Reflections Magazine Issue #81 - Fall 2014 | Page 7

Campus Feature

Torch Bearers

Heritage Project Has Plan to Keep the Siena Heights Mission
Going through Future Generations

S

iena Heights University President Sister Peg Albert,
OP, PhD, knows that one day there may not be an Adrian
Dominican Sister on the SHU campus.
Thankfully, that day won’t be soon. However, President
Albert and the SHU administration recently put a plan in place
to help preserve SHU’s mission and heritage.
Thanks to private funding from a SHU benefactor, in January 2014 Sister Mary Jones, OP,
(left) was hired as the director of Mission Education and the Heritage Project. Her charge
is to create a program that will help carry on
the mission and heritage of Siena Heights—
as well as the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
“When I got the call from Sister Peg, I was actually involved
in discerning my next step in ministry,” said Jones, who had an
“eclectic” career as a teacher and in the automotive industry
before becoming an Adrian Dominican 10 years ago. “It was a
delight, because when I read through what her desire for the
position was, it really allowed me to use a lot of the gifts and
skills I had created and learned over the years.”
Jones, a Detroit-area native, was a former high school math
teacher before she was eventually hired by the Ford Motor Co.
as a program planner/trainer. One of her tasks was helping experienced line workers make the transition to using technology
in the workplace. She designed a program “from where they
were to where they needed to be.”
However, during her time at Ford, she said she felt called
to do something else. That “something else” was becoming an
Adrian Dominican Sister. And now, she is tasked to develop a
program that will help SHU students, faculty, staff, alumni and
friends keep the mission alive for generations to come.
“The mission is alive and well right now, but how do we
keep it that way no matter who is sitting in the seats?” Jones
said. “What can we put in place so the heritage continues?”
She is creating a three-level plan that will leverage technology to help people learn. Most of her materials are web-based,
and include videos and other visual learning tools to help
people through the program.

“If they have access through a web site, they are more than
welcome to participate,” said Jones, who also is looking at developing a mobile app. “The goal is for me to have 15 or 20 of
those little options that they can access through their phone
to really further develop their understanding of the University
community they know and love.”
She is also currently recruiting leadership to help drive
the program. The final stage is having “torch bearers” who
will not only become mission “experts,” but will also be able
to be its teachers after completing a three-year commitment.
“We need to have folks who are really on fire with the
whole heritage idea and what our mission is here,” said Jones,
with the “fire” referencing the dream St. Dominic’s mother
had at his birth that envisioned him as a “light of the Church.”
“We want to find those folks and give them a special name
‘torch bearer.’ And when they are d