Eloquent and beautifully written, the Incarnate Word Mission statement conveys the five core values that resonate with students and alumni. It has been seven years since I followed the bagpipers across campus on a steamy May morning. It represented the culmination of four years filled with sweat, tears and smiles. As I passed my classrooms, I could remember the lessons learned, the ideas shared, and how the tenets became a part of my life. The five tenets presented themselves in a way that I could comprehend at that time in my life.

Faith: Grow; experience and learn what it is to be a Catholic. Love your God, love yourself, and love your neighbor.

Service: Give; be a contributor, without question or expectation, to something that holds meaning for you.

Innovation: Strive; there is always something better, bigger or more efficient. Operate at a deeper level, and you will find yourself in a better place than you started.

Truth: Accept; reality is different through the lens of your neighbor. Accept that the truth may vary for each person; it is the understanding of this that can give you the full experience of this tenet.

Education: Learn; it never stops. If you remain open to it, you will be a student for the rest of your life. Learning from books, each other and experiences all lead to a better you.

Now that my name has been immortalized among the many alumni of UIW, the tenets speak to me with a different message. They tell me that it is not their individuality that helps develop me. It is when I unite all five concepts into one idea that it becomes more than just a Mission statement. The University of the Incarnate Word has tried to teach me how to pay it forward.

The recipients could be family, friends, coworkers, significant others and even pets, but UIW wants each of us to be a better person and have our community feel the reverberations of our efforts. We have been blessed in our past by just experiencing the pulse of the UIW campus. We owe it to UIW and to ourselves to show our community that we are Cardinals and that we make a difference.

Would you like to share how you are living the Mission? Your story could be featured in our magazine. Email Ashley Festa at festa@uiwtx.edu.

My life has been committed to living the mission of Jesus Christ, but if I were to take the final test and be evaluated on how well I am doing, I wonder if I would pass.

I’ve been offered the intellectual power of reason, the creative power of imagination and the moral power of will so that I might discover the real, envision the beautiful and actualize the good. This is what constitutes the heart and soul of our mission, and why we value science, history, art, language, literature, political science and religion. Each, in its own way, keeps us closely attuned to the traces of God in all things.

The Mission of the University of the Incarnate Word has, hopefully, been read by all of us. But we can’t stop there. Would you pass the test on the values from that Mission? The university is committed to educational excellence; I hope you found it here. Faculty and students support one another in the search for truth. The spirit of Christian service is perpetuated primarily through teaching and scholarship, while being open and supportive of innovation. Each area of the curriculum should include an emphasis on social justice and community service, while recognizing the diversity in our backgrounds. Each graduate completed this before leaving UIW.

One of the demands of our Mission is to see that truth itself can light the way to justice. It calls each and every one of us to discover God within our own hearts, to make God flesh, and to let God’s voice be our teacher. The measure of our success lies in passing on the message of Jesus.

Naturally, we bring our own personality and spirituality to our teaching and learning. Jesus shows us how to come together and how to put on the mind of God. He provides us with a way to freedom. We support and help transform each other, and in the process, the rest of our Mission reflects the destiny of all other relationships.

The final test is still coming and should instill a fear of the challenge, for our Mission requires belief and action. And so we ask ourselves: What makes us different? We are a community in progress and are being shaped by the world around us in the context of boundaries and permeability. Every way of life is both sinful and graced. In the sense of our being called, we must tend toward accomplishment in the name of the Incarnate Word. We are judged by how we live, and living the Mission is what we are called to do. I have often been recognized for living the Mission. But I’m not finished living yet, so it will be the final test that will prove how well I have done. You also have been formed by the Mission and will continue to put it into practice in whatever you do and wherever you live. Our blessings go with you.

Freshman Holly Spellmann (left) and sophomore Colleen Dwyer paint a hopscotch board on the pavement at Haven for Hope during the university’s Meet the Mission event in September.

UIW’s annual Meet the Mission event, when students and faculty members head out into the community to lend a helping hand at several agencies around the city, celebrated five years in September.

The day of service has taken off in terms of popularity; nearly 200 students and faculty members volunteered to spend the morning pulling weeds, painting, sorting donations, housekeeping and other chores.

The day started with a spiritual send-off on campus, and then students boarded VIA Metropolitan Transit buses to travel to sites around the city. By using public transportation, students got the chance to learn more about the system and meet people who use the buses as their primary mode of travel.

Students donated smiles and a little elbow grease to nearly 20 agencies needing assistance, including Any Baby Can, Haven for Hope, Inner City Development, the Salvation Army Donation center and the Willie Velazquez Community Learning Center.

About 20 students, including nine from the university’s Honor Program, used the morning to paint hopscotch and foursquare boards on the pavement at Haven for Hope. The only disappointment of the day? The UIW students had to leave before seeing the excitement on the children’s faces as they returned from their school day.

That sense of accomplishment and generosity remains part of the mission of service instilled in the university more than a century ago through the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.

Jose Martinez (left), assistant director to the International Student Office, and his dog Cooper sits with Miguel Ochoa ’09 BA and his dog Brody at the Blessing of the Animals in October.

Each October, UIW holds a Blessing of the Animals ceremony to celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology. St. Francis was a Roman Catholic saint who took the gospel literally by following all that Jesus said and did. He believed that God was in everything. To honor that tradition, the university invites the community each year to bring all animals, large and small, live and stuffed, to be blessed by Sr. Martha Ann Kirk at the Grotto on campus. The Blessing of the Animals reminds us of the importance of respecting all creation on Earth.

UIW junior Robert Rodriguez (from left), Texas Christian University freshman Katie Gazda, Dr. Sally Baynton and Antonian High School senior Maddy Perry prepare to break ground on several construction projects to help residents of Mede, the Ugandan village UIW adopted.

During the spring semester of 2009, my freshman year at UIW, I started a nonprofit student organization called STAND. It was created to advocate against the Darfurian genocide that began in 2003. The name is an acronym for “Students Taking Action Now for Darfur,” and we did our best to be a voice for the voiceless.

Rodriguez snuggles baby Abigil during his trip to Gulu, Uganda, in August. Abigil and her family live in a village called Ariaga, which will benefit from the vocational school built by STAND.

With the help of former faculty member Dr. Sally Baynton of the English department, we became involved with the humanitarian group “Gulu Hope” as a portal to Africa. To help raise awareness, we hosted events such as guest speaker Dr. Ashis Brama, from Darfur who aided refugees during the genocide, and petitions to President Barack Obama to implement a peace convoy to the crisis area.

After two semesters of advocating and representing those who were displaced, the organization evolved into STAND | One People, One Tribe. Our focus also evolved, as we strived to make an even bigger difference by building vocational schools and medical clinics in primitive villages in Africa.

Through our relationship with Gulu Hope, our country of interest became Uganda. Since the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) civil war ended in 2007, the country has been under a process of repatriation, meaning the internally displaced people (IDPs) were returning to their villages. This gave us a unique opportunity to give back to those who were returning to their destroyed homes.

Last spring, STAND’s more than 150 members, began a project called Adopt-A-Village. We are now working to raise $20,000 to build a vocational school, medical clinic, orphanage and a water well in a Ugandan village. We believe these four aspects will provide the basic foundations of survival and sustainability in primitive areas in Uganda and other parts of Africa. We hosted several spring events and were able to raise more than $5,000. That money helped us build our first vocational school in Gulu, Uganda.

Rodriguez visits with Ben Accelam (left) and Pastor Justin, who are in charge of Amazing Grace Primary School and the programs that STAND established in Mede. Mede is about three hours away from Gulu and is near the border of Chad and the Sudan.

Our dream of visiting Africa became a financial challenge. Despite much support from the UIW community, financial assistance for travel wasn’t available. So our group of students from UIW, Incarnate Word High School, Antonian College Preparatory High School and Gulu Hope members self-financed our two-week summer trip to Africa.

Upon arrival, the realization that we were among such resilient yet vulnerable people was very humbling. Besides building the vocational school, we also chose a village for UIW to adopt and did outreach in other villages. STAND group members took a hands-on approach to construction and worked in solidarity with the natives so they could learn how to build new facilities.

The feeling of working alongside people we have represented for so long was incredible. Everything we built was built by our hands; the construction of the school was a testament to that. Everything was hard, manual labor. What machines do in the U.S., our hands did in Africa.

A lot of people keep asking me “Did the trip change you?” My response is the trip molded me into a more mature, self-rooted individual. It made me realize what I want to do with my life: medicine and humanitarian work. I also learned to be more thankful for everything. I do not think many people truly understand or appreciate what they have in life. The people of Uganda taught me that family and faith are two of the most crucial aspects of anyone’s life. That is a lesson worth retaining forever.

Support the future of STAND
STAND | One People, One Tribe is planning new fundraising events to support Mede, the village in Africa that UIW adopted. If you would like to contribute to the program, visit www.guluhope.org/stand.

Sr. Martha Ann Kirk enjoys a feast in northern Iraq during her research study on peace building efforts by Muslims inspired by Fethullah Gülen.

Come enjoy the feast prepared with love.

As you taste a bite, be in awe of the billions of years of evolving life,

Cells to seeds to plants invited by the sunshine – each moment a miracle.

Our parents Abraham, Sarah and Hagar welcomed strangers because our infinitely generous and hospitable God welcomes us.

Though Peter had denied him three times, Christ invited Peter to dine with him.

All in those times, he knew an invitation to dine meant forgiveness, reconciliation, friendship.

God’s family is meant to dine together.

As I am nourished and renewed by the feast, am I welcoming the stranger?

Am I forgiving, reconciling, uniting and creating friendship?

Jesus would say, “I was hungry and you gave me no food”

Mohammed would say, “How could I sleep if my neighbor is hungry?”

As I am strengthened, am I remembering about every five seconds a child is dying of hunger?

Share the feast with love.

By Sherrie Voss Matthews

Carla Parker (from left), of the Medina Children’s Home, helped the Spare Change team, which included students Sam Mendez, Erika Rodriguez, Susana Deku and George Minitch, with their raffle that raised just under $1,000. Their corporate sponsors were Americus Diamond, Texas Shine Car Wash, the Wash Tub, Tesoro and Hewlett Packard.

At first glance, the evening class in Room 109 of the Gorman Building appears to be perfectly normal. About 20 students intently watch a video about accounting principles. Some take notes on computers; others jot down key points in notebooks.

The classmates are a mix of traditional and nontraditional students. It is what you might expect in an evening class on campus, but Dr. Tracie Edmond’s managerial accounting class is anything but ordinary.

These candidates seeking their Master in Business Administration from the H-E-B School of Business and Administration are studying accounting principles: You’ll see thick books about accounting on the desks and videos about top-down budgeting versus bottom-up budgeting during class discussions.

The difference is the topic of these class discussions.

Perhaps, dodge ball. Or how to gather sponsors for a raffle.

Dr. Tracie Edmond motivates her class by taking projects outside the classroom to help local nonprofit organizations with fundraising efforts.

Edmond, a third-year professor at Incarnate Word, has her managerial accounting students put the abstract principles of accounting into concrete practice. For the past four quarters, she has had her students develop fundraising plans for nonprofits.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to take the same concepts in class and use them with nonprofits?’ ” Edmond explains. “When students prepare a budget for a fundraising event, they have to put managerial accounting into practice. They have to do break-even analysis, budget-to-actuals, and plan.”

The planning starts from day one. Edmond assigns her students a nonprofit client, and then sets them loose. Each four-hour class is broken into traditional lecture and discussion. The class breaks into small groups to plan their fundraising efforts. Students give weekly presentations on how they met each target, keeping them focused and on track to hold the events.

Putting the theoretical into real-life practice is paying off.

Edmond’s nonprofit accounting class raised $1,900 for the Medina Children’s Home during the eight-week semester ending in May. Previous classes have earned $1,500 for the Women’s Global Connection, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, to help women in Africa start their own businesses. Another managerial class raised an additional $1,300 for a Women’s Global Connection water project, and yet another raised $2,300 for a battered women’s shelter.

While the students have raised an impressive amount for several good causes, Edmond was surprised by their self assessments.

“They always think they could have done more,” she said. “It really is amazing to see. The students are so creative.”

Susana Deku helped her team raise nearly $1,000 for the Medina Children’s Home.

Take dodgeball, for example. One student group in the spring decided to think out of the box and on the court. They asked a local dodge ball league to consider a tournament to benefit the Medina Children’s Home.

“We wanted to do something creative,” student Jennifer Boese explained. “It was easy.”

Tommy Waldrip’s group decided to follow a more traditional route. They planned a raffle. Most donations came from their existing contacts; cold calling was a bit more challenging.

In the process, they learned about hidden costs. At first, they didn’t take into consideration one of the hidden costs of event planning: time.

“You realize all of the small costs that would have been forgotten,” Brian Berner said.

The lesson learned by Edmond’s class went beyond traditional classroom teaching. They learned how to apply accounting principles to a real-world cause. While working to develop a fundraiser for a nonprofit is important, there is a more meaningful message being taught through this practical exercise. It illustrates to business students how they can share their time and talents with the world around them.

“Since we are a faith-based organization, the students each have God-given talents,” Edmond said. “I think the students as accountants don’t know how to utilize those beyond the certified public accounting exam. They don’t see how they can use these skills and talents to benefit themselves and the community.

Her class offers students something more than memorization and books. It offers them a chance to make a difference.

Sam Mendez prepares for the raffle his team designed as a fundraiser during Edmond’s managerial accounting class.

“I didn’t realize how much everyone is willing to help when you want to raise funds for a good cause,” Devashnee Rodrigue said.

Giving back gives the students something extra: excitement. It inspires them to come to class, even if they are exhausted, had a long day at work, or could otherwise be tempted to skip a night. When asked one evening, the class as a group admitted that when they registered for managerial accounting, they were unenthused about this required MBA course. Now, after working on their projects, they have a different point of view.

“It’s a lot more fun to work on a project for a cause,” Berner explained.

The practical component helps students comprehend abstract concepts, perhaps better than any book or lecture ever could.

“To tell you the truth, it is a very unique class that gives you a hands-on experience while you acquire knowledge at the same time,” Susana Deku said. “Even though we have not finished our syllabus yet, there are so many experiences and so much knowledge I have accumulated. I wish each MBA class at UIW would adopt this method of practical teaching because the more we try the things we are taught in the real world, the more it sticks in our mind and gives us a hands-on experience, too.”

Several nonprofit groups have asked for assistance from Edmond’s class. She is working to incorporate more organizations into future class projects. Her vision is for students to use what they learn in class to teach these groups how to improve their future fundraising efforts.

Susana Deku continued her volunteer work with Women’s Global Connection. See the story here.

By Ashley Festa

During a presentation in Dr. Lydia Andrade’s International Law class, a student explains the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) involvement in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. As she speaks, she off-handedly comments on something that happened “at the ICC, as we saw.” She’s referring to a recent trip by the majority of the class to the Netherlands to visit the court.

The cross-Atlantic trip was made possible through an exchange program between UIW and the University of The Hague in the Netherlands. Andrade departed March 13 with Dr. James Creagan, UIW distinguished professor, and 11 undergraduates to spend their spring break week in The Hague visiting UIW’s sister school, the International Criminal Court, the Peace Palace and other sites of importance to world justice.

The group flew to Amsterdam and took a train to The Hague. Their first day in Europe was spent sightseeing and exploring, and then they got down to business, starting at the U.S. Embassy. As a former U.S. ambassador, Creagan was able to take the group on an insider’s tour, Andrade said.

The students also had the opportunity to meet an attorney for the U.S. Criminal Court.

UIW students Liz Limones and Nazly De la Hoya stand in front of the Carnegie Peace Palace at The Hague. The Peace Palace is home of the International Court of Justice.

“Many of my students plan to go to law school, and they were like ‘Wow!’ This is what you get to do with a law degree?” Andrade said. “It was very cool for them to see it in action.”

At the International Criminal Court, the students observed a trial in progress. The case involved a former child soldier who was enlisted against his will, and was testifying against other men on trial. Observing an actual trial in progress, the students found the experience much more real than they expected.

“It’s not as emotional or personal when you read it, but being there, you get an understanding for those on trial describing what they’d done, the killings,” sophomore Liz Limones said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.”

The group also visited other poignant sites in the name of international awareness. In planning their trip, Andrade’s class requested the opportunity to visit a concentration camp.

“I was very proud,” she said. “We had been studying about (the) Nuremberg (trials) in class, and they wanted to visit a concentration camp.”

Before leaving, UIW’s Director of Counseling Dr. Keith Tucker helped prepare students for what they would see. Still, they were affected deeply at Camp Vught National Memorial.

“My stomach dropped when I got there,” junior Celine Perez said. “It’s a reality check. It’s not just history; it’s real, and it happened.”

Senior Joshua Ruiz recalled walking into the crematorium and seeing a table in the middle of the room. “The table still had blood stains on it.”

Ruiz also recalled the memorial built outside for all those who had died at the camp. Someone had put tar all over it, he said. A new memorial was built, but a few years later, the vandalism reoccurred.

The group of UIW visitors and international students enjoy some down time.

Now, he said, there’s a poem attached to the memorial. It’s written in Dutch and says hate is not forgotten; events might be in the past, but the people remember, he explained.

The students all agreed that their class prepared them with the knowledge of history, but seeing with their own eyes gave them more understanding than they could ever get out of a textbook.

“It’s just history in class, to read and hear it. But to go and see the courts, it’s like connecting the dots,” sophomore Leah Cascio said. “You don’t really understand what it was like before you get there.”

Junior Lisa Cadena agreed. “It’s intense and powerful to hear people tell their cases. More real than reading a book.”

“The ability to go and visit these places first-hand says more than you can ever pack in a lecture,” Andrade said.

Not only has the experience touched their hearts, it has also motivated their minds to make changes in the world. Several of the students are looking into future study abroad opportunities, jobs in Foreign Service and all are more appreciative of their own lives. Many are telling their friends about the experience and spreading awareness about atrocities that happen in other parts of the world.

Dr. Lydia Andrade poses in a giant wooden shoe in Delft. Wooden shoes, or clogs, are a symbol of Holland and were worn by farmers to protect against wet fields.

“It makes you want to make a difference in the world,” Perez said. “You’re aware of how close you are to things going on in the world. It makes things so real. I have a newfound appreciation for living in America. Now I’m looking into foreign service, like Ambassador Creagan.”

Back in class, Andrade points out that the mass killings in Rwanda were person-on-person violence; people were being murdered with machetes, not bombs. Thousands of people were wiped out in a single month. Andrade put the number of deaths in perspective, comparing them to about 1/10 of the San Antonio population being murdered. That’s also what the trip to The Hague did for these students – put their textbook readings and classroom lectures in perspective. And it really hit home.

By Rebecca Esparza, ’99 BBA, ’04 MBA

Peggy Pais comforts a 5-year-old Haitian orphan, awaiting the finalization of his adoption papers.

Kathryn Norton didn’t set out to change the world, but her simple idea of spreading Christian service would eventually have an impact on countless lives.

On Jan. 12, a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti, leveling buildings and killing an estimated 230,000 people. According to the American Red Cross, an additional 300,000 were injured and more than a million Haitians were left homeless.

Norton, a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) student in the final semester of her graduate nursing studies at the University of the Incarnate Word, could not sit idly by and do nothing. Reflecting on the school’s emphasis on social justice and community service, she decided to lend her talents as a nurse toward relief efforts in Haiti.

But missing 14 days of classes seemed impossible, so she asked her instructor, Irene Gilliland, about the possibility of receiving school credit for traveling to Haiti.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“If I could take all my nursing students abroad to practice nursing, I would,” said Gilliland, instructor in the School of Nursing and Health Professions. “Since she would be working with adults, we could make the trip count toward clinical hours. It was a win-win situation as far as I was concerned.”

Gilliland noted she has taken students abroad in years past to study healthcare in China, the Galapagos Islands/Amazon rain forest and Africa.

Not all of the medical team’s work involved patient care. Boxes of supplies needed to be sorted and put away. Many supplies were expired.

“Traveling to other countries allows nursing students to view patient care from a totally different perspective. We’ve sent three students to Haiti this year and more are waiting to be deployed,” she said. “Providing care in the United States is totally different from treating patients in Haiti. In addition to high volume of patients, language and cultural barriers, and few resources, you get little sleep, little food, and are not bathing regularly. It takes stamina and creativity to be effective.”

Norton said her training as a nurse and as a disaster response team member in Texas could not prepare her for the devastation she witnessed firsthand in Haiti.

“There is no running water there. The stench is overwhelming. When you see the locals preparing food, you know it’s contaminated. Everyone is living outside. They are people who genuinely need our help,” she said.

During her two weeks there she didn’t sleep much.

“We were living like the locals. Of course, we had cots to sleep, but the patients don’t stop coming just because you have to sleep. We were giving around-the-clock care.”

Rosanna Estrada has started the process to adopt two brothers from an orphanage in Haiti where she volunteered after the earthquake.

Norton’s travel was made possible by a sponsorship from Angel Staffing, a San Antonio-based medical staffing agency. She also recruited two fellow CNS students, Rosanna Estrada and Peggy Pais, to donate their time and skills in Haiti.

The trio traveled light, but took their own food so they could be self-sufficient while in Haiti, not depleting what few local resources existed.

“One large duffle bag was our luggage, which included baby wipes for bathing, a disposable toothbrush, Crystal Light to mix with local water, packaged tuna, beef jerky and dried fruit to make sure we had some nutrition,” Norton said.

The lack of infrastructure only compounded already stressful living conditions.

“Haiti does not have a sewer system, so the toilet water just drains out into the street. They are accustomed to contaminated water. We had to teach them not to cook with water that was contaminated. They were cooking with water from their toilet, which was making them sick and sending them back to the emergency room.”

Pais, set to finish her graduate work this summer, was also frustrated by the situation.

“There is no structure over there. There’s no sewer, no police, no jobs. That is why they are so poor, but they are very religious. They didn’t look at this earthquake as something bad, but something that brought worldwide attention to their living conditions.”

Kathryn Norton takes a break on her cot in the volunteer medical staff building where she stayed in Haiti.

On this her first international trip, Pais was taken aback by all the tents, especially the ones where patients had camped out in front of the hospital.

“Patients were screened by guards and only emergencies could be seen after 4 p.m. We treated a lot of patients for malaria and typhoid,” she added. “The locals were very appreciative of the care they were getting.”

But she knows things could get much worse.

“Hurricane season will be the worst because everyone is still living in tents. It will be years before they really dig out from all the rubble.”

For Estrada, the trip to assist the people of Haiti has taken the most life-changing turn: She is in the process of adopting two brothers, ages 14 and 10, from an orphanage she visited while there. She’s not married and wasn’t looking to adopt.

“One of the children asked me if I could be his mother, and my heart went out to him. Without hesitating I said yes, and I will try everything in my power to bring him home.”

Estrada, who has now been to Haiti twice and is preparing a third visit later this summer, was thankful for the hands-on experience she received for minor medical procedures like suturing and stapling.

She recalled an accident involving a vehicle that hit a treeand fell on numerous tents. Estrada helped treat the more than 60 people who were injured.

The people of Haiti and medical volunteers struggled to find clean water after the earthquake.

“It looked like one of those dramatic scenes from a medical television show. We were quickly triaging patients and moving to the next one, treating the most critically ill first.”

The hardships of bathing in a bucket, among other challenges, were all worth the sacrifice, Estrada said.

One case in particular attracted worldwide attention: a 13-year-old boy whose mother died on top of him under a massive pile of rubble.

“The weight of his mother on his arm was too much, and doctors had to amputate it, but it was a miracle he was still alive,” Estrada said.

Meanwhile Norton, the original catalyst of UIW’s efforts in Haiti, said it was a life-changing experience. One Haitian nurse’s personal tragedy especially touched her heart.

“Her home was destroyed and her entire family had been killed,” Norton recalled. “The job was all she had. She had nothing, just the clothes on her back and the chance to show up for work. We connected on a special level, from one nurse to another.”