By Lini S. Kadaba
When Shannon Qualters ’23 hit bottom, the survivor of child sexual abuse was hooked on heroin and crack cocaine, living on the streets of the Kensington section of Philadelphia and eating out of garbage cans, by her own account. To support her habit, she said she was forced to sell her body and spent many years in and out of the prison system.
“I lost everything,” the 38-year-old mother of four said. “Death looked more appealing than living at that point.”
The universe, though, can work in mysterious ways. In 2016, Qualters was once again released from prison, this time to a recovery program where she finally found the will to kick her habit and, crucially, her way to ϲʿ’s location in Philadelphia. In May, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Addictions and Mental Health Treatment and took a job as the after-care coordinator for Malvern Treatment Centers in Philadelphia.
“ϲʿ just boosted my self-esteem to the highest power,” said Qualters, who lives with her wife, Kris, and children in a Gloucester Township, N.J., house she purchased last year. “It gave me a sense of hope.”
ϲʿ’s 45-year-old Addictions and Mental Health Treatment program, considered the oldest continuous one of its kind in the country, is designed with adult learners in mind, according to director David Reyher. That means evening classes for working students and flexibility with assignments when life gets messy, he said. The program, like the university, is imbued with Franciscan values, including a deep understanding of how others feel.
“It’s much more than imparting information from a textbook to a person,” Reyher said. “It’s a way of being. It’s all about empathy. We have to practice what we teach. When people like Shannon show up and give their heart and soul, it’s incumbent on us to reciprocate. What she experienced was that empathy and support.”
