Uniservitate was present at the ACCU 2025 Annual Meeting, bringing together over 500 US university authorities in Washington, DC, from 1st to 3rd February. In addition to representatives from Uniservitate’s US-Canada Hub, two members of its Academic Sounding Board, Beatrix Bouwman from the North-West University in South Africa, and Barbara Humphrey McCrabb, Assistant Director for Higher Education for the Secretariat of Catholic Education at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, participated in this international event.
At the meeting, participants were able to share experiences and perspectives with the keynote speaker, Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State. The Franciscan nun spoke on ‘The Mission of Catholic Higher Education: The Challenge of Integrating Minds, Hearts and Hands’ a few days before being appointed by the Holy Father as President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
Other enthusiastic service-learning participants included Anthony Casamento of the Australian Catholic University, Susan Benzie of Emmanuel College and Susan Haarmann of Loyola University Chicago.
Barbara McCrabb mentioned that she particularly enjoyed meeting with Uniservitate members at this event, with whom they share various global initiatives. Bibi Bouwman, in turn, commented that the ACCU meeting “provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing Catholic higher education” and “facilitated productive networking, potential collaborations, and strategic discussions relevant to Uniservitate’s mission”.
