Last semester, one of Marywood’s former staff members and alumni returned, ready to make her mark.

Amy Fotta graduated from Marywood in 1998 and served as the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry from 2003-2010. Before Fotta returned to Marywood, she worked at the University of Scranton as their service coordinator. Her role there was to oversee and coordinate alternative break programs. She returned to Marywood in October as the new Director of Community Service and Social Justice. The position was formerly held by Ann O’Brien.

“It feels like coming back home,” said Fotta.

In her new position, Fotta is responsible for coordinating community service opportunities and connecting students and faculty in need with the various community programs on campus, such as NativityMiguel and Friends of the Poor.

Fotta also helped to bring back Advocacy Day, which is a campus wide initiative intended to highlight and celebrate engagement with the national and international community. Advocacy Day, which was renamed to Advocacy and Social Justice Day, was held on Nov. 10 and Fotta was responsible for coordinating the Advocacy Fair and the service forums.

Assistant Director of Campus Ministry Sister John Michele Southwick, IHM, who worked with Fotta before in the past, said that Fotta is eager to get to know the new faculty and staff as well as to reconnect with the community.

“She knows a lot of people out in the community, but she’s done a really good job of getting to know the faculty and staff here on campus,” said Southwick.

Fotta said she missed being at Marywood while she was away, explaining that she loved Marywood’s mission.

“I think the reality of living the mission is very true on this campus,” said Fotta. “It’s not just words. It’s action.”

Southwick also said that Fotta is ready to start back up with service trips for Marywood. This year, campus ministry is offering alternative break trips to Friends of San Lucas in Guatemala and the Tennessee Outreach Project (Mountain TOP) in Tennessee.

“We’re getting back into doing our regular service trips, which we haven’t been able to do for a few years,” said Southwick. “When Ann O’Brien was here, she got caught in the pandemic and wasn’t able to run the service trips we used to run. Amy’s ready to get back into doing that.”

Fotta also went into detail about her joy to be back on campus, and urged those who want to be more involved with the community to reach out to campus ministry.

“It’s great to be able to share about the work we do here, good to be back on campus, and [we] would like people to know that we’re available to support them in any way they want to get connected with the community,” said Fotta

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