Santa Clara University Announces Opus Prize Finalists

One organization will receive $1 million Nov. 14; two finalists to receive $100,000 each

Three finalists have been chosen for the Opus Prize 2024, hosted at Santa Clara University. The finalists are faith-driven leaders of organizations working to welcome and support refugees to Romania; educate and support current and former prisoners in the U.S; and improve the safety and equitable treatment of Nigerian women.

The Opus Prize is given annually to recognize unsung heroes of any faith tradition, anywhere in the world, solving today’s most persistent social problems. The organizations represented by the finalists will receive $1.2 million—$1 million for the Opus Prize laureate and $100,000 each for two finalists. Collectively, the Opus Prize represents one of the world’s largest faith-based, humanitarian awards for social innovation.

“The opportunity to host the Opus Prize has been a humbling and profound experience for our campus,” said Santa Clara University President Julie Sullivan. “The finalists identified through this confidential and rigorous process are inspired by their faiths to make a broad and lasting impact among populations experiencing great need. They model for our students the power and richness of a life of faith-inspired, impactful service. “

The finalists are:

Cătălin and Bianca Albu

General Manager and Senior Manager for Programs

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

Bucharest, Romania

JRS-Romania is a nonprofit organization that assists the growing number of people arriving in Romania from Europe, the Middle East and Asia to integrate into life in Romania. Managed by General Manager Cătălin Albu and together with his wife, Senior Manager for Programs Bianca Albu, JRS-Romania meets the needs of displaced people with a commitment to “seamless integration” and services such as legal guidance for migrants irrespective of their legal status, accommodation for destitute people, mental health care, and other services such as language acquisition, skill development, tangible support, and integration into larger communities.

Now the largest church-based responder to the Ukrainian crisis in the country, JRS-Romania has quadrupled the number of people served since the war started, aiding 39,616 people in 2023. JRS-Romania's work accompanying and serving asylum seekers, refugees and temporary protection holders has set the standard for this type of work throughout the country and generated significant international support.

Cătălin earned a bachelor of law from Ecological University of Bucharest. Bianca earned a bachelor of law from Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest and a bachelor of law from Collège Juridique Franco-Roumain d’Études Européennes of Pantheon Sorbonne University Paris I.

“It is striking and impressive the diversity of services that JRS-Romania makes available to such a large and diverse population of displaced people,” said Duane Voigt, Santa Clara University registrar who was one of 16 University members who served as ambassadors for site visits to finalists. Praising the couple’s skill at enlisting support from the Romanian community and helping the displaced migrants use their skills to help one another, he added, “It is clear that this service would not be possible if it were not for Cătălin and Bianca’s faith in goodness, in love, and the compassion they show to those who show up at their door.”

Fr. Zachariah Presutti, S.J., M.Div. ’21

Founder and Executive Director of Thrive for Life Prison Project

New York and Wisconsin

Thrive for Life (TFL) was founded in 2017 by Jesuit Father Zachariah Presutti with the mission to transform lives both behind and beyond prison walls. Behind the walls, TFL offers thousands of incarcerated men and women in New York and Wisconsin retreats and spiritual guidance rooted in the classical reflective and meditative resources for an examined life handed down to the Church through the example and legacy of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Beyond the prison walls, TFL provides assistance through a growing network of houses of study for returning citizens to live in community while receiving holistic support services with a particular focus on education, employment, and permanent affordable housing.

Current TFL participants are pursuing college degrees at partner institutions including New York University, Columbia University, and the City University of New York (CUNY) system, while others pursue GED and vocational training through TFL’s onsite education classes. TFL currently operates two houses of studies for more than 45 justice-impacted men, Ignacio House in East Harlem and Abraham House in the south Bronx, with plans to expand offerings with the opening of its Milwaukee House in the fall of 2024 and a women’s house in Queens, NY in 2025.

Currently living in New York City, Presutti was born and raised in Belmont, New York, and holds a bachelor’s degree from Canisius College, a master’s degree in clinical social work from Saint Louis University, and a Master of Divinity from Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. In addition to Thrive, Presutti serves as a chaplain in the New York City Department of Corrections at Rikers Island and also serves on the board of Brooklyn Jesuit Prep.

“Father Zach is a great leader who brings ideologically opposed people together, to humanize and help provide a voice for people behind bars,” said ambassador Akash Ravani ’25, an economics major. “I am confident if more people got to hear Father Zach speak, their perceptions and stereotypes about the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated would drastically begin to shift.”

Sr. Francisca Ngozi Uti, HHCJ

Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Women Studies and Intervention

Abuja, Nigeria

The Centre for Women Studies and Intervention (CWSI) is an initiative of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus (HHCJ), an order of Catholic Sisters founded in 1931 by Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, RSC. CWSI works to empower women and other vulnerable persons in Nigeria to be liberated and active in the creation of a better world. CWSI’s mission is to uphold the dignity of women and other vulnerable people through capacity-building, advocacy, awareness-raising, research, and documentation of pressing issues.

Uti holds a Ph.D. in gender and women’s studies from University of Bradford in England; an MBA from University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology; and a B.S. in institutional management from University College, Cardiff, in Wales. She is currently vicar general of her HHCJ congregation, and has been provincial superior in two provinces. She founded CWSI to research, advocate for solutions, and alleviate issues like marginalization, oppression, and violence against women and girls.

CWSI’s work helps women become politically aware, socially responsible, and economically independent for greater autonomy and parity with men. CWSI also advocates for the inclusion of women in government roles and for laws that combat gender-based violence in five Nigerian states.

“It was an honor to meet Sister Ngozi and the other members of CWSI,” said ambassador Sharmila Lodhia, chair and associate professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Santa Clara. “What struck me was the multifaceted nature of the organization’s work and their commitment to a sustainable and capacity-building approach to their legal advocacy and education interventions amidst tremendous constraints. We have much to learn from their ethical, intentional, and community-centered mode of activism, which is rooted in faith and hope for a more just and equitable world.”

Choosing the Finalists

Unique to this award, the Opus Prize Foundation partners with a different Catholic university each year to carry out the selection process and host the award ceremony on campus. Santa Clara University was announced as the 2024 host last December.

To select the three finalists, the University convened more than 30 experts who confidentially identified and researched potential nominees; 13 leaders from the realms of business, government, athletics, and nonprofits served as jurors, choosing three finalists; and 16 campus members, serving as ambassadors, helped the Opus Prize Foundation conduct due-diligence visits of the finalists before they were announced.

“The organizations discovered by our partner Santa Clara University are doing wondrous work, grounded in faith and the dignity of all persons,” said Daniel McGinty, executive director of the Opus Prize Foundation. “They are a devout and effective group, and a fitting tribute to the nearly 20 years of Opus Prize Foundation seeking to identify unsung heroes, who see problems and can’t look away.”

The 2024 Opus Prize laureate—and recipient of a $1 million prize—will be announced at an awards ceremony on Santa Clara’s campus November 14. The two other finalists will each receive $100,000. The awards ceremony will cap a week of activities on SCU’s campus celebrating the finalists and the goals of the Opus Prize.

About The Opus Prize Foundation

The Opus Prize Foundation, established in 1994, was originally related to the Opus Corporation and today is a private and independent nonprofit foundation. Awarded annually, the Opus Prize includes a $1 million prize and two $100,000 prizes given to individuals or organizations—anywhere in the world—whose faith-based, entrepreneurial leadership helps address persisting social problems within their communities. Each year the Foundation partners with a different Catholic university to use a confidential nomination process to identify and select finalists for that year’s Opus Prize awards. The Opus Prize is given to not only further the humanitarian efforts of the recipients, but also to inspire people to pursue lives of service to others and to their communities.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit, Catholic University in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, infusing ethics and social consciousness into a rigorous cross-disciplinary education for its more than 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

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