Lasting Lessons
I recommend that to be successful in interacting
with others, do not over think or worry about
what motivates them to act. Why they do what
they do is not as important as how consistently
they do what they say.
Leave the judgment for motivation between an
individual and God. u
Jeanne Marie
Whitlow Mosley ’59
Jeanne Marie Whitlow Mosley was an educator with
Dekalb (Ga.) County Schools. She was the first
African-American student to attend Siena Heights
and is a member of the SHU Alumni Board.
Forget The Distractions And
Get To Learning
“Everyone has a moral ‘basement’,
full of messy and personal motivations
through which only the individual can
navigate successfully.”
From the time I was here, the Sisters had wisdom and foresight. They laid out a plan that was
excellent for learning. When I look at today,
(students) have to struggle to learn. Although we
had to study hard, there weren’t the distractions.
Life was simple.
— Michael Griffin ’80
or “he would rather be sleeping.” Jesus Christ
instructs in Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge so
that you will not be judged. For in the way you
judge, you will be judged…”
In this message, Jesus again asks his followers
not to judge what is in someone’s heart. Motivation is the “why” of human behavior and beliefs.
It occupies the “basement” of a person’s morality
– just like the “junk” down in the basement, motivation is personal, messy and hard for anyone
but the owner to navigate.
story? All live as unique individuals made up of
unique life experiences. Everyone has a moral
‘basement’, full of messy and personal motivations through which only the individual can
navigate successfully.
We were all girls, and when I reflect back now,
we were an extension of the convent. We did
things on the times they wanted it to be done.
We had fun in the sense of “how can we break
the rules?” For example, if you were a smoker,
“Do your best. Think of why you are here
. . . You are at an institution of higher
learning, so let’s get to learning, and
let’s aim higher..”
— Jeanne Marie Whitlow Mosley ’59
After receiving my Master of Arts degree from
Siena, I worked in the Office of Residential
Life. One day I was trying to support a resident
assistant who was sad and perplexed, trying to
figure out why she and people around her had
such messed-up lives, or as she said, “dilemmas.”
Toward the end of the conversation she said,
“ya know … everyone has a story.”
That line has resonated with me ever since, as it
is another reminder to me to avoid the temptation to judge why people act in the ways that
they do. No one can truly know someone else
without knowing the entire story of that person;
can anyone ever really know someone’s complete
2008 Annual President’s Report
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