Faith in action

Students pushed every table in the room into a tight square so they could talk with one of the world’s leaders in human rights, asking what has sustained her work through 40 years. 

“This is ultimately what this is about — love and being with people,” said Kerry Kennedy, president of the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, named for her father.  

Kennedy was on campus April 24 to receive the Oscar Romero Human Rights Award, presented annually by the University of Dayton Human Rights Center. 

“My experience is it’s very hard to change the world, but it’s changing, so you better work hard and get in there,” she told students and young alumni in a special session before the evening’s award ceremony.  

Created in 2000, the University of Dayton Romero Human Rights Award recognizes those promoting the dignity of all human beings and alleviating human suffering. It honors the ministry and martyrdom of Saint Oscar Romero, a Salvadoran archbishop slain while celebrating Mass because of his vocal defense of the human rights of the poor and disenfranchised.

Kennedy shared how her Catholic upbringing and childhood witness to social justice advocates from the Civil Rights Movement to the farm workers association formed her life’s work. 

“I came to understand the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as faith in action.”

“I came to understand the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as faith in action,” she said, referring to the 1948 United Nations document on fundamental human rights to be universally protected. 

Students shared with Kennedy their own human rights work, from supporting local immigrants to advocating for demining in Laos and Cambodia. Many also contributed to UD’s newest Moral Courage Project, At the Root: Policing and the Right to Protest, which centers on the Stop Cop City movement. The exhibit debuted that evening.

Senior Aila Carr-Chellman asked Kennedy about ways they should consider applying lessons from their Marianist education to human rights work. 

“Gratitude, love, understanding and clear action — we need all of those,” Kennedy said.

The ideals of fairness and justice drive her work, she said, pointing to dozens of strategic cases her organization pursues internationally in partnership with local defenders. One verdict, for example, required the government of Guatemala to coordinate with the police, courts and educational system to investigate and eliminate violence against women. 

As she looked around the tables, Kennedy challenged the Flyers sitting there to imagine the world as they’d like it to be. 

“And then,” she said, “go and try to make it happen.”

A version of this article appears in print in the Summer 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 16. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE