February 06, 2024
Providence College honors student, two alumni with MLK Vision Awards
By Michael Hagan ’15, ’19G
Providence College presented Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Vision Awards to an undergraduate student and two alumni at a prayer luncheon celebrating the beginning of Black History Month on Thursday, February 1, 2024. First awarded in 2018, the award recognizes individuals and groups who exemplify the teachings and spirit of Dr. King.
This year’s recipients were Colby Brown ’24, co-founder of the Rhode Island chapter of First Generation Investors, which teaches high school students about finance and investing; Kerri Murray ’95, president of ShelterBox USA, a nonprofit that provides emergency shelter kits to displaced people around the world; and Rev. James Ruggieri ’90, pastor of two Providence parishes and founder of St. Patrick Academy, which provides a Catholic high school education to students whose families could not otherwise afford it.
“Each of these great Friars brings credit to Providence College,” said College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G. “Dr. King’s life should inspire us, and so should the example of our students, including those here today who challenge us and motivate us to pursue a more just and inclusive society — the beloved community of our aspirations.”
Colby Brown ’24: Youth financial educator
Brown, a management major and sociology minor from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is a tutor for First Generation Investors’ eight-week financial education program at Nowell Academy, a public charter high school in downtown Providence serving pregnant and parenting young adults. After graduation, he will study for a master’s degree in social entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, focusing on business education and social impact.
“There are so many students and alumni who deserve this award for their high-impact work,” Brown said. “Educational disparity is at the root of many issues in America today. As students, we have an implicit responsibility to share the resources we’ve been fortunate enough to receive.”
Brown is secretary of Friars Club, the college’s premier student service organization; a member of the Academic Affairs Student Advisory Council; and a peer mentor in the School of Business. Through internships, he has advocated on behalf of people with disabilities on Cape Cod and designed DEI mentoring programs for working professionals. Through his sociology research, he makes strategic recommendations about how the college can enroll and better support students of color from the Providence area.
Kerri Murray ’95: Global humanitarian leader
The emergency shelter items provided by ShelterBox USA include water purification kits, blankets, solar lanterns, tents, and more. Murray’s work with ShelterBox has led her to conflict and disaster zones in Morocco and Ukraine. Under her leadership, ShelterBox has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Running toward devastation when most others would run away, you bring hope that wins against despair, light that pushes away darkness,” Father Sicard read from the citation honoring Murray.
Murray described mass displacement as one of the gravest humanitarian crises facing the world.
“There are more people displaced in our world than any time in recorded history … What’s driving global displacement today is violent conflict,” Murray said. “At ShelterBox, we focus on basic essential needs. What are the things you need to sustain your life if you lose everything in an instant and are forced to flee your home?”
Seventy five percent of the displaced are women and children — “and that number is growing every single day.”
Before ShelterBox, Murray was a leader in healthcare at GlaxoSmithKline, where she worked on vaccines, women’s health, anti-infectives, and cardiovascular health. At PC, she worked for the Rhode Island Public Defender, taught English as a second language, and was a lobbyist for Save the Bay. She grew up in Naugatuck, Connecticut, and resides in Santa Barbara, California.
Rev. James Ruggieri ’90: Catholic education leader
When St. Patrick’s parish school on Smith Hill in Providence was facing potential closure in 2009, Father Ruggieri led the founding of a reimagined St. Patrick Academy with a radically inclusive business model — a Catholic preparatory high school with no set tuition, welcoming students whose families could not otherwise afford to enroll at a Catholic school.
St. Patrick Academy enrolls a maximum of 100 students grades 9-12, 25% of whom are first-generation immigrants. PC’s Class of 2027 includes six St. Patrick’s graduates.
“We are working with a business model that makes no human sense and seeking to create opportunities for our students, 95% or more of whom will be first-generation college students when they graduate,” Father Ruggieri said.
He acknowledged the hundreds who are part of a vast network of partners in ministries of food assistance, Catholic education, catechesis, and evangelization. He related this network and the communities it serves to Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in which Dr. King described humanity as “caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
Father Ruggieri described his ministry’s roots in the teachings of Pope St. John Paul II, who taught that the God-given gift of self-determination distinguishes human beings from other animals.
“Youth need the space, the freedom, the opportunity, and the tools to become the men and women God made them to be,” Father Ruggieri said.
Father Ruggieri earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from PC and a master’s degree in theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore. He was ordained a priest in 1995. He has been pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish since 2003 and also was named pastor of St. Michael’s Parish in the Elmwood section of Providence in 2020.
Students perform at luncheon
Introductions were led by Satoya Isophe ’24 (Malden, Massachusetts) and Juanjose “JJ” Cabrera ’26 (Lawrence, Massachusetts). Loise Obeng ’25 (Worcester, Massachusetts) read from Dr. King’s address to striking sanitation workers in Memphis given on April 3, 1968, the day before his assassination. Maribel Veiga ’27 (Central Falls, Rhode Island) performed the song “Stand Up” from the soundtrack to the 2019 biographical film Harriet.
Rev. Peter Batts, O.P., assistant professor of theology, offered the invocation, describing the creation of the beloved community Dr. King preached as “a task that Jesus has given to his disciples of all times.”
During the benediction, Rev. Thomas More Garrett, O.P., associate vice president for general counsel, spoke of Elmore Nickleberry, a sanitation worker in Memphis who marched in the 1968 strike with a picket sign reading, “I AM A MAN.” Recognizing the power of simple statements like Nickleberry’s, as well as the eloquent oratory of Dr. King, Father Garrett prayed for the grace and wisdom to speak simply, directly, and justly with one another.
The luncheon concluded with Pastor Lauri Smalls of Union Baptist Church in New Bedford singing the gospel song “The Lord is Blessing Me Right Now,” inviting attendees to sing and clap along.
