"It's Good For the Soul"
President R. Mark Sullivan's Speech
at Catholic Charities Event
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Thank you. It's an honor to be here tonight, and I am happy for the opportunity to be able to share with you a few thoughts on "giving back to the community".

Every now and then I get the chance to leave my desk and walk around our campus grounds for a little bit. It seems I'm becoming known for not being able to walk by pieces of litter and debris without picking them up. Our Community Service Director spotted me at it again the other day and teased me that this was going to be part of my legacy. I assured him it's good for the soul.

It's alright with me if my neighborhood clean-up skills stay sharp and noticed because, after all, there really is something intrinsically gratifying when we give of ourselves in a way that isn't expected or required. Something as simple as taking a moment to make the spaces around us look a little nicer is good for the soul.

At The College of Saint Rose we have been helping our students realize that more fully in their lives all throughout our history.

It's probably no surprise to you that the College's founders, The Sisters of Saint Joseph, are not as numerous as they once were decades ago. The great irony, however, is that the giving vision of these women, who for over five hundred years have lived out a theology of "the dear neighbor" in their interactions with the poor, the afflicted and the disadvantaged, is now being kept alive by our students. There are a few key reasons why we know this to be true at Saint Rose.

First, the young are as idealistic as ever. Many of them aspire to a real-world experience where they can make their idealistic mark in a tangible way. In the places of higher education around the country today over two-thirds of the students describe themselves as religious. They are looking for a religiosity that is a source of joy, and a spirituality that can help them grow.

The most recent information on this phenomenon came out a few weeks ago. According to a national study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 69% of incoming freshman say their religion guides them. Yet at the same time, many of these students also use words such as "doubtful", "conflicted" and "seeking" when they think about where they are at this stage of their beliefs.

In their acts of service however, our young people find a way to move from the intellectual challenges and demands that go with thinking about religion, into a humane and spiritual experience of doing something. Students are no different than the rest of us who wrestle with some of the hot button issues and accompanying theological statements. Serious thinking is required of serious problems.

In the collaboration that comes with a service project though, in an activity of kindness that is meant to benefit others, students are able to simply stand on the ground of loving community. And this too is important and life-enriching.

At Saint Rose, we see this time and time again in our students. They become involved in service and ministry at Saint Rose because they have come looking for ways they can continue to incorporate into their personal lives the practice of doing compassionate acts for others. It is something they began to learn to do in their schools and in their parishes, many like yours. We find that the more service opportunities we arrange for them, and the more we gather them into an experience of joyful service to our neighbors around us and beyond, the more they respond.

If you could take a slice of Saint Rose student life in any given week this past academic year and put it under a microscope, some of the things you would see include:

" Students packing grocery bags at the AUMS food pantry over at the West Hill Neighborhood Community Center;
" Our students reading and playing with the pre-schoolers at the Sheridan Avenue Head Start center;
" Tues -Thurs you'd see some of the thirty or so students who mentor at Saint Anne's Institute for girls, giving their weekly companionship to those troubled teens;
" Students doing urban environmental work at the Tivoli Preserve in Arbor Hill;
" Our Big Brothers/Big Sister Club would be getting ready for another Saturday visit by their little brothers and sisters;
" Our students would be helping with homework at places like the Boys & Girls Club, Giffen Elementary school, and our neighborhood elementary school - Public School 16, right up the street from us, and elsewhere.
" In a typical week, some of the forty students who are active in liturgical ministries would be assisting with Mass at Saint Vincent's;
" Some would be putting a meal together at one of various homeless shelters in the city, and
" A few of them would once again be befriending people living with HIV/AIDS at the Damien Center just a few blocks down from us.

As we develop a more accurate picture of what hundreds of our students do in the community over the course of a semester, we expect to see something that looks a lot like that generous, Christian spirit toward "the least of us" that the Sisters of Saint Joseph began to foster on our campus eighty-five years ago.

The Saint Rose community and the people living in the City of Albany will continue to benefit from what the Sisters have started because "giving back to the community" is increasingly being integrated into the lives of our students. We are identifying many resources that we can make available, and are creating more outreach endeavors in our overall strategic planning effort to become the engaged urban campus in the City of Albany.

One of the latest innovations we have built into our community outreach programming is called the Urban Launch. It is our 3-day service immersion experience for a selected group of new students that kicks-off right before classes begin in the Fall. Last year, as the students were finishing up their last project volunteering at Habitat for Humanity's North Albany Revitalization project, they experienced what can only be described as a special holy moment. In a very serendipitous, totally unplanned moment, one of the single moms who was awaiting the completion of her Habitat house started working alongside our kids. During lunchtime, she brought her two little children to stand next to her and began to open up to our kids by telling them a short version of the story of struggle and hope that she was living. They heard about hard times, yet they also heard a voice of deep gratitude and optimism. They saw a glimpse of a person's life very different from their own.

She told them how happy it made her to see how much Saint Rose was involved with the building of the homes that were going to be her new neighborhood. She was excited to share the fact that her little boy had gone to our Calder Summer Camp. She herself had taken a few Special Education courses at our school and felt a connection to Saint Rose because it was a part of the better future she had begun to achieve. And the students saw how proud she was to have just been accepted into the NYS Trooper Academy. It was another of the many unforgettable moments of service and learning outside the classroom that our students acquire. They stood together in the silent sharing of tears as they listened to this woman speak from her heart to this audience of caring young citizens she was thankful for. That little moment was big for our kids, and it was good for their souls.

Our historical mission combined with our geographic location in the City and the nature of the students that we see today compels us at The College of Saint Rose to be a community that "gives back" in the heart of Albany.

We have a mission of learning. We have a mission of caring. It is not possible for us, given who we are, to be detached from the world around us.

One of our annual events at the beginning of each academic year is what we call "Reach Out Saint Rose Day". I will be out there again this year, as in the past, and again I will probably be assigned to the team that is sent out to pick up litter or debris somewhere. And I will roll up my sleeves and work alongside some of our kids. They will be out there getting a taste of what it means to be a part of an academic community that has historically given back to the community, teaming up with like-minded peers who actively seek an experience that comes with making a small, yet significant positive difference. And I will once again enjoy observing another group of students, who though they may not fully realize it yet, are heading deeper into their own discovery that giving back to the community is indeed good for the soul.

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