Some 150 Notre Dame graduating seniors who are embarking on a year or more of service in this country and abroad will be honored during the University’s annual Senior Service Send-Off ceremony at9:30 a.m.Saturday (May 14) in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Centers Leighton Hall.
Notre Dame’s president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., will address the seniors and their families on ** the Universitys commitment to service in education and throughout the lifetimes of its graduates.The ceremonys opening prayer will be offered by Cardinal Francis Arinze ofNigeria, who will receive an honorary degree from the University on Sunday at this years Commencement.
Reflections on postgraduate service will be offered by Chris Nanni, vice president of programs at the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County and a 1988 Notre Dame graduate.Upon graduation, Nanni entered the Holy Cross Associates program and worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center for indigent youth inPortland,Ore.He also worked for two and a half years as a lay missioner in the Dominican Republic and for the last 12 years has worked in various Latino communities in the United States, including as director of La Casa de Amistad in South Bend and as associate principal of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, an inner-city school for immigrant Latino families in Chicago.His wife, Allison, is a 1995 graduate of Notre Dame, and they have two sons, Marcello and Louie.
At the ceremony each of the participating seniors will be recognized by name and service program, and each will receive a journal with favorite quotations and advice from various members of the Notre Dame community.
A blessing of the seniors will be led by Rev. William Lies, C.S.C., executive director of the Center for Social Concerns, and Liz Mackenzie, the center’s director of senior transition programs.
Among the service programs this year’s Notre Dame graduates will join are the UniversitysHoly Cross Associates, which serves the poor in six U.S. cities and Chile; Notre Dames Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), which provides teachers for understaffed parochial schools in dioceses across the United States; Notre Dames ECHO Faith Formation Leadership Program, which trains and provides religious educators for Catholic parishes; the Peace Corps and Teach For America.Many of the seniors became involved in serviceand social action through the programs and courses of theCenter for Social Concerns.
Music for the ceremony will include songs chosen by the graduates and led by the Notre Dame Folk Choir. Following the ceremony there will be a reception outside theDeBartoloCenter.The ceremony will be shown in a delayed Webcast atnoonSaturday (May 14) on the University’s Web site http://www.nd.edu
* Contact: * _Liz Mackenzie, director of senior transition programs, at 574-631-5779 or Mackenzie.12@nd.edu _
TopicID: 11205