Editor's Letter

Everywhere we look as a community, we see challenges. This sentiment holds true not only for the Barry community, but for colleges and universities across the country. It’s easy to become so focused on those challenges and the opportunities they provide, that we forget the individual or smaller-scale achievements that when considered as a whole, can be awe-inspiring. At least that’s how we felt when compiling the stories for this issue of Barry Magazine.

As usual, we were focused on gathering the most interesting stories we could, the ones that would best reflect what’s happening on campus as well as the many achievements of our alumni. But in the process of doing that, we kept coming back to one central theme: service. Whether it is at home where Physician Assistant Joanie Kemsley ’04 is a “one-woman band” helping uninsured workers in Charlotte County, Florida, get medical treatment, or abroad where Jolene Mullins ’78 has spent the past three decades in 30 countries doing public health and community development work – the commitment to service by Barry alums struck a chord.

We are tremendously proud of the alumni featured in this issue as well as the atmosphere on campus that engenders a desire to be in service to something larger than oneself. It is a key component of Barry’s mission and one that continues to thrive. This is evidenced in our story on the doctoral students from the Institute for Hispanic/Latino Theology and Ministry who are filling the growing need for young lay leaders in the Hispanic ministry within the U.S. Catholic Church. And the message of service continues in our story about a group of students from the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law who travelled to New Orleans this summer to do pro bono legal work for the Orleans Parish Public Defenders and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Impressive as individual examples, when considered in its entirety, the service that Barry alumni, students, faculty and staff have rendered in communities at home and abroad is truly inspirational and does give us hope.

Paige Stein
Editor