Mission Week 2015: Daily Reflection

Each day of Mission Week, a member of the Marquette community will offer a reflection to echo the theme of Mission Week 2015, “Who Cares? Charity, Justice, and the Common Good.”

Staying true to its Jesuit foundation, Marquette’s mission statement stems from Ignatian Spirituality. It focuses on the four values that are at this university’s core: Excellence, Leadership, Faith and Service. With these for inspiration, it is the hope of Marquette that its students will flourish into men and women with and for others, working for the greater glory of God.

Beneath the surface of the mission statement, however, lays the Ignatian value of magis. It is this value that Marquette students truly care about. Marquette students want to achieve more, take risks and never settle until they have done their best. Rarely does one meet a student on campus who only spends his or her time in class. This student population is alive in sports, clubs and especially service.

Service is what makes Marquette so special and so different from other campuses. Students live out this aspect of Marquette’s mission every day at meal programs, homeless shelters, even the 16th Street bus stop, as well as areas outside of Milwaukee, serving in El Salvador or teaching in South Africa. Living out the mission of their school, Marquette students strive to walk in solidarity with the less fortunate in the community and the world around them.

Looking forward, it is my hope that one day every Marquette student will be involved in some form of service. May we become a more active member in our community, vocalizing the needs of the poor and advocating for social justice, stretching our mission beyond the classroom, beyond the student population, even beyond Milwaukee, and apply it to everywhere Marquette is represented.

Sheila Connelly
Class of 2017
College of Health Sciences

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