USM Welcomes, Acknowledges,
and Celebrates the Volunteers
of 2006-07!

Question:  What do the following states have in common:  Texas, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, and Massachusetts?

Answer:  These are all states from which USM Graduate Volunteers are flying this year to give of themselves in loving service!

In addition to the more than 200 volunteers who are journeying from within California (and many of those are traveling significant distances from outside the Los Angles area), these USM grads choose to travel hundreds and thousands of miles each month to volunteer as Readers and Assistants!

A Pilgrimage of the Heart

All of these remarkable individuals have made a sacred commitment to come to USM, each month for nine months, in support of those students who are now following in their footsteps as they experience their USM education.

Time and time again, graduates share that of the many hallmarks of their USM educational experience, they cherish the levels of support, encouragement, and loving service that were consistently a part of every aspect of their two-year journey.  And it is with great enthusiasm that they now embrace the opportunity to contribute to this unique, heart-centered learning environment.

This unparalleled setting for USM’s Soul-Centered education is built upon three foundational elements:  the presence and blessings of Spirit; the consciousness of service embodied by USM’s long-serving faculty; and the loving presence and foundational support of the volunteer teams.

A Feast of Loving

This month, at a sumptuous, candle-lit, catered luncheon given in honor of the hundreds of USM volunteers, USM’s Academic Vice President, Mary Hulnick, spoke in a voice filled with emotion, “I share my gratitude and my blessing with each one of you. A true blessing from the heart of peace, of joy, of gratitude to each one of you for what you contribute and for the way that you stand with us in this work.

“This is the way that this ongoing miracle happens—because all of us come together. In the first weekend in October, on Friday night, I was so moved as Ron and I welcomed the new students. And I looked around the room and I saw all of your radiant faces standing behind them. I saw people who came from so many different graduating classes; from so many different cities and different states.

“It is so inspiring to me that all of us are answering Spirit’s call to be involved in this work. You truly are this University of Santa Monica, and as we all come together we co-create the possibility of what takes place here. Ron and I are both so, so grateful to you. Thank you for showing up and our blessings of love and gratitude and peace to you during this season of love and on into the new year.”

Giving . . . and Receiving!

Looking out across the beautifully decorated dining room filled with volunteers, USM’s President, Ron Hulnick, added, “What an amazing journey we are all on! Never in our wildest imaginations could we have planned this out in the beginning, twenty-six years ago. We would never have imagined that anything like this could have come from answering the call to develop this thing we now know as Soul-Centered education at USM. Thank you all for being here and for all the ways that you are participating and contributing, and for the way that you do that. We just could not do this without you.”

Another Record-Setting Year at USM

And the University’s 26th year of graduate classes has drawn not only volunteers but also students from across the nation and around the globe. Of the well over 500 members of the current student body attending the Masters Programs in Spiritual Psychology and Counseling Psychology, there are students from 22 states, as well as those flying from Canada (both Ontario and Alberta), Costa Rica, and Brazil.

More and more of USM’s cherished Volunteers have been serving at USM for five, ten, and more years. And as they give from their hearts, they also continue to create and nurture an established community of loving support for themselves. What a blessing for all who are a part of this cycle of giving and receiving!

“No Room at the Inn”

This time of year brings forward a certain story and the experience of there being “no room at the inn.” This has a particular resonance at USM this year too. A significant number of students were unable to begin the two-year M.A. Program in Spiritual Psychology this year due to the class being full.

And once again this year, there were so many requests from graduates wishing to serve on the University’s Volunteer Assisting and Reading Teams that some of them had to be placed on waiting lists. With the graduate community growing each year, and more Volunteers returning year after year, the available opportunities for joining the teams are becoming highly sought-after. In fact, Volunteer waiting lists have now been in effect for each of the last four years.

I hear you asking, “What is it about serving at USM that inspires this level of participation from the University’s Volunteers?” Well, here’s what a handful of them have to say:

“Being in the USM energy is the single most important practice in my life. My issues are resolved and released with grace and ease—just by being here and experiencing the joys of service!”
Brian Whetten, Assistant

“It is such an honor to be supporting the students by reading their home assignments—it is a truly sacred and empowering process for me.  And it supports me in reinforcing the Soul-Centered Basic Communication and Counseling Skills taught in the Program.  And the camaraderie . . . the spiritual support I receive from the Reading Team, and that I carry into my wider life, is inspiring and uplifting—truly amazing!”
Sheli Wilson-Spicer, Reader

“I feel as though I am getting a glimpse of what it must be like as God loves us all as we move through our own process of learning and growing. The amount of loving that is brought forward inside of me as I am reading student papers amazes me. The level of compassion I experience as I have the privilege of witnessing these courageous students experience their own sacred process and evolution in consciousness . . . I am supporting Spirit’s work! And all the while, I am connected to my own sense of being a divine being. It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Sabrina Teiger, Reader

After Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick shared their heartfelt thanks, USM’s Director of Volunteer Resources, Sonja Johnson, surprised every volunteer with a gift on behalf of the University, wrapped in a beautiful, berry-red box with a gold USM logo at center.  Inside was to be found an attractive, curve-lipped tea mug, inscribed with the USM logo.  On the outside of the mug, inside a heart decorated with scrolls, sits a favorite quote of the Hulnicks, from Meister Eckart:  “If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”  And nestled next to the mug, a packet of “Grateful Heart Tea,” specially formulated for the occasion by the renowned Urth Café.  With a large urn of hot water available on the dessert table, many of the mugs were put to immediate use!

The Many Blessings of Service

As the volunteers sipped their tea (and enjoyed a wide range of delicious desserts!), many talked about the myriad gifts they had received through their participation at USM, both as students and now as graduate volunteers:  the gifts of a life infused with an ongoing and deepening relationship with Spirit, of participating in the transformational and magical process of Soul-Centered education, of making the journey of life with a community of like-hearted individuals, and of sharing with them the many blessings and uplifting experience of service. USM is truly blessed to receive the gift of loving service from so many beautiful souls.

To all our beloved Volunteers, we say, “We are so grateful to Spirit—for the gift of each and every one of you, and all that you bring:  your great heart, your generosity of Spirit, and your loving presence.  You truly exemplify the consciousness of service!”