Marquette Matters Feb. 2013

F E B R UA RY 2 01 3

MARQUETTE The World is our Home

Mission Week 2013 honors Opus Prize recipients By Christopher Jenkins

Through a tireless combination of faith, commitment and ingenuity, 10 men and women have been recognized for making a profound impact on global social issues. In many respects, they reflect the spirit of tenacity and giving ­associated with Mother Teresa in their own home countries. This February, they’re coming to campus from around the world to share their knowledge and inspiration with the Marquette community. The 2013 celebration of Marquette’s Mission Week will bring together recipients of the $1 million Opus Prize, an annual award ­recognizing faith-based social entrepreneurs who work to solve seemingly intractable issues around the world. A series of events will be held on campus Feb. 4–8. “They are people who didn’t set out to be million-dollar Opus Prize recipients,” says Dr. Stephanie Russell, Marquette’s vice president for mission and ministry. “They set out to be in solidarity with the poorest of the poor and the marginalized, and they have addressed human needs in incredibly creative ways.” Each year, Marquette takes a week to explore its Catholic and Jesuit mission through a series of academic, spiritual and social events. The theme for this year’s Mission Week, The World is our Home, is one Russell hopes will resonate with students. “We’re trying to equip students not just to be global citizens, which is important, but also to feel that no matter where they go or with whom they find themselves — and most profoundly with the poor — they can recognize the face of God,” Russell says. Russell is encouraging faculty to incorporate the Opus Prize winners and Mission Week events into course work. “I hope this will give faculty members opportunities to link what they’re already teaching in the classroom with role models who are inviting

The late Lyn Lusi and her husband, Dr. Jo Lusi, founded the HEAL Africa Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an effort to repair the shattered lives of victims of the war that has plagued the country since 1996.

to students,” Russell says. “And I hope that it will give rise for them to some new possibilities for research, or deepen the research that they’re already doing.” Seven of the 10 Opus Prize recipients are scheduled to attend Mission Week. Two past recipients, Lyn Lusi and Dr. Zilda Arns Neumann, are deceased and will be represented by family members who work tirelessly in the nonprofits they founded. Sister Beatrice Chipeta, RS, of Malawi’s Lusubilo Orphan Care Project will be represented by the organization’s deputy director, Peter Daino. Coming from all over the world, it will be the first time most of the recipients have met one other.

“They’re humble, they’re charismatic and they are not cut from the same cloth,” Russell says. “Each one has his or her own personality — which to me is consoling, that it’s not just one kind of person who can have this impact on the world.” Don Neureuther, special assistant to the vice president in University Advancement and co-chair of the Mission Week steering committee, says honoring the Opus Prize recipients fits Marquette’s mission. “Many Marquette students and faculty are involved in service, either domestically or internationally,” says Neureuther, who also serves as executive director of the Opus Prize Foundation. “But what is so intriguing about the recipients of the Opus Prize is these are people who are

continued on page 2

CAM PU S H A P P E N I N GS Père Marquette Lecture and Aquinas Lectures being held in February The Department of Theology will host the annual Père Marquette Lecture Sunday, Feb. 17, at 1 p.m., in the Weasler Auditorium. Jean-Luc Marion, professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, will speak on “Givenness and Hermeneutics.” The Department of Philosophy will host the annual Aquinas Lecture Sunday, Feb. 24, at 3 p.m., in Raynor Memorial Libraries’ Beaumier Suites. Dr. Linda Zagzebski, Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma, will present “Omnisubjectivity: A Defense of a Divine Attribute.” A reception will follow the lecture.

President’s Strategic Planning Workshop is Jan. 30 President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., will forego the typical, annual Presidential Address this year and use the date to invite campus to participate in a u ­ niversitywide President’s Strategic Planning Workshop, which will bring together faculty, staff and students in interdisciplinary, roundtable discussions aimed at generating ideas for university-wide goals. The President’s Strategic Planning Workshop will be held Wednesday, Jan. 30, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the AMU, Monaghan Ballroom. Faculty and staff who wish to attend should RSVP to universityspecialevents@marquette.edu by Friday, Jan. 25, with their name, designation as faculty or staff, and department, office or college. This will assist in ensuring the roundtable discussions are interdisciplinary in nature.

Editor’s Note: An article in the December 2012/January 2013 issue of Marquette Matters incorrectly referred to the Educational Opportunity Program. Marquette Matters regrets the error and apologizes for the mistake.