Heart and Soul of the Newman Center Takes Flight

Amidst the constant motion and the frantic pace of a large university stands a quieter place called the St. Thomas More Newman Center. Sister Rosemarie Maly, Associate Director, sees the Center as a “home away form home for the students, where they feel they belong, find support and feel connected.”  Sister Rosemarie began her ministry at the Newman Center in Vermillion, SD, in August of 1992.  She responded to a call “to look into the position”, and found she was immediately “at home” there, and that it was a chance to serve young college men and women in a Christian setting.  After 8˝ years ministering at the Center, a colleague describes her this way:  “Sister Rosemarie embodies the heart and soul of the ministry here at the Newman Center.  She is a smile and an open welcome to every student who walks through our doors.  Her ministry is one of hospitality and presence – a Benedictine through and through.”

Each year, students, staff, and personnel are given the opportunity to participate in an alternative way to spend Spring Break.  "It is an experience I will treasure forever,” says one student participant. Since 1988, hundreds of students and staff have participated in service projects throughout the country.  Sister Rosemarie organizes the Spring Break Service Project, thereby giving students opportunities for concrete acts of service, meeting and interacting within another cultural setting, and participating within the wider mission of the Church.  Did this experience change lives?  Listen to the comments:  “One week in the second-poorest neighborhood in Chicago turned out to be one of the richest experiences I’ve ever had” (The Port).  “Each one of us was touched in a special way by the people we met, and the land on which they live” (Pine Ridge Reservation).  “Sister Rosemarie,” a co-worker stated, “is a spiritual guide and mentor, and an example of how to live one’s Christian commitment in everyday life.”

For a few hours each week, Sister Rosemarie lives her Benedictine values in another way – she gains a taste of the skies by flying a Cessna 172 four-seater.  She is following a lifelong dream, made possible by a Mount Marty College Board Member, who decided to provide lessons for her to pursue her pilot’s license after hearing about her dream.  Sister Rosemarie says she finds flying a religious experience.  “In our day, when we are simultaneously bombarded with multiple stimuli from every direction,” she says, “we tend to attempt to do two or three things at one time.  Flying keeps me aware of the importance of focusing on what I’m doing in this moment – when I fly, I fly.”