We Are Called

Rockhurst students celebrating during Finucane Service Project

We Are Called

“You are called.” These words, carved into Rockhurst University’s iconic bell tower, come from the Rev. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., former Superior General of the Society of Jesus. It comes a 1997 address in which Fr. Kolvenbach calls on students of Jesuit institutions to engage with the world around them and to use their gifts and their knowledge in pursuit of the greater glory of God. The phrase is a reminder for all who pass by it to be contemplatives in action. As we recognize the inauguration of Sandra Cassady, Ph.D., as our 15th president, it is a sentiment that remains especially relevant today.

Rockhurst University, like the Jesuits, has since its founding adapted to the needs of the communities we serve. Rockhurst’s founders were called to establish an educational institution for young men in what was then the southern end of the city. Leaders were then called to welcome a new population of young veterans and their families following the second World War. We were then called to become a co-educational institution in the 1960s to provide opportunities to an increasing number of women entering college. And, most recently, we were called to help our community and nation fill the need for qualified, compassionate health care professionals, renovating our campus’s oldest building and welcoming the Saint Luke’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Dr. Cassady is called to lead this institution in its next chapter. We are called, each in our own way, to be a part of the project of transformative Jesuit education at Rockhurst University. We are called to make our community, our nation and our world a better place with our gifts. We are called to pursue true knowledge in the spirit of the core value of wisdom. We are called to seek justice, to pursue peace, and to always strive for the greater glory of God in the spirit of the value of “magis,” no matter where our future may lie.