Living Leo’s Legacy

As the calendar year comes to an end, students finish their term papers, take their final exams, and head home for winter break, we are as busy as ever at the McCarthy Center wrapping up a busy year of a record number of students participating in our programs. The calendar year culminates in the 2019 Annual Report summarizing the Center’s impact and accomplishments over the last academic year. David Donahue, the Center’s director provides his reflections in the introduction.

Living Leo’s legacy of commitment to public service and the common good, shaping the field of community engagement, challenging systemic oppression, sustaining the work for the long term with a strong network of supporters and friends. These are the directions of the McCarthy Center’s strategic plan. We just completed our first year implementing these directions and, as you can see from our 2019 Annual Report, they intersect through all our work.

These strategic directions respond to the enormous, existential concerns of community and politics as we head into the third decade of the twenty-first century. They also draw on the strengths of the McCarthy Center, the tenets of Jesuit education, and the values of our founder: Leo McCarthy’s genuine compassion and concern for the oppressed, his commitment to using institutions, including government, to make life better and more equitable, and his belief that education could prepare future leaders to serve the common good.

Thank you for your support as we build the future of campus community partnership for real civic impact and transformative student learning. We’re proud to present you with a description of our work in the 2019 Annual Report. For a hard look at our programs, our leadership, expertise, training and engagement success stories, email us at <mccarthycenter@usfca.edu> and request a copy of the Annual Report.”