continued from page 21
Marathon in March 2019. Hague, who started training in late 2018, was among a field of about 2,300 runners. He hoped to finish under 1:09, but never expected to win. He is an Oracle account manager for engineered systems and cloud technologies. Molly A. Matteson served as a Peace Corps health educator in a small rural village in Ghana from January 2017 to March 2019. During her 27-month stay, she worked with the local population to help reduce malaria incidents, improve child and maternal health, increase knowledge about HIV/AIDS and improve sanitation and hygiene. She is currently an African Scholar Fellow at Yale University.
Rev. Robert F. Carlton ’01 (above center) presiding at his first Mass at St. John Brebeuf Parish in Niles on the day of his ordination in May 2019
A Path to the Priesthood
R
EV. ROBERT F. CARLTON ’01 FIRST FELT THE CALL to the priesthood as a Rambler and then, later, during his undergraduate years at Georgetown University. In May 2019, he achieved that dream when he was ordained a diocesan priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago. “Through the priests that I had met [at Loyola and Georgetown], I saw how rewarding and valuable the life and work of a priest could be,” he told a reporter from Chicago Catholic, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, on ordination day. Fr. Carlton was also profoundly influenced by the military chaplains that he encountered while serving in the Navy on the USS Halyburton. The young naval officer came to believe that God was calling him to Celebrating the Sacrament of Ba do the same kind of work. ptism While teaching theology and English at Fordham Preparatory School in New York, Carlton spent a summer working at Ignatianum University, a Jesuit school in Krakow, Poland. In Fall 2014, he entered Mundelein Seminary. During his seminary years, he spent a summer working as a chaplain at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and visited holy sites in Israel. After his ordination in May 2019, he began a new chapter in his life as a priest for St. John Brebeuf Parish in Niles. “My first year of priesthood has been a great privilege,” Fr. Carlton says today. “By far the best part has been getting to know and working with people from all over the Archdiocese and learning from them and their stories.” 4
22
|
LOYOL A M AGA ZINE
Michelle B. Ricolcol is the marketing manager for the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park. Kathleen C. “K. C.” Stralka serves as the legislative liaison for the State of Illinois Department of Insurance. Previously, Stralka served as the assistant policy advisor to Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza.
2013
Jenna M. Bagley and Margaret S. “Maggie” Simons, both 2017 Santa Clara University (SCU) graduates, received the 2016–17 Markkula Prize from SCU’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics for their leadership in research and programming in applied ethics. Bagley, a former research assistant for the center’s Bioethics Program, investigated common ethical issues in the mental health field.
Markkula Prize recipients Margaret S. “Maggie” Simons ’13 (left) and Jenna M. Bagley ’13 (right) with Kristi Markkula Bowers
