With songs, candles, and prayers, twenty-six Saint Mary’s seniors were solemnly honored May 8 as they prepare to serve others worldwide.


Catherine Salyer '11, far right, receives a blessing on May 8
during the first Post-Graduate Service Blessing and Sending
Ceremony in the Regina Hall Chapel.

The students, their loved ones, and several Sisters of the Holy Cross gathered in the quiet chapel of Regina Hall for the first Post-Graduate Service Blessing and Sending Ceremony by Campus Ministry and the Office for Civic and Social Engagement (OCSE). The students will serve in locations ranging from Chicago to the Mississippi delta to Uganda to Central America and Cambodia.

“Our education and our lives have been formed by women living in mission in response to the world around them, women who actively participate in their communities and create new realities,” said guest speaker Allison Beyer ’07. “This is our history, this is our future. This is the legacy to which we are forever connected.” Read her entire speech here.


Allison Beyer '07 delivers a reflection
based on I Corinthians 12:4-7.

Beyer performed service work after graduating from Saint Mary’s. She taught on the Colville Indian Reservation in Omak, Washington, through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. This year, she will participate in the Maryknoll Bolivia Mission Immersion Program.

“The world, as we well know, has many needs,” Beyer said. “Our brothers and sisters are in need of good education and good educators. In need of healing, well-being, care. In need of clothing, food, shelter, clean water. In need of friendship, jobs, safety, advocacy, empowerment. The needs go on and on. Each of you is responding to this aching of our world by answering the call to give of yourself in service.”

After Beyer’s reflection, each student lit an individual candle from the flame of a central candle. She then spread her light to the candles of loved ones as a sign of hope.


Lizziey Brown '11 and Carolyne Call, director of the Office
of Civic and Social Engagement, light candles that
symbolize hope.

Judith Fean, director of campus ministry, and Carolyne Call, director of OSCE, presented the students with medals of Blessed Father Basil Moreau, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. The medals, Fean said, represent Moreau’s willingness to travel to the fringes of society and to be changed by those he met. 

She wished the same for the students: “May you go forth with confidence that you will be given what you need and be open to be changed as you join hands as partners in building the kingdom with those you meet.”