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President's Blog: From the Heart

A Higher Calling

By Eric F. Spina

Kim Trick, assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Steve Wilhoit, English professor and associate director of the Learning Teaching Center, received the 2020 Lackner Awards, the University of Dayton's highest honor for the way they've made significant contributions to the Catholic and Marianist character of UD. Here are my remarks from the Feb. 21 awards dinner in the Kennedy Union ballroom.

Good evening!

I love everything about the Lackner Awards — the warmth, the hospitality, the delicious food, the lively conversations, the stories.

I’m especially touched by the stories, the ones written in the hearts of our recipients, both of whom have found a higher calling on our campus. Kim Trick and Steve Wilhoit know God’s purpose for their lives. They animate UD’s mission, often behind the scenes, with quiet faith, deep devotion, and steady dedication.

Can you imagine the number of lives the two of them have touched in nearly 60 combined years of teaching, advising, tutoring and mentoring? Thousands of lives. Literally thousands. And the lives those students have touched with their community building? The impact that they have achieved is truly inspirational.

UD’s record retention and graduation rates, now among the best in the country for comprehensive universities, can be directly attributed to the selfless work of Kim and Steve, who both focus squarely on student success.

Kim, thank you for your perseverance — and for modeling for our students what it means to persevere. It’s a testament to your tenacity that you earned not one, not two, but three, degrees from UD — completing your master’s degree as a young mother and defending your dissertation while eight months pregnant with your third child.

You model resolve and endurance for our students, whether it’s the ones you tutor through the Multi-Ethnic Education and Engagement Center or the student-athletes you mentor and support in your official role as the University's faculty athletic representative.

You’re particularly adept at building community across diversity by encouraging young women to pursue STEM degrees and helping first-generation college students succeed in the classroom. You communicate to our student-athletes that this is a university where values and integrity are important. Where values and integrity are paramount.

And, I might add, you do this work at all hours of the day (and night) on top of your administrative duties as assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Thank you, Kim, for your passion and commitment to student success. It does not go unnoticed — or unappreciated. You richly deserve this honor.

Steve, thank you for following in your family’s footsteps and becoming a teacher. That is your calling. Just ask your students who love your sense of humor, your passion for literature, and your patience in making them better writers.

Like Mary, you’ve said, “Yes.” Yes to directing TA training in the English department. Yes to serving as director of the writing program. Yes to developing a writing across the curriculum seminar for faculty through your work in the Ryan C. Harris Learning Teaching Center. And yes to serving as co-chair of the Vocation Implementation Team.

It’s one of life’s most persistent questions: How can we use our gifts and skills to help others and bring meaning and happiness to our own lives? While you help students find their voice through writing, you also help them find their calling in life.

The Marianists call this educating the whole person — the mind, the body, the heart, the spirit. You have inspired students, faculty, administrators, trustees — and me —to think about our vocations and to try to live lives of great purpose. The presentations you made at last summer’s President’s Council retreat and the fall’s Board of Trustees meeting reiterated the value of a University of Dayton education. We educate students to discern — and act — on their vocations in service for the common good.

Steve, we appreciate your life of service. Your genuineness. Your ability to help students find joy and purpose in their life pursuits.

The Lackner Awards are among the highest awards given at the University of Dayton for one very important reason. Our enduring character as a Catholic, Marianist university depends upon the dedication and faith of faculty and staff who ensure that we are always true to who we say we are.

Kim and Steve: you have answered that call — and we are forever grateful that you did. You inspire us by our passion and by the way you support the dreams of our students and of our university.

Congratulations – and *thank you*!

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