Eliana Sanchez
May 2022
Lumen Christi is Latin for Light of Christ. The Lumen Christi Award is the highest award that Saint Mary’s College confers upon an undergraduate student. It is presented each year to a member of the senior class who is an outstanding person of faith, someone who has excelled in leadership and who has had a deep and good effect on the Saint Mary’s community.
Today we honor a senior who we know by her faithfulness, leadership, generous service, broad welcome, and work for justice.
Our recipient is rooted in love. She is committed to spiritual practices that enable her to connect and listen to God. Her practices for connecting with God have led her from contemplation into community, fueled for service and work for justice. With majors in psychology and environmental studies, she is attentive to both individual human persons and systems, structures, and communities. These interests come together in her work to ensure equitable college access and success. In her words and in her actions, she proclaims the gospel of hope. Fellow students describe her as a witness and a model, thoughtfully trying to live in right relationship with God, creation, neighbor, and self. Her authenticity and integrity are the foundation of her leadership. She is a savvy communicator because communicating is a way of including and of ensuring that everyone has access to what they need to feel welcome and belong.
Our recipient is devoted to our community. Her deep care has led her to serve as president of the Latinx club La Fuerza, vice president of the Student Diversity Board, a Belles Connect mentor, and both an Embody Theology Summer Institute mentor and ambassador. She has served as a student leader, including as the Food Recovery Coordinator, in the Office for the Common Good and on the Inauguration Steering Committee. She is the student member of the College’s Board of Trustees. To each of these roles, she has brought dignity, creativity, grace, and joy.
She illuminates a path of faith, hope, and love.
It is, therefore, an honor and pleasure to acknowledge Eliana Sanchez to be a Light of Christ and to bestow on her the 2022 Lumen Christi Award.