University of San Diego Magazine: Those at Our Core - Human Dignity

In Spring 2023, the USD Board of Trustees adopted updated vision and mission statements for the university. This year, USD celebrates 75 years as an anchor institution — 75 years being a part of the community and 75 years working alongside its neighbors near and far to make the world a better place.

The updated vision and mission speak to the community’s deep commitment to service and compassion. USD’s mission states that “we are advancing academic excellence to create a more inclusive, sustainable … and hopeful world.” The vision states that “strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love.” 

Those aren’t just catchy taglines or lofty goals. 

Those words, chosen with the utmost care, are the university’s true north. They inform decisions, directions and strategy. The vision and mission are embodied through six core values — academic excellence, Catholic identity, human dignity, care for our common home, ethical conduct and compassionate service, and inspired and meaningful lives. 

In the story that follows, you’ll learn more about the meaningful and inspiring ways through which one Torero lives out USD’s mission, vision and values.

For Austin Galy ’17 (BA), ’19 (MA), what could be more Catholic than giving people an opportunity to find redemption? 

Galy is director of neighborhood and community engaged partnerships at the Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness and Social Action (CASA). He’s also the co-founder of USD’s Torero Urban Scholars program, which seeks to build a pipeline from prison to higher education for justice-impacted students at USD. 

A double alumnus, Galy partnered with fellow Torero Janelle Brown-Peters ’19 (MA) to develop the program as a graduate research idea in 2018. 

“Everybody deserves an opportunity to have that human right, which is access to school and quality education,” said Galy. “We know the most effective way, statistically, to not return to incarceration, is to give people an opportunity to have upward mobility through education.” 

Founded with support from USD’s Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Initiatives (IESI) Grant, Torero Urban Scholars officially launched in 2022 and focuses on three core pillars: student support for justice-impacted students; workshops and trainings for faculty, staff, and administrators to give them tools to support students; and the transfer pipeline, which provides support for formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted students throughout the California State University (CSU), University of California (UC), and other community college school districts. 

For Galy and Brown-Peters, who both “identify as formerly incarcerated or system-impacted,” the program is motivated by their own experiences and their desire to see others given the opportunity to pursue education. 

“We all had a deeper purpose for wanting to push this work forward, because we knew how much school meant to us to be able to have this opportunity to change our lives for the better,” said Galy. “We just wanted to create pathways for others to also have that opportunity.” 

With 11 current students in the program and as many as 19 prospective students going through the admissions process, Galy is seeing exciting growth in the two-year-old program. Now, he is looking ahead to ensure long-term sustainability, which comes down to funding. 

“We have to raise more funds to hire staff for this program. Our other counterparts already have several full-time staff members,” he said. “The goal is to create more resources, hire personnel, and (establish) programming. Once we can do that, I think the possibilities are limitless, because then we’ll have more capacity to be able to fully support every part of the journey, from the transfer all the way to graduation and beyond.” 

It’s creating this legacy of support that motivates Galy, who sees alignment with USD’s values, recognizing the opportunity to build pathways to USD and to reinforce the university’s role as an anchor institution in the community. 

“It’s helpful if folks recognize we’re all greater than the sum of our worst decisions. Ultimately, this work is about being compassionate — it’s about understanding,” he said. “I think [USD] is a perfect space for people who are seeking an opportunity to redeem themselves and to find transformation and healing. Even just stepping foot on campus … it almost has this healing property just being here.”

— Story by Allyson Meyer ’16 (BA), ‘21 (MBA)