Matteo Ricci students and faculty are deeply grateful to SU Humanities Alum Michael A. Morgan ’82, who recently made a leadership gift to Matteo Ricci and created the Morgan Family Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship, which will be awarded for the first time in Fall 2018, will provide support for a full-time student in the Matteo Ricci program who has demonstrated financial need. Michael established The Morgan Family Endowed Scholarship in memory of his family and their commitment to education. Michael earned his Bachelor’s degree in Humanities from Seattle University in 1982. Michael's father, Edward L. Morgan (Ed) believed strongly in the difference that education makes in a person's life. Ed started his higher education at the University of Washington, then withdrew from college to pursue a successful career in business. He encouraged Michael to pursue higher education, and later returned himself to complete his degree at Seattle University. As an older, non-traditional student, Ed graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration-Finance in 1983. Michael's mother, Ann Morgan, was self-educated. Her interests included health and fitness, personal finance, and travel. Michael’s sister, Marianne, received Master’s Degrees in European History and Comparative Religious Studies and taught at Portland Community College. With this scholarship, the Morgan family continues to invest in today’s youth.
This year's Distinguished Faculty Award winner is none other than our very own Dr. David Madsen! 
Congratulations to Professor David Madsen, PhD, for receiving SU's Distinguished Faculty Award this year. Dr. Madsen graduated from Seattle University in 1969 with a degree in Latin and Greek. He returned to Seattle U, this time as an assistant professor of Humanities at Matteo Ricci, in 1981. Dr. Madsen has been involved in the University Honors Program, both teaching and directing, and is a member of the History Department. He has acted as the Grand Marshall at commencement for the past 18 years. Dr. Serena Cosgrove '85, said of Dr. Madsen, "Every day that I teach I hope that I'm able to do for my students what he did for me decades ago.” Dr. Madsen and the other Annual Alumni Award recipients will be celebrated at a dinner on May 4.
(Photo by Alvin Sturdivant)
Matteo Ricci College faculty members met over the summer to design a revised MRC Core (the courses taken in common by students majoring in Humanities, Humanities for Teaching, and Humanities for Leadership). One goal of the proposed new MRC Core is to integrate courses thematically and to incorporate community engagement in a culturally sensitive way. In this photo, MRC faculty and administrators (Audrey Hudgins, Paulette Kidder, Emily Lieb, Becky McNamara, Jimmy McCarty, and Dan Washburn) join other SU faculty and staff in an immersion conducted by the Center for Community Engagement: "Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline," December 13-15, 2017.
This past quarter, senior Robin Lustig completed her Humanities for Leadership internship at a local law firm in downtown Seattle.
Hear about her experience below:
"My name is Robin Lustig, a graduating senior in the Humanities for Leadership degree. I specialize in Pre-Law and Strategic Communications. I have been working as a legal assistant at a family law firm in downtown Seattle for three years now. When it came time for me to select my senior year fall internship, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to take on a new, unique project responsibility at my job. I spent my internship creating a database of all of the final court orders for divorces in King County. For my project, I recorded every demographic detail of each party in an attempt to track potential biases of the court. I learned two key lessons during my internship: friendships in the workplace can be incredibly valuable, and not to be afraid to ask for projects outside of your scope of work."
For the first time, a Seattle University Ethics Bowl team qualified for the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship, which took place at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago on March 3-4. The team, led by Dr. Benjamin Howe of MRC, ended up placing 12th overall out of the 36 teams that competed, placing higher than schools such as the United States Naval Academy and Stanford University. Santa Clara University won the entire competition, and the Seattle U team was glad to see another West Coast, Jesuit university take the 2018 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl title. Congratulations to Dr. Howe and to Garrett Solberg, Hana Stodder, John Gavin, Samantha Fisher, Serena Oduro, and MRC students Caroline Lambert and Gavin Pandya!
Claudia Castro Luna, Washington State Poet Laureate, joined the faculty of Matteo Ricci in Winter Quarter 2018. Prof. Castro Luna is teaching HUMT 1510 (Composition, Language, and the Arts) for first-year students in Humanities and Humanities for Teaching. Her publications include This City, (Floating Bridge Press, 2016), "The Stars Remain" in the anthology This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home (Seal Press, 2017), and Killing
Marias: A Poem for Multiple Voices (Two Sylvias Press, 2017).
Christina Juarez has joined Matteo Ricci as Senior Administrative Assistant. Christina is an SU Alum (Sociology '09). She brings 10+ years of administrative experience to MRC and has served the community through organizations such as AmeriCorps, Mary's Place, and Real Change.