Graduates of Catholic universities are more likely to report an ideal life and stronger sense of direction, weigh morality in decision-making, and find greater social and community fulfillment than secular college graduates, a recent study found.
The 2024 study, commissioned by Texas’s St. Mary’s University and conducted by research company YouGov, examined key outcomes in higher education outside financial potential.
And while Marquette rates highly in job placement and financial value, the university’s Core Curriculum — rooted in Catholic, Jesuit perspective and principles — also encourages all students to work toward broader outcomes, such as the searches for meaning and purpose, or more quantifiable measures like civic engagement.
“Higher education is absolutely one of the best investments someone can make in their future, and the financial return on that investment is certainly significant” says Brian Troyer, vice president of enrollment management. “But it’s also important to consider this report, which says graduates of our Catholic universities are entering their communities — not just their workspaces — as engaged citizens; they’re seeking significance in their lives, searching for meaning and incorporating morality into their decision-making. These and other outcomes of Catholic higher education matter a great deal and are part of the outstanding return on investment.”
Weighing morality, goals and values to guide actions
The St. Mary’s study found that Catholic college graduates are 19% more likely to weigh morality in their decision-making and have a 9% higher likelihood of considering goals and values in life decisions.
“We ask our students to Be The Difference, and I often I hear President (Kimo) Ah Yun talk about doing so with a moral compass,” Troyer says. “Our Core Curriculum intentionally puts students from multiple disciplines in learning environments together to have problem-solving conversations and think through how they would address real-world issues.”
Leighanne (Schwab) Asencio, Bus Ad ’18, says the collaborative nature of most classes and the extracurriculars she participated in at Marquette transformed her worldview in many ways.
“Going to Marquette formed my decision-making capabilities and emphasized the types of relationships that I wanted to grow with other people,” Asencio says. “I think those topics become more top of mind at a Catholic institution where it’s instilled in you and openly talked about. Learning about what motivates people, how people communicate, how to avoid conflict and discussing values are important.”
Now a manager in information technology and cybersecurity at tax and assurance firm Baker Tilly, Asencio says her Marquette experience — which included involvement in the business school and a spiritually connected semester abroad in Rome — still informs how she interacts with others daily.
“Relationship building is one of the most important things to me, whether it’s my marriage, my family, my friends, my colleagues or my clients,” she says. “I constantly ask myself: ‘Am I doing the right thing morally? Am I treating people with respect? Am I being treated with respect? And do our values align?’ Those are the things I’ve carried with me from Marquette.”
Driven by community fulfillment and civic engagement
For years, Rev. Jeffrey LaBelle, S.J., associate professor of educational policy and leadership, has taught a course called “Foundations of Catholic Education.” In it, students examine the history and philosophy of Christian education in the United States dating back to the Middle Ages. The class also considers the Vatican’s 1965 Declaration on Christian Education (Gravissimum Educationis) as a guide.
The Declaration on Christian Education highlights three main goals or purposes that align with Jesuit education, Father LaBelle says.
“The first goal is to ‘spread the message’ — to communicate that God loves people and God gives life,” he explains. “Community is the second one, and the third is service.”
According to the St. Mary’s study, Catholic university graduates are 13% more likely to feel fulfilled by their community involvement, 15% more by social activity and 9% higher by their civic engagement.
Father LaBelle says St. Thomas Aquinas taught that community starts with the concept of “community of the family” — that the first educators of Catholic faith are the parents or caregivers. From early life into school education, new communities are formed of children from different backgrounds — Catholic or not.
“The Catholic worldview is all-inclusive,” Father LaBelle says. “When we recruit students to Marquette, we welcome everybody, regardless of their belief or lack of belief. But we embrace people as children of God, and there’s a sense of respect and dignity of each person.”
The idea of a community-driven education drives graduates toward the principle of “global citizenship,” Father LaBelle says, which leads us toward acts of service for the greater good.
“For many, it’s not enough just to have your own family and have your own home or just to be good participants in a school like Marquette, but we always have that drive for community engagement with a larger society in service,” he says.
In 2024, the Princeton Review ranked Marquette as the No. 1 college in the country for engagement in community service.
“Those at institutions like Marquette are doing civic engagement, social engagement and community activism because they’re motivated by their beliefs. That’s the difference,” Father LaBelle says. “They know who they are and what they believe in, regardless of whether they’re connected to a religion or not. They know themselves better, and that goes for the community as a whole.”
