Sister Valerie Luckey, (left, with Sister Jacqueline Sanchez-Small) Director of Emmaus Ministries, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, on May 15. "It’s an honor to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from Saint Joseph’s University. Being educated in the Jesuit tradition during college, I began a new phase of my own spiritual journey there. The university offered me an image of God bigger than the male, patriarchal God of my childhood. The Jesuits formed me as a woman 'with and for others' as part of their charism. Those years and the education I received there led me to Benedictine spirituality; without them, I wouldn’t have found the Erie Benedictines. I am endlessly grateful to the SJU community."

Emmaus Ministries is a Benedictine outreach to Erie’s poor. As Director, Sister Val oversees Emmaus' soup kitchen, which serves approximately two hundred guests each night; as well as a food pantry; the Kids Cafe, where dozens of children are fed dinner and participate in after-school programming; Emmaus Grove, an Urban Farm that produces thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables each year, and a women’s advocacy program. Prior to entering the monastery, she taught fourth grade in Philadelphia. At Saint Joseph’s University, she earned a BS in Business Administration in 2010, and an MS in Elementary Education in 2012, and was a member of the first cohort of the Alliance for Catholic Education at St. Joseph University (ACESJU).