Vincentian Mission Institute to assist lay leaders in extending Catholic values in higher education
September 10, 2007
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DePaul and its two sister Vincentian universities in the United States - St. John's University and Niagara University - are collaborating on a new initiative to develop successive generations of lay leaders to support their institutions' Catholic and Vincentian identities. The program, Vincentian Mission Institute: Leadership in Higher Education, will include select faculty and staff leaders from each institution who will participate in an intensive three-year continuing education program. The institutions want to be able to assure that future generations of students, especially first-generation college and immigrant students, as well as those from groups traditionally under-prepared for and under-represented in higher education, will continue to receive the benefit of a quality and transformative higher education rooted in the Vincentian tradition. Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president, along with his fellow presidents Rev. Donald Harrington, C.M., of St. John's, and Rev. Joseph Levesque, C.M., of Niagara, issued the following joint statement: "As we look with pride at the present generation of lay leaders at our institutions who are so imbued with a dedication to Vincentian higher education, we are confident that a program such as the Vincentian Mission Institute will enable each of our institutions to face our futures secure in our Catholic and Vincentian identity and focused on serving our students in the tradition of Saint Vincent de Paul." The program, scheduled to begin in the winter quarter of the 2008-09 academic year, will address the distinctive nature of Catholic and Vincentian higher education with a strong emphasis on Vincentian history, spirituality and service. Work in the program will be conducted through a mixture of campus- and online-based classes with occasional weekend and extended sessions over the three-year period, including a Vincentian heritage tour of France.
