Inside a Campaign for a Greater Seton Hall
On the night of September 19, the Bishop Dougherty University Center buzzed with excitement. Hundreds of Seton Hall alumni, faculty, students, friends and family gathered to celebrate the public launch of For All, Forever: A Campaign for a Greater Seton Hall — the University’s first comprehensive campaign in nearly two decades.
Kicking off the programming, which included a series of brief, energizing talks, videos and musical performances, Seton Hall President Monsignor Joseph Reilly encouraged the crowd to reflect on their time at Seton Hall. “Think about how this University has impacted your life. Then imagine the generations of students who will one day stand where you once stood, made stronger because of what we build together,” he prompted.
For All, Forever builds on Seton Hall’s 170-year legacy of fostering academic excellence, personal growth and spiritual development, while catapulting the University into the future. The $225 million campaign sets out to expand the reach of Seton Hall’s mission and empower the next generation of talented, innovative and compassionate men and women.
The promise of the campaign is to touch every member of the University community and every aspect of campus life. So, what does that look like in the lives of our students? We set out to explore the campaign’s three pillars — Preparing Leaders Now, Enriching our Education, and Strengthening our Cornerstones — through the voices of those they will impact most.
Preparing Leaders Now
Vanessa Nazaire lights up when she talks about the students she mentors through Seton Hall’s RISE (Resilience, Integrity, Scholarship, and Excellence) Gen 1 Program. As both a junior and a Gen 1 RISE scholar, she knows firsthand how transformative the program can be. Designed for students who are the first in their family to attend college and who come from low income households, the program offers comprehensive support — from tutoring, advising and peer mentoring to community-building activities and financial assistance.
“Being a mentor is my favorite thing to talk about,” Nazaire said. “I oversee a group of RISE students, and we meet twice a month to talk about how they’re doing, how I can help with their studies and even what to wear for a professional meeting.”
At its core, Gen 1 RISE fosters a community of scholarship, belonging and leadership, helping students who are navigating college for the first time feel truly at home. “We’re a big family,” Nazaire said.
Nazaire’s own journey reflects that impact. Growing up in Union, New Jersey, she never imagined attending college so close to home. Encouraged by her mother and drawn to Seton Hall’s 3+3 program — a dual-degree pathway leading to a bachelor’s in Diplomacy and International Relations and a juris doctorate from Seton Hall Law — she took the leap. Generous scholarship support made it possible. “That’s a big reason why I chose Seton Hall,” she said. “It made the most financial sense, and without the scholarship, I would never have met my Gen 1 family.”
Nazaire also credits the program’s director, Darlene Robinson, for creating an environment where students feel deeply supported. “She goes above and beyond her job description,” she said. “Her heart is just so incredibly big and it’s not just a job for her, it’s a calling.”
Yet not every first-generation student finds the transition easy. Seton Hall has a long record of supporting social mobility, opening doors for students who might not otherwise have access. Still, the growing cost of tuition, housing, books and meal plans places real strain on many families.
That is why Preparing Leaders Now is the University’s largest fundraising priority within For All, Forever, with a goal of $100 million. Through this pillar, Seton Hall seeks strategic investments in the endowed RISE program and undergraduate and graduate scholarships tailored to students’ fields of study, athletic programs, hometowns, service commitments and more. By addressing student need, Seton Hall will increase access, reduce student debt and remain a top choice for promising, diverse and hardworking students.
“Scholarship plays a big role in keeping students at Seton Hall. I’m lucky to receive this support. If more students can afford Seton Hall, more students can stay,” concluded Nazaire.
Enriching Our Education
Across campus, students are discovering that learning often happens beyond the classroom walls.
Mary Kate Naatus, Ph.D., sees this every day. “The best way to teach concepts like leadership and to give students a sense of the real world is through experiential learning,” she explained. “They grow when they have the opportunity to learn by doing.”
As dean of continuing education and professional studies, associate provost for partnerships & global initiatives and associate professor of marketing, Naatus remains deeply connected to the student experience. “I’m continuously impressed by our students. They’re hungry for mentorship and willing to go above and beyond. I see that across campus every day,” she said.
One standout experiential learning program under her purview is the Buccino Leadership Institute, a four-year interdisciplinary program that gives a select group of students the opportunity to learn, practice and master the art of leadership. Now in its 30th year, the Institute’s rigorous curriculum includes team projects, student led initiatives, leadership simulations and professional coaching to refine each student’s leadership style.
“We have a dynamic team of certified coaches alongside volunteer mentors across industries,” Naatus noted. “Many are alumni, and others are professionals who have heard about Seton Hall and are impressed with our students.”
Because Buccino students come from across the University, they work in interdisciplinary teams to design solutions for challenges relevant to the campus and broader community. Last spring, a group of first-year leaders launched Healthy Hall, a project that introduced healthier food options, nutrition information and wellness focused programming to campus. This year, senior Buccino leaders will develop similar high-impact projects.
Across Seton Hall, applied-learning experiences, academic centers and institutes like Buccino are giving students meaningful opportunities to develop their skills and engage with the world.
For example, the National Security Fellowship brings graduate students to Washington, D.C., for high-level research with agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense. The Center for Sports Media prepares students for a rapidly evolving industry through professional partnerships, hands-on production opportunities and access to major media outlets. And study abroad programs broaden students’ global perspectives.
These programs are popular among Seton Hall’s student body because they provide the opportunity to explore, interact with working professionals and grow personally and professionally. Enriching Our Education, the second pillar of For All, Forever, with a $75 million goal, aims to strengthen these experiences through expanded support for academic centers and institutes, applied learning and collaborative campus spaces.
For Naatus, the campaign represents an opportunity to widen the circle. “For All, Forever is exciting to me because we can expand these opportunities to more students, especially those with high financial need,” she said. “Our world is changing. By growing our experiential learning programs, we can prepare more leaders to navigate complexity with confidence and compassion.”
Strengthening Our Cornerstones
Francesca Zaccaron, Ph.D., began her journey with Seton Hall more than a decade ago in her home country of Italy. In 2012, at a conference in Milan, she met Monsignor Richard Liddy, then professor of Catholic thought and culture and director of Seton Hall’s Center for Catholic Studies. At the time, Zaccaron was completing her doctorate on Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan. Liddy became a mentor, suggesting readings to guide her research. “He even invited me to a conference he was organizing in Oxford with other Lonergan scholars,” she recounted.
Over the years, she formed deeper relationships with Seton Hall faculty and leaders, including Linda Garofalo and Danute Nourse, directors of the Praxis Program of Advanced Seminar on Mission. Their conversations and collaborations planted the seeds for something more permanent.
By 2020, Zaccaron found herself longing to teach the Catholic intellectual tradition in a setting where it could flourish. “I had spent my career steeped in the Catholic intellectual tradition, but unfortunately there aren’t many avenues to teach that at the university level in Italy,” she explained.
When the Toth-Lonergan Endowed Professorship in Interdisciplinary Studies opened at Seton Hall, she jumped at the opportunity. “It surprised me because even though I had given a few lectures at Seton Hall over the years, so many colleagues remembered me. It’s really the best community ever.”
The Toth-Lonergan Endowed Professorship brings a leading Catholic scholar to campus for a year to articulate and strengthen the University’s Catholic mission and its relevance across academic disciplines.
This past academic year, Zaccaron embraced that charge, sharing the teachings of Lonergan with students and faculty alike. “Lonergan believed that knowing wasn’t just about memorizing facts. It is a holistic process that begins by paying attention to the world around us, asking questions, testing ideas and gradually gaining insight,” she explained. “For Lonergan, knowing meant transformation — the very kind of education we foster at Seton Hall.”
Her role illustrates the importance of endowed faculty positions in strengthening Seton Hall’s academic foundation. Strengthening Our Cornerstones, the third pillar of For All, Forever, with a $50 million goal, seeks to increase endowed faculty positions and expand research opportunities across the University. For Seton Hall, research is not separate from teaching; it fuels it. Faculty who are supported in their scholarly work bring energy, curiosity and innovation directly into the classroom, inspiring students to think and engage more deeply.
A stronger research academy also elevates the institution as a whole. It allows Seton Hall to recruit and retain top-tier faculty, researchers and scholars who want to be part of meaningful academic and scientific discovery, and it gives students the chance to participate in that work firsthand.
“My commitment is to help my students succeed,” said Zaccaron, reflecting on the importance of this fundraising pillar. “I take it seriously.
Launching Seton Hall Into the Future
Whether through scholarships that open doors, experiential learning that builds skills or endowed faculty and research opportunities that shape how students learn and grow, For All, Forever is already strengthening Seton Hall.
As the campaign launch event drew to a close that September evening, Monsignor Reilly did more than stand before the campaign’s ambitious goal. He offered a vision for the road ahead.
“We can open the doors wider to more students who are called to lead their communities and transform the world. We can explore new frontiers with courage and curiosity. And we can live out our values guided by Christ’s love and compassion,” he said. “This is For All, Forever, and it starts now.”
Carolanne Chanik is the director of advancement & campaign communications at Seton Hall University.
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