When the volunteer board of the Children's Therapy Center of the Quad Cities needed some expert help developing a long-term strategic plan, it got a willing assist from St. Ambrose Managerial Studies Department Chair Arun Pillutla, PhD.
"St. Ambrose has been a great partner to us," said Dan Donahue '74, the chairman of the Therapy Center board. "We already have had a great relationship and I think, going forward, it is going to get even stronger."
When the Quad Cities Chapter of Habitat for Humanity needed help with a home build or sought volunteers to assist with a fund-raising event, it found a ready workforce among SAU students, faculty and staff.
"They are amazing," said Dougal Nelson, the chapter's director of development. "Anytime we have an event, you can find a St. Ambrose Bee there."
Whenever. Wherever. St. Ambrose students, alumni, faculty, administrators and staff always have been ready, willing and exceptionally able to join the work of making their communities better.
More than just fulfilling a mission to enrich lives, these contributions also speak to a core commitment to integrity.
That is because, while the concepts of integrity and ethics can be learned in a classroom, they are best taught by example.
"We always know people pay far more attention to what folks do than to what folks say," noted Sister Joan Lescinski, CSJ, PhD, the university president. "What is it that St. Francis of Assisi said? 'Preach the gospel always. Occasionally use words.'"
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Not every act of integrity and service must be an entirely selfless one, and much of the work the St. Ambrose campus community does in and for the community-at-large brings the significant return of enhancing students' educations.
It is the proverbial "win-win," noted Sandra Cassady, PT, PhD, dean of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS).
The CHHS and its health- and education-oriented programs lead the way in partnering with community organizations, both in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
>At Jim's Place, the assistive technology showcase home on Brown Street in Davenport, occupational therapy students learn how to forge adaptive solutions that provide independence to the physically challenged.
>Through numerous action-oriented research projects within the Master of Social Work program, students identify ways to help local nonprofit agencies better serve their missions while also honing skills they will use in their future careers.
>There also are nursing outreach programs for nearby nonprofits; the Master of Speech-Language Pathology program's pro bono community clinic; and the hundreds of clinical and intern partnerships through which the MSLP, Master of Occupational Therapy and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs assist the work of nonprofit providers like the Children's Therapy Center-all of which, in turn, provide students supervised experiential learning.
"When we can benefit the community, but also provide a hands-on learning experience for our students, it is the best of outcomes," Cassady said.
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The College of Health and Human Services has a longstanding relationship with the Children's Therapy Center (CTC), where five of the center's nine full-time therapists are SAU graduates who first proved their abilities as CTC interns. In addition, the center's development office has been aided by marketing interns from the St. Ambrose College of Business in each of the past eight years.
"Our partnership with St. Ambrose helps us become stronger and our community become stronger, too," said George McDoniel, the CTC's executive director. "Certainly, services for children with disabilities become stronger."
Pillutla was impressed with the Children's Therapy Center mission and its results after Cassady referred Donahue and McDoniel to the Doctor of Business Administration program for strategic planning assistance. The initial hope was to find a DBA student to build a dissertation around their involvement in creating a strategic plan. When no students were immediately available, Pillutla joined the effort himself.
"What they do for children is very appealing," he said. "It is an organization in the community that is doing great things, and it turned out I could help. As a university faculty member, I see that as an important role."
Pillutla also serves on the board of directors of a local savings and loan, making him one of the dozens of St. Ambrose faculty, staff and administrators who help steer the important work of schools, churches, foundations, health providers, nonprofits and businesses in the Quad Cities and elsewhere.
This work typically is done without pursuit of recognition. In fact, many of the hours devoted to service by faculty and staff are not included in the hundreds of thousands of Ambrosian service hours that have earned SAU a place on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for five straight years. In 2014, St. Ambrose was elevated to the Honor Roll with Distinction level.
"One of the things at St. Ambrose University that resonates with me is that it is connected to the community, it cares about the community, it is in the community," Pillutla said. "When I visit another school, I always ask what they do in their community and I come away thinking that we seem to do more, we seem to do better."
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The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity certainly has a friend in St. Ambrose.
Sr. Joan supported the Habitat mission of providing home ownership to families in need long before she arrived at St. Ambrose in 2007. Here, she eagerly joined the work of a campus Habitat chapter chartered by students.
"As Ambrosians, we are all committed to helping people have a more dignified life," said the SAU president, who annually wields a hammer for the local chapter's Women Build projects. "It's all part of the social justice of our faith."
Habitat's Nelson said St. Ambrose students enrich his chapter's projects merely with the energy they bring. "It's kind of contagious," he noted.
More importantly, he said they wordlessly impart a message that may enrich lives years beyond their time at St. Ambrose.
"I see the interaction between our Habitat families' children and the St. Ambrose students," Nelson said. "The children look up to them and maybe for the first time think 'Gosh, I'd like to go to college someday myself.' We think that is a pretty cool thing."
–Craig DeVrieze
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