FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

Congratulations are in order to all of you for the hard work you have undertaken this academic year. You have challenged yourselves, and many more challenges await you on the horizon. I have no doubt you will meet them in the spirit of Marquette’s mission. For those of you returning next fall, we eagerly await what you will bring to our campus community, and for those of you embarking on your journey beyond Marquette, we hold great hope for what you offer the world. We are counting on you to “Be the Difference.”

Be the Difference: these are not mere words, and they should not be taken lightly. We are all charged with this challenge. Those of us who remain at Marquette will work diligently to make this so on campus. Those of us who are departing must work mindfully to take what we have learned—our sense of community and social justice, our compassion and empathy, our privilege and power—to the spaces we will encounter next. This is no easy task, but you have acquired many gifts and talents, and you have developed those gifts and talents you brought to Marquette those few short years ago, gifts and talents you can use to make our world the place we know it can be—a world where people encounter other people with our fullest humanity. We are all, as Emerson says, part and parcel of the whole.

I am extremely proud of our graduates, and I look forward to when our returning students will also walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. I wish you all a restful and replenishing summer. I look forward to what all of you will bring to the world within the coming months and beyond.

Student leadership awards

The Division of Student Affairs presents leadership awards annually to recognize student contributions to the mission and activities of the various student affairs areas. Students are nominated by staff from the division and throughout the university and are selected by a committee representing each of the student affairs departments and Campus Ministry. Awards are presented at a program held each year in April. Read more about the student leadership awards.