Faith in Family

Like Cole Hepp, Elizabeth Clarke ’16 was immersed in Campus Ministry, going on service and immersion trips, interning in liturgy, and training student leaders.

“As a religious studies major, being a part of Campus Ministry let me bridge what I was learning in the classroom and live it out in concrete ways,” Clarke said. In fact, after completing the Master of Divinity program at Notre Dame, she hopes to bring her Campus Ministry experience full circle, doing some type of ministry at a Catholic university.

Clarke is not the only one in her family to have such a formative experience at the University of Dayton — her sisters Patricia and Katherine are recent graduates, and her youngest sister, Shannon, is in her third year at UD. “We’re all so different, but all had really wonderful, unique experiences at UD,” she explained.

What did their experiences have in common? “The Marianist charism and their mission to really educate the whole person was big for all of us,” Clarke said. So big that, this year, when their family had a chance to provide philanthropic support to the organization of their choice, they chose to donate to Campus Ministry, setting up the Ruth Wagner Ipavec Campus Ministry Endowed Fund, named in honor of their grandmother.

“We felt that the opportunities that could come out of this would allow students to recognize their gifts and talents and use them to go out and serve the world. We saw that in each one of us and wanted to give other students the chance to do the same.”