Prusynski, of Boise, Idaho, reported that she suffered broken bones after being pulled from the wreckage of a building that collapsed. Prusynski stated that she was on the top floor of the building when the earthquake occurred.
Hightower, of Port Orchard, Wash., was believed to be on the fifth floor of that same building, according to a message from Prusynski. She had gone to Haiti to work with disabled children for an organization called “Friends of Orphans.”
University president, Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., asked the University community yesterday to pray for Prusynski and Hightower, who have been performing service work in Haiti, as well as for those whose lives were devastated by the earthquake.
“This is a people who will need our prayers and our assistance for months, if not years, to come,” Beauchamp stated. “As a University community we pray in a special way for the safety and well-being of members of our community who live and work in Haiti, as well as the Holy Cross religious who make that place their home.”
In her valedictorian speech last May, Prusynski spoke on the worldwide necessity of community service and outreach to combat poverty, starvation and other global epidemics. Prusynski, summa cum laude graduate in both life science and Spanish, cited a University service trip to Nicaragua, in which she witnessed thousands of people rummaging through refuse to resell for survival, which caused her to realize how fate had been good to her.
“I did nothing to deserve to be born into such a wonderful life—none of us did,” she said. “It was the best original birthday gift any of us could have ever received. Never forget your original birthday gift and earn it over and over every day in whatever way you are able to give back to the world.”
Prusynski’s ties to the University of Portland are deep and include several aunts and uncles who preceded her on The Bluff overlooking the Willamette River in north Portland. One such family link is her great uncle, the beloved Rev. Chester Prusynski, C.S.C., the oldest Holy Cross priest living on campus.
In addition to traveling to Nicaragua, Rachel went to the U.S.-Mexico border through the Moreau Center and studied abroad in Granada, Spain, for a semester. She also was selected to participate in the University’s Murdock Summer College Research Program last summer with professor Ami Ahern-Rindell to conduct research in genetics.
Hightower, also a 2009 graduate of the University of Portland, majored in psychology, sociology, and French Studies, and studied in Paris in the summer of 2007. Her family lives in Port Orchard, Wash., and she is a graduate of Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, where she was on the cross country team. Trudie Booth, professor of French language at UP noted that Molly is a very gifted student of French and, while a student here, participated admirably in class and was an excellent student. Rev. Art Wheeler, C.S.C., assistant provost and university professor remarked, “Molly loves French culture. She is religious and oriented toward social justice.”
“The University of Portland community waits for news about Molly and others suffering in Haiti,” Beauchamp notes. “Molly is recognized as a heroic young woman serving the most vulnerable children in one of the poorest countries in the world who recognized the critical need in Haiti long before this natural disaster stuck the country. The University community is holding vigil, praying for her safe return.”