Mission and Goals
of
The DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness
A Message From Rev. Gabriel J. Zeis, T.O.R., President, Saint Francis University
Saint Francis of Assisi, when called by God to go forth and rebuild His Church, understood that to do this meant to find that which was most important to the structure of that Church. He came to understand that his call was not to rebuild a church edifice but to minister to the humanity of the Church universal. He realized that he was first called to go out to humanity with the good news of the Gospel with its healing power and liberating truth, the power of forgiveness and welcome.
To accomplish this, Saint Francis of Assisi went into the hinterlands of the Umbrian countryside of Italy. There he found the lepers. They hid in the most rural areas in isolation and in hopelessness. They waited for death. They were the most abandoned of all. Rejected by their families and friends out of fear, they found that even the Church had abandoned them; they may even have felt abandoned by God’s mercy and love. Saint Francis, who overcame his fear of the leper by his embrace of one, came to see in the leper the very face of the crucified Jesus. He knew he must go out to them, to heal, to comfort and show above all God’s great love in and through his ministry to them. He did this, and the Franciscan mission of Saint Francis University is to do this today, not only to lepers, but to all the sick in rural and underserved settings.
Saint Francis University follows in this great tradition as it embraces the needs of the rural community, those most underserved and at times abandoned. Through an integration of the Principles of Franciscan Higher Education into the general education curriculum of the University, our health care students experience the vision of Saint Francis and begin to walk in his footsteps of service to the rural community and the underserved.
This great mission continues in the research of CERMUSA. This premier program uses off-the-shelf materials to bring high-tech results to the delivery of healthcare to the rural community and to the underserved. It has tackled the challenges of inadequate medical service and the inaccessibility of healthcare to the rural community through state-of-the-art technology.
Through the development of the DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness, Saint Francis University will advance its mission and the vision of Saint Francis of Assisi. It will enable a better integration of all health sciences into a synergy that will advance the learning experiences of our students and the service opportunities of our students. It will bring a greater connection between the CERMUSA research program and the academic program of the University. It will give a greater opportunity to the University to broaden its own understanding of Wellness as it strives to incorporate the vision of wholeness and health so subscribed to by Saint Francis of Assisi, a wellness that embraced full health of the individual. This will be of great benefit to the University’s student population as well as the local community.
The DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness has as its mission the advancement of the goals of Saint Francis University as it strives to develop the best academic program for its students and brings a synthesis of student academic excellence and achievement into synergy with service to the local community.
The goal of the DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness will be that this center is situated within the Science Center of Saint Francis University. It will be a premier facility of its kind in the United States. It will be a 30,000-square-foot education and research center that will feature strength and conditioning areas, a cardio deck, a clinic/rehabilitation area, flexible space for an education center, research facilities, and more. When complete, its goal is to draw students to the campus, not only for its state-of-the-art facilities, but also for the unique opportunities to observe and assist in treating chronic illnesses that are more prevalent in rural areas.