2009 Award Recipients

[Pictured below, from left are: Professor John Cavadini (Department Chair), Brendan Shea, Greer Hannan, Michele Sagala, and Professor David Fagerberg (Director of Undergraduate Studies)]

Fr. Joseph Cavanaugh Award is given by the department to the senior who has evidenced high qualities of personal character and academic excellence in theological studies.

This year it goes to Brendan Shea, who is also is one of this year’s honors thesis students, writing on Faith and Happiness in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, advised by our own Joseph Wawrykow and Fred Freddoso. In addition to keeping an outstanding GPA in both theology and the university, and making the dean’s list every semester he has studied at Notre Dame, Brendan has done a summer service at the Stewart House in Columbus, Georgia, a home for people with mental illness, and been a religious education teacher at two South Bend parishes, and has even tried his hand at acting in a performance of Moliere in the DPAC. He is on his way to graduate school.

This Gertrude Austin Marti Award in Theology is given to a graduating senior who has given evidence of qualities of personal character and academic achievement in theological studies, and recognizes the successful combination of extraordinary service along with academic excellence. This year we are honoring two students with that award.

Greer Hannan is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and has been an outstanding student in the joint Philosophy-Theology major, having won an undergraduate research award in support of her senior thesis, and had two other international experiences: one an undergraduate travel grant from the Nanovic center to work as a volunteer teacher in Ukraine, and the other spending her junior year in Dublin. Her extracurricular activities fall into a number of areas. In liturgy, she has been a lector and extraordinary minister of communion, was a member of the Trinity College Dublin choir, and organized liturgies for Notre Dame’s Campus Ministry in Europe. In politics, she has been editor of The Rover, involved in NDResponse this year, a member of “The Phil” which is the oldest debating club in Trinity College, Dublin, and has worked as the undergraduate assistant for the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. In social justice, she has been a regular volunteer at the South Bend Center for the Homeless, member of the Violence Prevention Initiative on campus, and a volunteer at Youth Horizons in an economically disadvantaged area of Dublin.

Michele Sagala is a Theo major with a supplementary major in philosophy. She also is one of our senior honors thesis participants this year, writing with Jan Poorman on Sacramental Preparation with Individuals with Mental Disabilities – an Overview and Recommendations for Catechesis. That topic has remained a focus for Michele’s work outside the classroom. While still maintaining her GPA and campus activities, among them liturgical commissioner in her residence hall and working at the Campus Ministry office, she has been involved in the summers in internships at Misericordia, Heart of Mercy in Chicago, Illinois. Operated by the Sisters of Mercy under the auspices of the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, this center supports individuals with developmental disabilities. Michele has initiated sacramental preparation program there, and assisted with residential reports, and been involved with direct care of residents.