Our history. Our Moment. Our vision to be the finest.
Faculty excellence drives the successful outcomes for students and the St. Mary’s University community. The short story and quotes below illuminate how faculty members continue to shine through gifts to The Defining Moment Comprehensive Campaign.
Professor’s dedication to students pays dividends
Todd R. Hanneken, Ph.D., Chair of the Theology Department, described the “Defining Moment” as “every moment we go out of our way to do more than the minimum or more than our jobs require to help students.”
He recently helped an 88-year-old student, who wasn’t previously able to finish a degree program. “She doesn’t have a computer and she doesn’t live in San Antonio. We said, ‘This is someone who wants to know what we have to teach, and we’re going to accommodate the student.”
For another student, a veteran who wanted to study Theology, Hanneken worked to see if the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would fund studying Theology at the graduate level. “For that student, it was a big step in his career.”
Quoted
“My life was transformed because a St. Mary’s professor saw in me more than I saw in myself, and cared enough to spend the time necessary to get me to see my potential. The most rewarding aspect of my job is being able to play a part in the transformational process our students undergo here. To assist our students as they develop into promising young professionals and genuinely good people is an honor that I never take for granted.” — David Sommer, Ph.D. (B.B.A. ’89), Charles E. Cheever Chair of Risk Management
“I’ve been all around the continent, to places like Montreal, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and New Orleans for conferences and competitions. I always come back with a different perspective. I feel like I have to give back to others now.” — Rudy Martinez, Finance and Risk Management senior from Laredo
“Our professors and donors to the Risk Management Student Success Fund, Tom and Leti Contreras, have helped instill that sense of, ‘I can do this.’ I feel ready and confident to make a difference in the world.” — Olivia Bachelet, Finance and Risk Management senior from Colorado
“I enjoy the diverse faculty’s backgrounds. Seeing people from around the world in the Greehey School of Business showed me how broad St. Mary’s is.” — Fernanda Sandoval, Finance and Risk Management senior and Greehey Scholar from El Salvador
“The Defining Moment is believing what is possible, seeing the little light bulbs go on and realizing all the things we talked about are real.” — Alicia Cordoba Tait, D.M.A., Beirne Director of the Center for Catholic Studies and Professor of Music
Read more about what the campaign means to our students and faculty through these stories:
The gifts of The Defining Moment Comprehensive Campaign have already made a huge impact on student success. Students and faculty share their paths to success through the short story and quotes.
Find out how our students and faculty have followed their passions to find academic and research distinction with help from the gifts of The Defining Moment Comprehensive Campaign through the short story and quotes.
During high school in India and with her family, Sunitha Jenarius (B.S. ’06) remembers teaching math, science and English to young girls in slums. “The high school I went to was run by nuns,” Jenarius said. “Every Friday, we brought onions and potatoes to the people living in the slums.”
Jeddidah Thotho (B.B.A. ’98) is as self-assured stepping off a global planning call for Bata Shoe Kenya PLC — the country’s largest footwear company — as she is stepping into her favorite pair of Bata Comfit boots to care for her two children.
For some St. Mary’s University students, like Management major Nadia Carrasco-Vasquez, who graduated this May, owning a business is a lifelong dream — in her case, since childhood days in her mom’s coffee shop in Arizona.
In 2019, Associate Professor of Environment Science Melissa Karlin, Ph.D., began collecting samples of coyote scat in select Texas regions, hoping to discover a genetic link to a critically endangered animal: the red wolf.
