Scholarship Fund Provides Transformative Lourdes Experience for Healthcare Students
A group of pilgrims and two Catholic Foundation of Michigan scholarship fund recipients from University of Detroit Mercy joined Archbishop Vigneron and Sr. Rose Mary Sam with the Order of Malta in Lourdes, France.
McAuley School of Nursing graduates Emma Pehote '23 and Allison Molloy '23 traveled abroad to join medical professionals in caring for people who made the spiritual trek to Lourdes.
"This experience has deepened my level of compassion and enhanced my spiritual connection to patient care." - Our Lady of Lourdes scholarship recipient
About the scholarship
A teacher for more than 50 years at Michigan Catholic high schools, Sr. Rose Mary Sam has inspired students, parents, parishioners and friends to join her at Lourdes and serve as volunteers at the “City of the Poor” — so much so that the Catholic Foundation of Michigan created the Our Lady of Lourdes Pilgrimage charitable fund to continue Sister Sam’s 45-year mission.
Current Catholic Foundation board member, Rosanne (Bommarito) Brugnoni, a former student at Bishop Gallagher in the late 1970s, opened the fund in 2021 to honor her former teacher.
The fund created in Sr. Sam’s name will help provide two University of Detroit Mercy students with the chance to join medical professionals in caring for the sick and dying who have made the spiritual trek to Lourdes.
“The vision was to create a scholarship fund – while Sr. Rose Mary Sam was still alive – to honor Sister’s 45 year legacy and create an opportunity for medical professionals to accompany the sick and dying on a journey of hope and healing,” said Brugnoni, creator of the fund.
