with the stimulation of the highly tactile one, proved soothing to the 15-year-old boy, who the SAU students met when they delivered the vests while on a Study Abroad trip to Brazil.
20
That all of these experiences
of one person is far more than what you see.”
Cambodia is a country scarred by the ravages of a half-century of war, a nation still haunted by the unshakable shadow of “The Killing Fields.� It is a country where more than a third of its 15 million people live below the poverty line and where 80 percent survive through subsistence farming. It is a country where more than half the population is under the age of 20, where fewer than 20 percent of school children advance beyond the American equivalent of junior high, where one of five children are victims of sexual abuse and where the number of street children and orphans is growing by an estimated 20 percent each year. Cambodia is a country Venerable Somnieng Houern plans to transform one under-fed, under-educated, under-loved child at a time. The first child he saved? It was Somnieng himself.
Indelibly Ambrosian: Ven. Somnieng Houern Seeks to Serve a Nation by Craig DeVrieze
21
R
andy Richards didn’t see it at first. It was masked by a ready smile. An easy laugh. An inquisitive and unpretentious openness to making new friends and experiencing new things. It was cloaked in a willful innocence that Richards now will concede he mistook for a childlike lack of worldliness. Ed Rogalski, PhD, meanwhile, couldn’t miss it. Then president of St. Ambrose University, Rogalski saw the gentle, congenial Buddhist bearing of the 25-year-old Cambodian monk who sat before him in the spring of 2006. Yet, he also couldn’t help but see the steelhard determination, the mission-driven dedication within the spirited young man whose remarkable story soon would become indelibly Ambrosian. It turned out a man can be childlike and wise beyond his years. Ven. Somnieng Houern ’10 was proof. Richards ’71, PhD, the professor of philosophy and business management who mentored Ven. Somnieng to an SAU bachelor’s degree in business in 2010, now knows both sides well. “He is a person of intensity or this stuff wouldn’t get done,” Richards said. “You can not accomplish what he has accomplished haphazardly.” What Ven. Somnieng so far has accomplished has dramatically changed the lives of thousands of underprivileged Cambodian children and families. Before serendipitous circumstance brought him to St. Ambrose, Ven. Somnieng already had spent five years as second head monk at the Wat Damnak, a Buddhist temple in the city of Siem Reap in north central Cambodia.
22
There, he founded the Life and Hope Association as an organization that provided food to local families who, in exchange, allowed their children to attend school at the temple. In short order, the association grew to include an orphanage for up to 40 abandoned children; a boarding school for girls eager to extend their education beyond junior high; a sewing school that provides otherwise unemployable young women a marketable skill; a modern junior high
leaders, among them current U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. “The admissions committee was impressed by Somnieng’s commitment to promoting fundamental social change in Cambodia,” said Matt Clemons, the Kennedy School’s director of admissions. “His history of non-profit initiatives was impressive and the committee felt that he has the potential to be a truly transformational leader in the future.”
his family chose not to seek answers, he said. “We forgot and forgave and started a new life,’’ said Ven. Somnieng. It was in his 15th year that Somnieng’s world was turned inside out and the intense determination he would bring to St. Ambrose a decade later was awakened.
“I really didn’t know what to do. But I knew I wanted an education. I think I was strong and determined. Whenever I faced problems, I could find a solution. ” school; and a foreign language school to teach Khmer families the English-speaking skills that can lead to employment in the city’s growing tourism industry. Since Ven. Somnieng took his St. Ambrose education home in 2010, the association’s reach has been extended to more than 1,400 children and its operation has grown considerably more efficient and successful, he said. More is to come. In September, Ven. Somnieng began his pursuit of a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard’s prestigious and exclusive Kennedy School of Government. He is believed to be the first St. Ambrose graduate to attend the school whose roll of alumni includes scores of CEOs and national and international
A Boy Transformed In 1975, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge armies unleashed a genocide that claimed between 1.7 million and 3 million Cambodian lives over a period of four years. More than 1.3 million corpses later were discovered in 20,000 mass graves that came to be known as the Killing Fields. Somnieng Houern was born in 1980, one year after invading Vietnamese troops chased the barbaric Pol Pot from power. He grew up poor in a rural village in Siem Reap Province, often hungry and frequently scarred by the domestic violence that remains endemic to the Khmer culture. Both parents left home before he was 2 and he went to live with an adoptive family. As a boy, he saw the Killing Fields that claimed a grandfather and more than one uncle. The murder of his father in the late 1980s remains shrouded in mystery, but
That year, his exam to gain entry into the equivalent of American high school was rejected because his mother, with whom he had reconciled a year earlier, lacked the $5 bribe a local official demanded. The teen-aged Somnieng spent months shamed and angered, hiding from friends. He ultimately decided he would find a path to education by joining the temple in his hometown. “I really didn’t know what to do,” he said. “But I knew that I wanted an education. I think I was strong and determined. Whenever I faced problems, I could find a solution.” A year later, he moved to Siem Reap and the Wat Damnak. There, Ven. Somnieng found his purpose, impoverished young Cambodians found a champion, and a great Ambrosian story found its beginning.
23
‘My Second Birthplace’ By 2005, Ven. Somnieng had risen to the rank of second chief of the wat. The Life and Hope Association had been launched. Young lives were being changed. He began the association because he knew he had not been the only Cambodian child who grew up starving for nourishment, education and hope for a better life. “You come to the point where you ask yourself how many other children, how many other people, have no place, have
Ryder’s. “They needed a connection to do that. I took up the cause.” Ven. Somnieng spent spring 2006 on the SAU campus, auditing and speaking to classes and meeting with faculty and students. In the process, he saw the value of a U.S. college education. “I think it occurred to him that this was a place where he could further his vision of what he wanted to accomplish in Cambodia,” Richards said. A meeting with Rogalski was arranged. “What impressed me was the unusual promise he demonstrated for a man of his age,” the president emeritus remembered. “He was worldly already in so many ways, having done some things that take a
“St. Ambrose is very important to me,” he said. “It has changed me and it has changed Cambodia. Without St. Ambrose, I wouldn’t be able to be where I am today. The Kennedy School takes only successful people and people of potential. I could show them this kind of potential because of what I learned at St. Ambrose. “I am very grateful and fortunate to be part of the St. Ambrose family.” His fortune is St. Ambrose’s as well, said Sister Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, the university president. “While St. Ambrose may have changed him, he changed us by his life, his determination, his gentle compassion,” she said.
“St. Ambrose is my second birthplace, the birthplace of my knowledge, the birthplace of my skills.” no opportunity, have no food?” he said. “And what can I do?” While Ven. Somnieng was providing that opportunity, chance brought Bettendorf, Iowa, dentist Jon Ryder to Wat Damnak. While on a mission trip to Cambodia, Ryder sought Buddhist instruction from an English-speaking monk in the region. Only Ven. Somnieng fit that profile. Over a week’s time spent together, a friendship developed that ultimately would lead the young monk to a small, private Catholic university in the middle of America. “Dr. Ryder was taken by Somnieng and thought it would be a good idea to bring him here on a cultural exchange,” remembered Richards, himself a practicing Buddhist and an acquaintance of Dr. 24
lifetime for some people to accomplish.” Visa issues delayed Ven. Somnieng’s enrollment for nearly two years, but in 2008, he officially became a St. Ambrose student. And St. Ambrose forever became a part of him. “Before coming to St. Ambrose, I knew I had a good heart,” he said recently from Cambridge, Mass. “But I did not have the ability, the managerial skills, to run the Life and Hope Association effectively. That is why I tell you St. Ambrose is my second birthplace, the birthplace of my knowledge, the birthplace of my skills.” More than just a validation of the work he has done for the poor of Cambodia, Ven. Somnieng said his admission to the Kennedy School is a credit to his St. Ambrose training.
‘I Will Do Every Day …” A Buddhist monk using Skype is a jarring juxtaposition, but it is clear by now that Ven. Somnieng doesn’t play to type. And so his image appeared—shaved head, familiar orange sarong— on a St. Ambrose computer screen in late summer. His smile was ready. His laugh was easy. He seemed inquisitive, unpretentious, open. But hours later, in a telephone interview from Cambridge, the steel-hard determination, the missiondriven dedication to lifting his people out of poverty poured forth in a passionate, earnest and decidedly intense rush.
Ven. Somnieng did pause once, briefly stumped, when asked to explain those two dichotomous personas—the joyful innocent and the impassioned servant. And then he laughed because, in truth, he said, the easy and the steel-hard are complementary. They work in tandem to drive this man who will strive to change a nation. “It is just the joy of what we can do. It’s the joy of the good things that we have done,” he said. “You do it from your heart and you enjoy doing that. And then the people who receive from you also feel the same way.” Ven. Somnieng’s life narrative already is remarkable but more compelling chapters may lie ahead. “I think this story is yet to develop,” said Rogalski. “He has such unusual promise. He has aspirations to change his country for the best. Not only for the better. For the best. And that’s a lofty aspiration.” While the Kennedy School is known
to build political leaders, monks in Cambodia historically have stayed above the political fray. Ven. Somnieng has done that so far himself, even rejecting entreaties at the provincial level to apply for a party membership card. He also has rejected requests from politicians seeking bribes, even though a small amount of currency—$50 to $500 from an LHA budget that steadily is growing due to donations from the West—might have helped win approval for opening a college at the temple. The college is an important goal, but Ven. Somnieng said he cannot sacrifice principle for expediency. “I do the good thing for the good thing,” he said. “I’m not doing a bad thing for the good thing.” That philosophy is owed in part to the Buddhist belief in Karma, a concept he believes brought Dr. Ryder to the Wat Damnak and led the him to St. Ambrose. “The Christian belief is that God will bring us together,” Ven. Somnieng said. “And I accept that. It’s just a different
way of saying it. If you do good things, God will bless you. Right?” Human suffering, however, isn’t ended by fate, Karma or prayer alone. It takes the considerable will of man. And Ven. Somnieng’s steely determination to do good for the children of Cambodia is intense and unwavering. Memories of his challenging childhood may drive this Ambrosian toward a place in Cambodian history. “I cannot run away and I will not because that is my home, that is my land, that is my country,” he said. ”I want to be part of rebuilding Cambodia. I want to see where Cambodia will be in the next few decades. I want to see how much I can do for her. “It is my obligation. I see the suffering. I see the problems. And I come from the suffering. I don’t know how much I can do. But, until my last breath, I know I will do every day.’’ Read more about the Life and Hope Association at sau.edu/Scene
25
Fulbright Scholar’s Search for Justice Began at St. Ambrose
by Jane Kettering
“
Developing relationships with people,
working to do the right thing and seeking the truth;
in innocence work, attorneys, prosecutors, judges and state officials
are all interested in the same thing.”
26
alumniPROFILE
Growing up in Goose Lake, Iowa, population 240, Brian Farrell ’95 enjoyed his small-town life. “But I was always interested in other places, learning about other cultures, interested in history,” he said. This fall, Farrell began a yearlong appointment as a Fulbright Scholar, lecturing in the law department at Sofia University in Sofia, Bulgaria. His Fulbright journey began at St. Ambrose, where he completed his degree in history and teacher education, with a minor in political science. Through his studies, Farrell began to see how changes in society took place as a result of the law and court decisions. It was also at St. Ambrose that the ideas of fairness, social justice and human rights came into focus. Following his graduation from St. Ambrose, Farrell earned his law degree from the University of Iowa. In 2002, he earned a Master of Laws degree in International Human Rights from the National University of Ireland, Galway. “I was thinking more deliberately of human rights as a discipline and body of law,” he said. He practiced criminal law in Iowa for a number of years. In 2007, he co-founded the all-volunteer Innocence Project of Iowa, with a mission to prevent and remedy wrongful convictions through case investigation, policy reform and education.
One Innocence Project triumph involved policy reform related to arson investigations and convictions. When the reform resolution failed in the Iowa state legislature, Farrell convinced the state fire marshal to voluntarily adopt the new policies. “This proved even more impactful than if the changes had been legislatively dictated,” he said. “Developing relationships with people, working to do the right thing and seeking the truth; in innocence work, attorneys, prosecutors, judges and state officials are all interested in the same thing.” Farrell is taking a year’s leave from his current position as director of academic achievement and adjunct lecturer at the University of Iowa Law School. He sees his Fulbright Scholar grant as a wonderful opportunity to focus on teaching and to teach students from different backgrounds. “It’s also exciting to live in a new place and experience a new culture,” said Farrell. “Most importantly, I take my mandate and mission as a Fulbright ambassador very seriously, ‘to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.’”
Farrell suspects that his studies and work related to human rights and justice might have been of interest to the Fulbright commissioners who made this year’s selection of scholars. Looking back, Farrell, whose brother Kevin Farrell ’84, PhD, is an SAU professor of physical therapy, can see how a concern and passion for human rights has evolved as a unifying theme in his life and his journeys. “My experience at St. Ambrose with its strong social justice mission was a formative part of that,” he said. Read more about Brian Farrell’s experience in Bulgaria at sau.edu/Scene
27
alumniNEWS
Stangle Comes Full Circle as New VP of Advancement Jim Stangle ’82 had a sense that he was fated to be an Ambrosian. St. Ambrose was the last of four colleges Stangle visited as a high school senior from Joliet, Ill., but it was the first where he didn’t find himself dodging rain drops. “People were just sort of running between classes with their heads down or their hoods up,” he said of his lasting impression of those first three schools. “When I got to St. Ambrose, it was just one of those Chamber of Commerce days. People were out playing hacky sack and just were incredibly friendly.” Stangle never forgot what he called “by far the four best years of my life,” and always wondered if a return to his alma mater might be a fitting way to complete his career in advancement. This month, he became St. Ambrose Vice President of Advancement, returning to the department where he began his professional career as assistant director of development from 1982 to 1985. “We are pleased to welcome Jim to our senior leadership team,” said Sister Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, president of St. Ambrose. “Through the years, Jim has been an active member of our alumni organization and his keen understanding of the St. Ambrose mission will be a significant asset as we move forward.” Stangle previously worked in advancement and development at Marquette and Duke universities as well as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Just over a year ago, he returned to the Chicago area as vice president for institutional advancement at Notre Dame College Prep in Niles, Ill., and wasn’t looking to move again. The chance to come back to St. Ambrose changed his thinking. “I guess maybe as I am getting older, I am getting a little more spiritual, too,” he said. “I have tried to go with my heart as much as my head. Fortunately, my heart leads me in a better direction sometimes.” Stangle said an early priority for his team will be finding ways to better engage an alumni base that has grown younger as the university has expanded the past 15 to 20 years. He also said providing current students assistance in networking and searching for jobs could enhance their sense of loyalty to St. Ambrose in years to come.
28
Giving to an Endowment No matter the rise or fall of the economy, endowments help ensure that programs like the one started in honor of Fr. Dunn will continue to positively impact St. Ambrose students— and the communities in which they serve. “It is a wonderful way for a family or an entire graduating class to ensure the programs that were meaningful to them as students continue to flourish well after they’ve left the campus,” said PJ Foley ’01, ’05 MOL, director of government and community relations at St. Ambrose. Donations to an endowment are invested, and the interest earned above the principal each year is allocated to the program or scholarship for which it was started. For more information on how to honor Ambrosians through an endowment, contact the Advancement Office at 563/333-6080.
alumniNEWS
The Gift of Giving As she loaded her bags on the van that would take her on the 600-plus mile journey from St. Ambrose to The David School in Kentucky, a young Kate (McGreal) Mitchell ’98, ’99 MOT was touched by the energy and excitement Rev. Edmond Dunn ’58 displayed. As Fr. Dunn put the keys in the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot before dawn, Mitchell remembered, “It was as if he was going home.” Some 17 years later, the memory is still clear for Mitchell, who lives now in Des Moines, Iowa, with her husband Paul, a 1999 MBA graduate. On arrival in David after dusk that long ago March day, she said ‘Eddie’ was “in fine form and ready to go, wearing his beret and eager to get his hands dirty.” Mitchell said it was Fr. Dunn’s passion for service that inspired five of the eight McGreal children from Elkader, Iowa, to make the trek to David—some multiple times—during their years as St. Ambrose students. “Growing up in rural Iowa ourselves, I think we all had a strong understanding of what need was, of what it meant,” she said. “But the trips to Kentucky brought that understanding— and desire to share with others—to an entirely new level.” And that is why the Mitchell family joined alumni from across the decades to start The Rev. Edmond Dunn Endowment Fund upon Fr. Dunn’s retirement from the university in 2010. It is an endowment that will allow St. Ambrose to continue to offer service-learning programs locally, regionally and in the future, internationally. To date, more than $57,000 has been raised. “A trip to Appalachia or inner-city Chicago or East St. Louis really sits with you,” Mitchell said. “I hope that the service trips St. Ambrose sponsors each year, wherever they may be, will be just the beginning of something that the students carry with them their entire life.” For more than 35 years as a professor of theology, Fr. Dunn championed social justice and service learning at St. Ambrose. He also juggled many responsibilities at both St. Ambrose and in his parishes, the latter which he continues today, said Rev.
Endowment Honors Rev. Dunn
morning; and a culinary genius running the kitchen, teaching students the art of making bread or his infamous anchovy pizza. “One of the things Fr. Dunn wants is for every student to have an opportunity to do service, to immerse oneself in another culture, with people who might be deprived of basic necessities,” Fr. Adam said. “He wants Ambrosians to rub shoulders with these people, to begin to comprehend their situation. And he hopes that our presence gives others a glimpse of what college— and the outside world—is like. That it is attainable. That’s why this endowment was started. “Fr. Dunn never wanted a student to be turned away because they couldn’t afford to take a week off from work to give of themselves to others. This endowment ensures that there is no barrier to service, now or 50 years from now.” Read stories about recent trips to Appalachia, East St. Louis and Charleston, South Carolina at sau.edu/Scene
Charles Adam ’82, chaplain at St. Ambrose. “While our students were giving up their spring breaks to go to Appalachia, so too was Fr. Dunn—using his vacation time from his teaching, administrative and pastoral work to go to Kentucky,” Fr. Adam said. “He is a model of selfless service.” In Kentucky, students discovered a true “Renaissance” man in Fr. Dunn: a carpenter and artist, putting the finishing touches on a new part of the school; a musician, leading worship in the 29
classNOTES
Opportunities to Reconnect
Being a St. Ambrose University alum is about reconnecting. That’s where your Alumni Office comes in. They’re in the business of making connections. And re-connections. Christmas is an especially busy time, but it’s a good time to reconnect. Alumni are encouraged to attend several Christmas and winter events. The Christmas Showcase Concert on Dec. 7 is a wonderful chance to enhance your Christmas mood. Beyond the holidays, a full schedule of alumni events await. For information, call Anne Gannaway at 563/333-6283.
Upcoming Events Dec. 1–2
Childrens’ Musical ”Alice in Wonderland: A New Adventure”
Dec. 2
Feast of St. Ambrose and McMullen Awards
Dec. 6
Chicago Alumni Christmas Party
Dec. 7
Christmas Showcase Concert
Dec. 11
1950s Luncheon
Dec. 12
1960s Luncheon
Dec. 13
Peoria Alumni Christmas Party
Jan. (TBA) Bluder Basketball at Iowa Jan. 9
Winter Athletics Coaches Meet and Greet
Jan. 26
Alumni Association Trivia Night
Feb. (TBA) Alumni Basketball Day Feb. 12
Naples, Fla., Luncheon
Feb. 23
Galvin Dinner Theatre
March 2
Wine at the Warehouse
March 2
Spring Athletics Coaches Meet and Greet
March 15
Palm Springs, Calif., Golf
March 23 Alumni Association Trivia Night April 10
Summer Athletics Coaches Meet and Greet, Des Moines
April 13
Wine Festival Preview Dinner
April 20
Summer Athletics Coaches Meet and Greet, St. Louis
May 18
Wine Festival Wine Tasting
For more event details, visit sau.edu/scene
40
The Forties
Rev. George “Pat” Thompson ’48 of Moline, Ill., celebrated his diamond jubilee, 60 years with the priesthood, in July.
60
The Sixties
Rev. Dennis Martin ’63 of West Liberty, Iowa, retired from the priesthood after 45 years. Jim Maher ’68 of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., was appointed as a financial management officer for the United States Department of State in Brazil. It is his thirty-eighth State Department post, covering 36 countries.
70
The Seventies
Msgr. Thomas Mack ’74 was assigned to Immaculate Conception Church in Monmouth, Ill. It will be his second time overseeing the church.
80
The Eighties
Renee (Eherenfeldt) Citera ’81 has been appointed vice president of ALM, an integrated media company, in New York City. ALM is a leading provider of specialized business news, research and information, focused primarily on the legal services industry and commercial real estate. Rev. Kevin Emge ’81, MD, was ordained to Holy Orders in July at St.
30
Paul’s Episcopal Church in Grinnell, Iowa. Emge will continue as the Section Chief of Anesthesiology at Grinnell Regional Medical Center. Kriz Ketz ’83 of Kansas City, Mo, was selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Mid-America Chapter, to join the organization’s Emmy Silver Circle. The award is given to members of the media who have made a significant contribution to television over the past 25 years or more.
90
The Nineties
Robert Kent ’91, MD, was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 for his innovation and success in health care. He is currently president and CEO of Summa Western Reserve Hospital located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Terry Seligman ’91 MBA was named Professional of the Year in Pharmaceutical Services by Worldwide Who’s Who. Seligman is currently president and CEO of Navitus Health Solutions, LLC, located in Madison, Wis. Lisa Winterlin ’91 has joined the American Bank and Trust Company in Davenport as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Julie Wayland ’92 is the new director of the Princeton (Ill.) Public Library. Kurt Rouse ’97 MBA was elected as a member of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s Board of Directors. Rouse is factory manager at Nestle Purina PetCare in Davenport.
classNOTES Norm’s Sox Parties Will Go On
Amy Coulthard-Atwater ’99, MD, is a family medicine physician at Aurora Medical Group in Kaukauna, Wis.
00
The Zeros
Mary Jekel ’00 has joined American Bank and Trust Company, Davenport, as vice president, director of human resources. Jim Fox ’01 was named group sales manager by the Peoria Rivermen Hockey Club, located in Peoria, Ill. Jason Schroeder ’02, ’10 MEA is the new athletic director at North Scott High School, Eldridge, Iowa. Michon Jackson ’03 is serving as the first city administrator for Tiffin, Iowa. Jackson, who has a Master of Public Administration degree from Drake University, is also the city clerk. Tony DeCarlo ’05 teaches AP Economics at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Ill., where he also coaches baseball and football. He and his wife Julie live on the south side of Chicago with their daughter, Madison. Samuel Bailey ’06 is an associate with the Law Offices of Hopkins & Huebner, P.C. He will practice in the firm’s Quad Cities office in the area of liability defense. Catt Foy ’06 had her first book published “Psycards–A New Alternative to Tarot,” and currently is a distributor for Psycards, a 40-card oracle deck. She recently received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Spalding University in Louisville, Ky., and completed her first novel “The Scrivener’s Tale.”
Norm Boccio ’77 would have enjoyed the Chicago White Sox’s roller-coaster 2012 season for all it was worth. It would not have mattered to him that the Sox ultimately fell a few games shy of the playoffs after leading their division much of the year. After the Sox banked their first World Series win of his lifetime in 2005, Boccio deemed them champions for an eternity. “He was just a loyal White Sox fan,” said PJ Foley ’01, ’05 MOL, a fellow Sox follower and St. Ambrose director of government and community relations. “Norm always said, ‘It’s not the Chicago White Sox. It’s the world champion Chicago White Sox.”’ Before Boccio died unexpectedly in his Glenview, Ill., home in October 2011, there was one thing he loved more than the White Sox: his alma mater. That love was evidenced by a generous gift Boccio left in his estate. It will fund the Norman Boccio Endowed Scholarship Fund. “He just loved the school,” said Jim Boland ’80, a fellow Chicagoland native who Boccio took under his wing in 1976. “He loved meeting the people who made up St. Ambrose. If you were at an alumni gathering, he always made a point to shake your hand, see how you were doing and see how St. Ambrose had shaped your life.” Edward Rogalski, PhD, St. Ambrose president emeritus, was dean of students when Boccio arrived. “He really had a great experience here and I think he found a home,” Rogalski said. As a student, Boccio bonded with a group of fellow Chicago area residents living in what is now Rohlman Hall. Rogalski even joined them on a bus trip from Davenport to the White Sox home opener one year. The Rohlman friends made attending opening day an annual tradition thereafter. In 2001, Boccio began hosting White Sox Tailgate Parties for all SAU alums. That is a tradition friends like Boland, his wife Mary Ann (Malley) Boland ’81 and Dan Williams ’80 wanted to continue in Boccio’s memory. More than 50 SAU grads and their families gathered outside U.S. Cellular Field on Aug. 6. Among them was Boland’s daughter Nikki Boland ’12, one of several recent graduates who Jim Boland hopes will carry the tailgate tradition forward. Before the first pitch of a 4-2 White Sox win, the assembled Ambrosians all raised a glass in memory of a man who dearly loved his Sox, but loved his Bees just a little bit more.
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“We get so much more out if it than we put into it.” Alum Reaps Rewards of Mentoring Bernie Angerer ’54 hasn’t quite grown into the title of Mr. Angerer. “Mr. sounds so old, kind of like ‘Sir,’” he said, “and I’m not there yet. ” Give him time. He’s only 82 years young. Several years ago, Angerer joined the New Pathways for Youth program in Phoenix as a volunteer mentor for troubled youth. For his service, Angerer last spring received the Senior Star Award, a Phoenix-area-wide honor that included a $2,000 grant for the program. Program mentors act as role models, he said. “All the kids are here because they want to make a change in their life,” he said. “There are no bad kids, just kids that make bad choices. “We get so much more out if it than we put into it,” Angerer added. “Being here has given me a new purpose in life.” Angerer retired last January from an entrepreneurial career that included manufacturing go-karts, selling real estate and jewelry and, for the previous 35 years, designing and building furniture and working as an interior designer. “It has been a satisfying life,” said Angerer, who earned his high school degree from the St. Ambrose Academy in 1947. “But the most rewarding thing to me has been my involvement with youth at risk.” Angerer’s best moments are spent with the young men he mentors. He and his first assigned youth, Obed (at left in photo), have a 64-year age difference but, “we really are best friends.” He started mentoring the boy in his 8th grade year and he recently helped move the teenager into his new dorm at Arizona State University, where Obed will major in astrophysics.
Christina (Ricci) Hustedde ’06 was promoted to software developer at Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences in Orlando, Fla. Jake Heins ’08 has joined Cottingham & Butler in Dubuque, Iowa, as an insurance marketing specialist in the Risk Management Division. Marc Heinzman ’07 was named the new director of Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Ill. Ann Lamb ’08 earned a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Southern Illinois University. She plans to return to the Quad City area to practice dentistry. Kevin Walden ’08 MOL has been named head men’s basketball coach at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
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The Teens
Nicole Rowold ’10, ’11 MOT has joined the rehab department at Hammond-Henry Hospital in Geneseo, Ill. Rowold will provide pediatric services in occupational therapy. Dustin Renwick ’10 earned his Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and was inducted into the Kappa Tau Alpha journalism honor society. Renwick accepted a position in Washington DC, with the United States Environmental Protection Agency as part of an innovation communication team. Kyle Condon ’11 was named Davenport Assumption High School’s head women’s volleyball coach. Sara Gahn ’11 MBA was awarded
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the Certified Trust and Financial Advisor designation from the Institute of Certified Bankers. She is currently an assistant trust officer at Farmers and Merchants Bank & Trust, Burlington, Iowa. Brent Holcomb ’11 DPT has joined the therapy team at Marengo Physical Therapy located in Marengo, Ill. Adrian Leal ’12 has joined Cottingham & Butler in Dubuque, Iowa, as a sales executive in the National Specialized Transportation Division. Emily Meier ’12 MSLP has accepted a position as a speech language pathologist for the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Skiff Medical Center in Newton, Iowa.
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Marriages
Julie Arnold ’95, ’00 and George Nazarenus, Rock Island, Ill. Amy Coulthard ’99 and Scott Atwater, Kimberly, Wis. Kelly Stadel ’05 and Ryne Scott, Henry, Ill. Heather Venema ’06, ’08 MBA and Alan Hartley ’11 MEA, Davenport Daniel Schmidt ’09, ’11 MBA and Alyse Pohlmann, Davenport Kelsey Nervig ’10 and Joseph Vukov, Rochester, Minn. Paul Bayer ’11 MAcc and Michelle Bollaert, Moline, Ill. Andrea Bristol ’11 MBA and Jason Gentry, Geneseo, Ill. Adam Costas ’12 and Kaitlyn Dunteman ’12, Moline, Ill.
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Margaret (Speer) Curtin ’89, ’96 and her husband Dana celebrated the birth of son Gabriel Reynolds on June 13, 2012. Gabriel joins siblings Megan and Nathaniel in the Curtin family.
Ruth (Herrick) Judd ’39, Washington DC, Sept. 8, 2012
Births
Paul Taylor ’97 and his wife Kim celebrated the birth of a son, Ryan Daniel, on July 22, 2012. He was welcomed home by big brother Charlie. Tom ’98, ’01 MEd and Elizabeth (Jensen) Furlan ’00 are proud to announce the birth of their son, John “Jack” Thomas, on July 16, 2012. Jack is a little brother to Elissa and Mia. Ryan ’99 and Amanda (Giger) Kelly ’01 celebrated the birth of their daughter, Addison, on Jan. 3, 2012. Siblings Mia and Andrew welcomed their little sister home. Paul ’02 and Breann (Malik) Thompson ’05, ’05 MAcc added a son, Nolan, to their family on April 28, 2012. He joins big sister Kenzington in the Thompson family. Dan ’04 and Jessica Rairdin-Hale ’04 welcomed daughter Daisy Prudence Rairdin-Hale on July 20, 2012. She joins brothers Linus and Crosby. Michael ’08 and Jill (McCarthy) Tandy ’08 are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Norah, on Jan. 10, 2011.
Deaths
Don Mosher ’42, Boulder, Colo., July 22, 2012 Philip Corboy ’46, Chicago, Ill., June 12, 2012 John Kelly ’47 Academy, Tucson, Ariz., June 25, 2012 Rev. Msgr. William Bevington ’48, Hendersonville, Tenn., June 20, 2012 Gerald “Jerry” Cooney ’49, Denver, Colo., July 10, 2012 Richard Moravek ’49, Baytown, Texas, July 20, 2012 Richard Myers ’51, Pinehurst, NC, Aug. 18, 2012 Msgr. William Davis ’52, Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 26, 2011 George Forbeck ’52, Lake Geneva, Wis., Dec. 28, 2011 Anthony Kuchan ’52, Brown Deer, Wis., June 14, 2012 Howard Wells ’52, Keokuk, Iowa, July 11, 2012 Richard Zielinski ’52, Twin Lakes, Wis., May 2, 2010 Vincent Green ’53, Morton, Ill., April 6, 2012 E. Donald Kern ’53, Germantown, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2012 Robert Condon ’56, Davenport, July 25, 2012 Sr. Germaine Cupp OSB ’56, Rock Island, Ill., Sept. 3, 2012 John “Jack” Dietz ’56, Rock Island, Ill., July 17, 2012
Peter Roemer ’56 Academy, Davenport, Sept. 13, 2012
Thomas Halfpenny ’67, Oak Park, Ill., July 3, 2011
Rev. John Atkinson ’57, Memphis, Tenn., June 7, 2012
John Dulin ’71, Sun Prairie, Wis., Jan. 18, 2012
Jerry Kinser ’59, Davenport, Feb. 18, 2011
Stephen Shendelman ’71, Irvine, Calif., Aug. 17, 2012
Kenneth Marner ’59, Rockford, Ill., July 12, 2012
Jack Snyder ’74, LeClaire, Iowa, Aug. 12, 2012
Vanner Marland “Marty” Bloomberg ’60, Janesville, Wis., May 30, 2012
Michael Faye ’78, Springfield, Ill., Aug. 7, 2012
Judith (Coleman) Hancock ’61, Jefferson City, Mo., Sept. 15, 2012 Edward Van Horn ’61, Urbandale, Iowa, Aug. 2, 2012 John Henseler ’62, North Kingstown, RI, June 28, 2012 Thomas Wolfe ’62, Davenport, Aug. 4, 2012 Leonard Hart ’63, Davenport, Sept. 4, 2012 Lt. Col. Carmen Luisi Jr. ’63, Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., Nov. 19, 2010 Donald Meismer ’63, Louisville, Ky., Sept. 24, 2012 Howard Misener ’63, Joliet, Ill., April 27, 2012 William Walz ’63, Romeoville, Ill., Oct. 4, 2010 Paul Taets ’64, East Moline, Ill., Sept. 6, 2011 Michael Blankenheim ’65, Hartland, Wis., Jan. 3, 2010 Sr. Margaret Jenot ’65, Springfield, Ill., April 30, 2011 Sr. Anna Mehigan ’66, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 7, 2011 John Gallagher ’67, Romeoville, Ill., March 30, 2012
Matthew Noah ’86, Chester, Va., June 4, 2012 Richard Hebbel ’89, ’96 MBA, Davenport, Aug. 5, 2012 Todd Mayberry ’93, ’00 MCJ, Detroit, Mich., June 13, 2012 Thomas Grady ’94, Peoria, Ill., Aug. 3, 2012 Edie Schnack ’94, Eldridge, Iowa, Sept. 10, 2012 Amelia Parenza ’11, Melrose, Iowa, July 14, 2012
Faculty and Staff Beverly Paulsen, Moline, Ill., July 15, 2012. She was an adjunct instructor of nursing from January 2008 to May 2009. What’s New? Let us know what you’ve been up to! Drop us a note at Alumni Relations, St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, Iowa 52803 or go online to share updates. Include your full name, class year and phone number or email where we can contact you to verify your information. online extra: tell us what’s new at sau.edu/Scene
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PARENTS: If this issue of the Scene is addressed to your daughter or son who has established a separate permanent address, please notify us of the new address: 800/SAU-ALUM alumni@sau.edu
It’s beginning to look a lot like … Mark your calendar for these St. Ambrose holiday events Saturday, Dec. 1
Alumni Family Holiday Party 5 p.m.
Sat., Sun, Dec. 1–2 CHILDREN’S MUSICAL Alice in Wonderland: A New Adventure 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2
Feast of St. Ambrose and Presentation of McMullen Awards 6:30 p.m., Christ the King Chapel
Friday, Dec. 7
Christmas Showcase Concert 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 11
St. Ambrose Jazz Ensemble and STAMVOJA Concert, 7 p.m. River Music Experience, Davenport
Unless otherwise noted, all events are in Galvin Fine Arts Center, Allaert Auditorium
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