Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
Fr. Jeff Sullivan, SJ, graduated from Creighton in 2003 and didn’t have any thought that he’d be back.
So, when he returned to campus as a Jesuit in 2018, Fr. Sullivan said on the latest From the Mall episode that there was a moment where he questioned his path. Why was he called to Creighton?
“I went from volunteering in Ecuador and on a reservation, to working in our traditional high schools and now here at Creighton,” Fr. Sullivan said. “But it’s amazing what God's wisdom is. It makes sense in that, aside from my parents, I feel most formed by Creighton University. And the type of Jesuit I am is because of Creighton.”
What type of Jesuit is Fr. Sullivan?
He shared more on his approach to his role on campus and the appreciation he has for Creighton’s rich tradition of Jesuit impact and influence on students. Scroll down to read a snippet of the conversation.
Listen to the full From the Mall episode to learn more from Fr. Sullivan, including:
- How he spends a typical day on campus
- What he’s noticed about Creighton’s growth over the years
- How he tries to help students grapple with life’s “heavy, deep and real” questions
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The following questions and answers have been edited for space and clarity.
What do you appreciate the most about being on a college campus to mentor and serve students?
I feel like the value I provide is not being an administrator or a wonderful teacher. It's just being a person who's here, being with students. Many of them are being confronted with these questions of, “Who am I?” And, “What am I going to do with my life?” College really necessitates, and there's a lot of pressure.
“Am I going to be a doctor? Am I going to be a lawyer? How am I going to make money? How am I going to have a family?”
And even me saying that, I feel the intensity and weight of those questions on them. They’ll go on a retreat and actually, for the first time, ask a question like, “What am I doing with my life?” Or, “Who am I becoming? Do I actually enjoy this? Whose dreams am I living out? What types of relationships do I find most valuable?”
What I provide in my goofy sort of way is a place of safety where students don't feel the weight of those questions that maybe an institution might be asking or an admissions board might be asking. They are able to rest in those questions. That's a privilege I get to do by having this job. Certainly, I run retreats and there's administrative responsibilities, but the real magic where I feel like the Spirit shows up is just in the conversation that I have with another.
One other anecdote I could add is I feel a little bit like a dad that needs to show up for things. I need to show up for all the events and go to all the games and be at all the things to let people know that they matter. It matters to students, showing up.
On campus, you’ll engage pretty much with anyone, especially students. Is that just natural for you? I mean, seriously, before recording this podcast today, you were sitting there talking to a student. And another student walked by and called you “Sully.”
Maybe that's the problem that I have. I can never seem to get anything done. But I would say that started when I was a student here at Creighton. I used to sit on the benches out on the lawn, and I remember my friends joking, “Is all you ever do is just sit and read books and talk to people?”
That’s something I would say, to be honest, that got away from me a lot until I came back here to Creighton. I think that while Creighton necessitates a sort of doing and achievement, I do feel like people are willing to stop and make time for each other. The rocking chairs on the front steps of Creighton Hall are significant for building community. I think even the structures of some of these buildings allow for that. Students really want to engage, and I feel like I want to engage.
It's also a turning point in my life as a Christian. I thought to be a good Jesuit, it meant that I had to achieve, or that a good Jesuit is in charge of a certain work, or a pastor of a parish, or a president of a high school. And people will ask me, “What are your dreams for yourself?” I used to have these great dreams, and I think that even I felt the pressure that our students feel of, thinking that a good Jesuit is successful.
I don't think that that's actually true. I think a good Jesuit is one that loves God and loves God's people. And while that sounds really cliche and simple, it's really hard to live.
I would like to say that's my natural posture, but the students actually evoke that out of me and call me into it by saying, “Can you just stay and talk with me?” I wish I would say this is my way of being. I think it's been coached into me and it’s me responding to students and what they really need at this point in their life.
On a lighter note, the rocking chairs are really cool.
They are really cool.
Is that where you like to hang out most on campus?
I wish I did more, but I do. I find it fun. I find it fun to walk up there and to sit with students or to tease.
You probably spend a lot of time in your new residence as well, the Jérôme Nadal, SJ, Jesuit Residence. Speaking of a place of community, that seems to sort of invite that same sense. It’s a really beautiful building.
I do feel like the future for us as Jesuits is to really use this beautiful space as a place of hosting because we're not like we used to be where we had 60 guys out everywhere. I think we're actually going to have to bring people into that space and to have lunches and dinners and to use the chapel to pray with and for people. It's going to be a change, whereas we used to go out. We’re having to learn how to invite people in and to use the house as a way of building community.
I'm really hopeful and excited about the potential of this new community, especially as we learn how to use it as a way of being hospitable and bringing people in from the community and sharing stories.
For those who haven't been inside. Do you have a favorite spot?
Yes, it's a really niche part of the building. It's in the chapel. The chapel is, for those that haven't seen it, it's about 270 degrees of glass all around. And there's a nook in the northeast corner and it looks down on North Omaha.
I guess I never realized how steep that hill is, and I didn't realize how green Omaha is as a city. And then you look, and you see how far it stretches. It reminds me of how large the city is and our response to go into the greater world. And similarly, that chapel, you look and it's all glass. And I like to say it invites us to, as we're praying and standing at the altar, to look out to Graves Hall, to look out to the Harper Center, to pray for the students.
I haven't thought about this much, but the new Jesuit Residence invites us to look out — it was jokingly said that there's so many windows that people can look in. But it invites us actually to look out into the world in which we're called to serve.
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Listen to more From the Mall.
