A Letter from Ceyl Prinster (ND '76)

Dear Friends of the Center for Social Concerns,

As 2003 draws to a close, I would like to reflect on how life has a way of coming full circle, and how my Notre Dame journey that began 30 years ago has continued into the present through my daughter, who is now actively engaged in the Center for Social Concerns.

I was a member of the first class of Notre Dame women that started as freshmen in 1972. That year, the Vietnam War was raging and the Women’s Liberation Movement was in full swing. A violent civil war in Bangladesh was driving millions of refugees out of that country, creating a holocaust of famine and misery that filled the news with graphic pictures of emaciated children.

Student activism was high. At Notre Dame, there were retreats and discussions about the problems of the day, but students like me wanted to make our voices heard, get involved, and do something to help. Conscience compelled us to action, but since there was no central organization or office that sponsored social justice activities, our efforts were infrequent, haphazard and not very well coordinated. Nevertheless, we did our best, and the ND World Hunger Coalition was one outcome of our efforts. I think those days marked the beginnings of the diverse range of social concerns programs at Notre Dame and the germination of what later became the Center for Social Concerns.

After graduation, I moved to Colorado and became involved in the Notre Dame Club of Denver. In 1983, I learned that the newly-formed Center for Social Concerns wanted to partner with alumni clubs to sponsor Notre Dame students who would do service work in the local community. To me, this was an essential component of what Notre Dame was about -- caring for the less fortunate among us -- and the Summer Service Project was a way we could help both our community and a Notre Dame student. Denver became one of the first clubs in the country to host a Summer Service Project. Today, our Club is still involved in the SSP, sponsoring four students each summer, and alumni service activities are now a key part of the Club’s mission.

Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the beginning of co-education, my daughter Megan Sheehan enrolled at Notre Dame. Having grown up in a Notre Dame family (my husband is also an alumnus), she was raised with the idea that service is an important part of life. She has wholeheartedly immersed herself into the outstanding service opportunities at Notre Dame and the Center for Social Concerns. I am proud to say that in just a year and a half, she has done two Appalachia trips and a Summer Service Project. She has applied for an International Summer Service Learning Project in Honduras and a spring semester project in Chile. She organized a clothing drive in her dorm, and with the help of the Center, delivered over 700 items to a battered women’s shelter in South Bend. I am grateful she has a place where she can access such wonderful learning opportunities, and hope that I may have played a small role in helping it come to be.

I believe the Center for Social Concerns has been instrumental in raising the bar for Notre Dame’s commitment to service and social justice as part of the mission and values of the University. In these times when power scandals, greed scandals and sex scandals seem commonplace, the Center is more relevant than ever as a locus of conscience for the leaders of the future – Notre Dame Students. It provides the spur to action for the spirituality and reflection that characterize Notre Dame, completing the triad of soul, mind and will to “do good” in the world. In the shadow of the Dome, we should expect nothing less.

I hope you will support the Center for Social Concerns and its base of programs that provide such valuable service learning opportunities.

Ceyl Prinster, ND’76

Executive Director of Colorado Enterprise Fund, a non-profit community development financial institution. Married to Dan Sheehan, ND ’74, three children: Megan, ND’06, Brian (age 18) and Bradley (age 15).