ALUMNI COMMUNITY

Alumni Community

A HUB FOR COMMUNICATION, EVENTS, NETWORKING, INVITATIONS, AND RESOURCES

DISCOVER / ALUMNI COMMUNITY

SSU after SSU — Our alumni creatively sharing our values in a world in need of hope.

This collegial space is devoted to amplifying the voices and continuing the connections of our SSU alumni. We hail from around the world to gather together here as a community that continues the work of justice, beauty, and compassion that was stirred within us through our season of studies at SSU. We carry those values onward personally, creatively, and vocationally but still long for a collaborative place to share ideas. We return now to invest where the genesis of those ideas inspired us to bring stories of hope to the world.

In order to facilitate alumni connection and the transformative values to which we aspire, we commit to foster a community that generously welcomes and includes conversations that hold differences with respect and openness for continued learning. We seek to do that through regular communication, community events, networking, resource-sharing, and invitations for investment in the future education for generations to come

Our Alumni Community Coordinator, Marisa Lapish, welcomes your interests and ideas: mlapish@ssu.ca

Introducing Marisa Lapish, SSU's Alumni Community Coordinator.

Marisa entered the St. Stephen’s University community through the online program of the Institute for Religion, Peace, and Justice (now JFI), completing her graduate certificate in 2020, and finishing her graduate degree at SSU with an M.A. in Theology and Culture with a focus in Peace Studies in 2022. Now she returns to serve and celebrate the SSU alumni community.

Click on the different tabs below for ways to stay connected.

STAYING CONNECTED

Communication is important to keep alumni connections alive and strong. Our regular email blasts will inform you of what is currently happening in our alumni community with invitations to participate in book discussions or other interactive forum; to read or share a story in our guest blog; to share your creativity in poetry, music, or visual arts; and to hear good news from other alumni. Read our most recent alumni email blast here or search through the archives to be enriched by previous updates.

Part of that communication piece is offering your own ideas for the enrichment of our emergent alumni community. What would you like to see included in our regular email blasts? Which books would you suggest for a book discussion? What global topics of interest might excite or challenge you to learn from others in a forum-type roundtable discussion? How would you like to network with other alumni? What types of stories, blogs or creative works would you like to see featured in our email blasts and webpages?

Our alumni community coordinator, Marisa Lapish, welcomes your communication and values your continual input. Please contact her at: mlapish@ssu.ca

CURRENT ALUMNI EMAIL BLAST

ARCHIVED EMAIL BLASTS

Did you miss or lose a previous email blast, or are you a recent SSU graduate and interested in continued engagement and participation in our shared values as an alumni community? Be enriched by reading through our previous email blasts for news and updates, ongoing community events, opportunities for networking, creative alumni-inspired resources, or ways to invest your time and finances to support the ongoing work of St. Stephen’s University.

ALUMNI BLOG

Each month will feature a different alumni (or faculty/staff member) who has been invited to share their perspective on a topic at the intersection of theology, peacemaking, and the arts for your contemplative consideration. We encourage the freedom of nonviolent expression that honours both the dignity of the communicator offering their gift and the empathic listener’s reflective response through thoughtful engagement in the comments. We are honoured to invite our guest bloggers from SSU’s deep well of integrated thinkers, prophetic writers, and contemplative creatives to challenge our varied perspectives.

ALUMNI BLOG >>

PARTICIPATE IN YOUR SSU COMMUNITY

Our alumni events are all about mutual interaction and participation in community. We seek to gather as a community of lifelong learners in “brave space” for high level engagement in uncomfortable and unavoidable conversations from a variety of theological and cultural perspectives. To promote informal continuing education in theology, peace, and reconciliation, we are offering opportunities for robust discussions in book clubs, for participating in forum highlighting global concerns, for collaborating in a research “think-tank,” and through forming special interest groups as they develop.

While we are just beginning this effort to build a transformative learning community of alumni, we decided to begin with a book club featuring authors who are SSU alumni or faculty/staff members. As alumni participation grows, we hope to add the aforementioned groups as we learn of your interests and desire for involvement. Your ideas for community events that connect with other alumni are welcome here.

ALUMNI BOOK STUDY GROUP

Each quarter we will feature a book authored by an SSU alumni or faculty/staff member for discussion with our book club. The book discussion will be hosted monthly on Zoom for three consecutive months with opportunities for engagement in between months with our SSU Facebook Alumni Book Club group. We will highlight the featured book, the author’s bio, a link for purchasing the book, and the scheduled dates along with the Zoom link prior to the first discussion period that quarter. Other reminders will be posted on the SSU Facebook Alumni Book Club group. Our hope is that as alumni participate, the authors will also join us on Zoom and on Facebook when they are able, and that together, we will discover creative ways to actively engage our communities on topics we discuss relating to theology, peace, and reconciliation

Book discussion details.

Peri Zahnd walked the Camino de Santiago, an ancient Christian pilgrim route that stretches five hundred miles across Spain, in the fall of 2016 with her husband, Brian. They did this on a Sabbatical taken after thirty-five years pastoring Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Every Scene By Heart is an honest and heartfelt spiritual memoir recounting the beauty and difficulties of the trek, the insights and personal transformations experienced, and the surprising gifts of the Camino de Santiago.

BUY THE BOOK >>

Thursday, June 6 th at 6 p.m. EST – Introductory Interview with Peri

Thursday, July 11 th at 6 p.m. EST – Book Discussion facilitated by Marisa Lapish

Thursday, August 8 th at 6 p.m. EST – Final Discussion and Thoughts on Pilgrimage with Shawna Lucas

— Links to join are provided below (scroll down)

About the author — Peri Zahnd

Peri Zahnd co-pastors, together with her husband Brian, Word of Life Church of St. Joseph, Missouri, the church they founded 42 years ago. Word of Life is a thriving local congregation with a significant online membership as well. She has a certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, which has helped her as she gives pastoral care to her congregation and others. She loves to lead small groups and is passionate about the Psalms, early Celtic Christianity, and the spiritual practice of pilgrimage.

Brian and Peri have led modern-day pilgrims on nearly 30 trips to the Holy Land. She has led women's trips there as well, with her friend Mercy Aiken, another SSU student. She received her M.Min. in Theology and Culture from SSU in May of 2023, and she and her husband were given honorary doctorates from SSU at a special service in Ephesus in April, 2024.

Book discussion links.

ZOOM LINK

Please follow the instructions to join the book discussion on this recurrent Zoom meeting link. Instructions and time reminders will also be provided on the SSU Alumni Book Club Facebook group page

ZOOM LINK PORTAL >>

FACEBOOK BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Follow this link to join the SSU Alumni Book Club on Facebook. In order to sign up, simply request to join the group, and you will be invited in. The Facebook group will provide ongoing opportunities for participants to share insights, questions, favorite quotes, and to interact with other alumni in the comments in between monthly book discussion meetings on Zoom. The facilitator (and sometimes the authors!) will also chime in! This will also be the space for book club reminders for chapter assignments, meeting times, and other community announcements.

FUTURE BOOK DISCUSSION

Stay tuned! We will be featuring books authored by our alumni and by faculty/staff this inaugural year on a quarterly basis. Expect the books and authors to be revealed in January of 2024 for our upcoming Spring, Summer, and Fall quarterly book discussion groups!

FUTURE BOOK DISCUSSIONS >>

JOIN THE FACEBOOK BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP >>

Archived book clubs.

MERCY AIKEN >>

STEVE MITCHINSON >>

WELCOME HERE TO WELCOME OTHERS

We will regularly spotlight ways to “gift forward” into the future through education—your own and another’s. Consider reorienting or enriching your own future vocationally through taking courses that you might have missed or might not have been available during your tenure at St. Stephen’s University. You are able to take classes for graduate credit or as an audit option for your personal growth and professional continuing education. We will also call attention to various ways of investing your financial resources to sustain the values of beauty, justice, and compassion at the intersection of theology, peace, and the arts as future priorities for the university. Your investments will anchor these values with wings toward a more hopeful future for generations to come

EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT

As a center of learning with an “anchored with wings” perspective, SSU offers diverse coursework across the spectrum of history, theology, philosophy, spirituality, psychology, peacemaking, and reconciliation. These courses may be engaged as single classes, in succession, or even audited for personal and professional enrichment. Consider registering for a new class in the upcoming module.

EXPLORE OUR PROGRAMS >>

COURSE LIST (FOR SINGLE COURSES) >>

FEATURED COURSE — MULTIFAITH CHAPLAINCY & SPIRITUAL CARE >>

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Your financial investments affirm the values that SSU holds for future generations of students. Please follow the link below to make a donation to support SSU’s students and the operations of St. Stephen’s University as a demonstration of your solidarity with an education that elevates the pursuit of beauty, justice, and compassion for the world.

GIVE TO SSU >>

INSPIRE EACH OTHER

Our alumni are creative, bright, and accomplished. The creative arts have a way of connecting our hearts prophetically to engage the pressing needs of the world. Our alumni are gifted prophetic writers, poets, musicians, and visual artists, and SSU has a long history of supporting the arts and intersecting the content of our programs with the arts. Here, we will showcase the artful and scholarly resources they are creating for your enrichment and support. Be inspired by the books, publications, poetry, liturgy, visual art, and music offered in this space.

We want to celebrate the creative projects of our alumni (and faculty/staff) by spotlighting featured resources on a regular basis. We hope to further inspire contemplation and creativity which will be generative for the flourishing of our communities—personally, professionally, and publicly. We will be adding categories as we go. Both published and unpublished items are welcome for consideration. Please contact Marisa Lapish at mlapish@ssu.ca with your ideas and submissions to showcase.

LITURGY OF LAMENT

Creating liturgy for our cultural moment is one form of expression to connect the reality of events and issues of our day with the longings of the human heart in search of divine Presence. Here we welcome those expressions of lamentation and celebration in ordinary time.

Click below for a downloadable Featured Resource created by alumni Amy Armistad and Marisa Lapish, "A Corporate Gathering for Lament."

DOWNLOAD 'A CORPORATE GATHERING FOR LAMENT' >>

'IN THE RUBBLE' by JOHN HATFIELD

IMAGO DEI — FEATURED ARTIST: VIRGINIA LINZEE

I see identity placement at the intersection of peace and justice, so when SSU invited me to share some of my recent artwork, it was interesting to see a conflict with my own identity as an artist arise. Does what I have to show currently represent me as an artist? Should that even matter? The egotistical part of me wants to show something deeply conceptual that is absolutely tied to issues of peace and justice that I care about---works I have created in the past or hope to in the future. What I have to show currently are commissioned portraits that beautiful, wealthy people paid me to paint. And yet, here in my reticence is exposed my own narrow judgment, ego, and truthfully missing the mark with my actual identity as an artist and hopeful peacemaker…one that truly enjoys seeing people and introducing them to others. How we get in the way of ourselves!

COMPLETE YOUR ALUMNI PROFILE BELOW TO STAY IN TOUCH AND COLLABORATE!

We are always collecting information for updating our alumni profiles so that friends can reconnect personally or professionally. Based on the data retrieved from the Alumni Profile Form below, we plan to organize information geographically, vocationally, and according to the varied special interests of our alumni. We want to develop a directory for use in helping alumni connect and collaborate with each other personally and professionally, and for hosting specialized gatherings in different regions around the world. Please help us begin this endeavor by updating your personal information for use in the Alumni Directory for networking purposes

ALUMNI PROFILE

Alumni Profile

Contact our Alumni Community Coordinator, Marisa Lapish.