‘Rebuild my Church’:
Marian’s first San Damiano Scholars begin ministries
During four years as a San Damiano Scholar, St. Jude parishioner Anna Glowinski of Indianapolis completed almost 700 hours of volunteer service.
By Mary Ann Wyand
St. Francis of Assisi would be proud of Marian College’s first graduating class of San Damiano Scholars, who are beginning a variety of lay ministries in the Church.
Through Marian’s Rebuild My Church program, inspired by God’s call to St. Francis, the 10 graduates received partial scholarship assistance for four years to help them earn undergraduate degrees in Church-related majors at the Franciscan college on Cold Spring Road in Indianapolis.
This fall, more than 80 San Damiano Scholars will be working toward undergraduate degrees that will qualify them for lay leadership in the Church, Catholic school education, nursing and other health care ministries, business and not-for-profit managers, vowed religious and graduate studies for ordained ministry.
Susan Giel, youth ministry coordinator for Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove, was the first San Damiano Scholar to graduate from the program in May 2005 because she transferred to Marian College as a junior from Holy Cross College in South Bend, Ind.
During four years as a San Damiano Scholar, St. Jude parishioner Anna Glowinski of Indianapolis managed to find time to complete almost 700 hours of volunteer service for the Church while juggling a busy academic schedule.
“It’s just a part of who I am,” she said about her record number of volunteer hours as a pastoral leadership major.
“You can’t say no to God,” the Roncalli High School
graduate explained with a smile. “I like serving other people. Why would you not do it?”
She also studied psychology and sociology at Marian College, and plans to pursue a graduate degree in marriage and family therapy this fall at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis then work in pastoral
ministry and counseling.
“I found everything I was looking for in the pastoral leadership program and San Damiano Scholarship program,” she said. “I know I came to the right place and was involved in the right
program. I’ve had so many [volunteer ministry]
opportunities at parishes and back at Roncalli.”
Glowinski cherishes her memories of an internship at St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis, helping facilitate seven Christian Awakening Retreats for high school seniors, a mission trip to El Salvador, and a 10-day student pilgrimage to Italy to visit Rome and Assisi.
Scholar Andrew DeCrane, an Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary parishioner and home-schooled student, volunteers as a sacristan during Mass nearly every week at the Indianapolis South Deanery church.
DeCrane earned a bachelor’s degree in business management with a concentration in human resources management and a minor in pastoral leadership.
Now he serves the archdiocesan Church as a Human Resources assistant at the Archbishop O’Meara Catholic Center and still volunteers as a sacristan at his parish.
“I’m very excited about this ministry opportunity,” he said, “because it takes a lot of what I’ve been preparing for in my work for the Church with both my major and minor, and it fuses them together.”
He completed almost 400 hours of volunteer service.
“I think Marian College gives you the ability to build relationships with others,” he said. “Academically, it’s given me the tools I need to know exactly what I’m doing for my career … and I’ve gotten life skills that can be applied to any situation, such as communication and being a person of dignity and responsibility.”
DeCrane also visited Rome and Assisi on a 10-day
student pilgrimage, and will always remember the advice that St. Francis gave to his followers to “Preach the Gospel always and use words when necessary.”
St. Jude parishioner Elizabeth Starczewski of New Lenox, Ill., majored in pastoral leadership as a scholar and gained youth ministry experience as a
volunteer at St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis.
She will teach sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade religion classes at Christ the King School in Indianapolis this fall.
“I believe that God called me to Marian College,” she said. “By coming to Marian, I felt that I could accomplish all my goals with the San Damiano program. [It] gives people experience with community service, and networking with youth ministers and directors of religious education. … With so many scholars working in the Indianapolis area, we’re witnessing and drawing in new scholars by doing service work in the parishes.”
Starczewski enjoys wearing Marian’s Rebuild My Church T-shirt to promote the theme “Making a difference for God.”
St. Mark the Evangelist parishioner Sean Winningham of Indianapolis, a Roncalli High School graduate and theology major, enjoyed serving the Church as a work-study intern at Holy Family Shelter in Indianapolis.
Winningham is looking forward to teaching seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade religion classes at Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis this fall.
Longtime Roncalli religion teachers Bob Tully and Gerard Striby were great mentors, he said, and helped him to better appreciate Catholicism as a teenager.
He has “always enjoyed service projects and felt called to become a religion teacher at a Catholic high school.”
Marian’s theology instructors prepared him to teach
students about the Church, morality and character-building, Winningham said, as well as “give them insight on how their lives are reflecting God and his purpose.”
Financial assistance as a San Damiano Scholar helped him realize his dream, Winningham said, and answer God’s call to lay ministry in Catholic education.
“Our scholars are very generous with their time,” said Mark Erdosy, Marian’s director of Church Relations and the San Damiano Scholars program. “They understand service and enjoy serving others. Since the inception of the program [in 2003], our scholars have performed over 18,000 hours of volunteer service. To put that in context, each scholar is only responsible for doing 58 hours [of service] a year.”
When the first class of four-year scholars earned undergraduate degrees during Marian College’s 70th annual commencement on May 5, Erdosy said he felt like a proud father.
Erdosy credits the success of the Rebuild My Church grant application—made possible by Lilly Endowment Inc. and other donors—in 2002 and subsequent growth of the San Damiano Scholarship program to the leadership of Marian College President Daniel Elsener, theology and philosophy chair Andrew Hohman, theology faculty member Michael Clark, and Donna Proctor, a theology instructor and director of curricular components for the Rebuild My Church program, and other faculty and administrative staff members.
“Our San Damiano Scholars program is unlike any other undergraduate ministry preparatory program in the U.S.,” Erdosy said. “Through our scholars program and pastoral leadership major, we are literally educating the next generation of lay ecclesial ministers,” envisioned by the Second Vatican Council during the 1960s.
“Since 2003, over 110 gifted young people have received a San Damiano Scholarship,” he said. “Currently, we have students from six states and 14 dioceses [who] ... have been pioneers on campus and in the Indianapolis Catholic community in many ways. … Through their generous gift of time and talent, our first class has built important bridges to area parishes and Catholic high schools, especially in religious education, youth ministry and music ministry.” †
