Magis Moment: February 2023
A Message from the Vice President of University Advancement听
I didn鈥檛 want to work at a university.
At least that was true when I was 25 years old, in my third year of graduate school at the University of Virginia, in my seventh straight year in a university after four years at Loyola. I was tired of universities. After finishing my Ph.D. coursework the next year, I got my wish and started my first job at Archbishop Hannan High School in St. Bernard Parish.
I loved teaching high school students, and I did so for a decade. There are many exhausting days for classroom teachers, especially in one鈥檚 early years doing it, but there are many rewards too.
Every now and again, past Hannan students let me know that they learned some things in my classes. For some it was the content we discussed in Civics or English or Religion; for others, it was learning a new way to think about an issue, or maybe even a memory of a specific class discussion.听
Teaching is not for the faint of heart, and often you don鈥檛 know in the moment if you are making any difference at all. That鈥檚 why getting even a little evidence from past students that their time with me mattered means the world to me.
This month, we're giving alumni a nudge to contact favorite past Loyola professors, faculty, and staff and let them know that their work back in the day mattered.听
Share a fond memory or note of gratitude with us , and we'll share the love with the individual(s) whom you're grateful for.听
If my words on this aren鈥檛 convincing enough, I want to close by sharing the words of a master, the journalist Christopher Hitchens. At the end of his life, battling esophageal cancer, he offered this advice in his memoir, Hitch-22:
If there is anybody known to you who might benefit from a letter or a visit, do not on any account postpone the writing or the making of it. The difference made will almost certainly be more than you have calculated.
I鈥檝e come a long way from when I was 25, and now I鈥檝e spent 18 years working at the university I love. I can verify that if you have a couple of minutes, an email or call to one of your former professors will mean more than you can possibly know.
础惭顿骋,听
Chris Wiseman '88
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