HELENA - Carroll College has recognized Monica Suek for her exemplary commitment of service by awarding her with the Raymond G. Hunthausen Outstanding Collegiate Citizenship Award. The selection committee chooses students who work to improve the lives of others through their own unselfish commitment of time, energy and compassion. Rachel Bechtel, a rising senior from Moscow, ID, and Sydnee Nowlen, a rising junior from Missoula, MT, were honorable mention recipients.
Monica Suek, from Valier, Mont., graduated this May with a degree in nursing. Throughout her time at Carroll, she has been faithfully engaged in a number of volunteer activities. She was active in the Helena community through Helena Food Share, Good Samaritan Ministries and Thrift Store, the Montana Veterans Department and Prickly Pear Land Trust. She also took time to visit residents at Rocky Mountain Care Center and other local nursing homes. She has also been very involved in the faith community assisting with retreats through Campus Ministry, serving as Mass coordinator, volunteering on the Catholic Women’s Conference Committee through the Diocese of Helena, as well as other events for the Cathedral of Saint Helena. During the spring semester of 2017, she traveled to Chicago with Campus Ministry where she served the community alongside the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist. In addition, she traveled abroad over this past winter break to Quito, Ecuador, with five other nursing students where they learned about global health and served in the indigenous population for two weeks.
In her nomination letter, co-signed by ten faculty and staff members, it stated, “Monica always has a smile for everyone and her kind heart and generous nature are expressed to the patients she encounters as a nursing student as well as the many people she has encountered through her many volunteer activities. As a nursing student with heavy curricular obligations including 12-hour clinicals, it is remarkable that Monica has continued to find time to dedicate to these diverse service activities while still maintaining excellence as a student.”
This prestigious award for community service, presented to deserving students who make outstanding contributions to the college or a community, has been a Carroll tradition since 1986. The award was named for Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen because of his exemplary commitment to peace and justice in his personal and professional life and his strong pastoral care for all people.