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Jeanie Gorski '98: All Roads Lead to Saint Peter's

Donor Photo

Jeanie Gorski assists Ranelle at the Ti Palmiste Orphanage in Haiti in 2013. This was her third medical mission to Haiti, one of several trips she has taken to provide residents of impoverished countries with proper health care.

Cura personalis and Magis-these values aren't just the hallmark of Ignatian spirituality, they are also the principles Jeanmarie "Jeanie" Huze Gorski '98 has utilized in her professional career to care for each man and woman in need using her unique talents and abilities. As an intensive massage therapist, Gorski owns a successful private practice that helps her patients deal with pain management. In addition, she has been on two medical missions to Guatemala and one to Haiti, assisting those in impoverished countries who lack medical resources to receive proper health care. But this wasn't always Gorski's intended career path. Yet, as it often does, the road of life twists and turns into an unexpected-and sometimes better-direction.

Gorski was born in Bayonne, N.J., in 1959, and was the eldest of four children. She attended Bayonne High School and soon after graduation, moved to Jersey City and landed a position at the New York City based law firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. Even though Gorski was a supervisor at the firm, she knew she would need a degree to move forward in her career.

"While New York University and Pace were closer to work, I enjoyed the fellowship with the priests at St. Peter's Parish in Jersey City (where she was a parishioner) and thought that Saint Peter's College would be a better fit for me," she says. "The reputation of Jesuit institutes is outstanding, and that appealed to my sense of quality, as well."

Gorski says her first memory of Saint Peter's was "the assistance of the registration staff in guiding a 30-something back to school." But while holding down a full-time job during the day and attending Saint Peter's at night, Gorski was able to obtain her Bachelor of Science in business management in 1998. According to Gorski, there was "very little I did not like about my night school experience." She even had two favorite instructors, the late Rev. William F.X. Maher, S.J., professor and chair of economics, and former adjunct lecturer for the department of business administration Albert Davis, M.A., who Gorski says "had real business experience and knew what I was dealing with at the firm."

"I found most of my instructors had a passion for their subjects, and that goes a long way when you are attending school after a full day at work or on a Saturday," she says.

Donor Photo

Jeanie Gorski assists Ranelle in Haiti through a mission trip to help impoverished countries receive proper health care.

n addition to being a working professional and student during this time, Gorski was also a wife. She married William Huze in 1981, but tragically he passed away in 1997. This was a turning point in Gorski's life. While working through her grief, she sought a fresh start, which consisted of a career change and a geographical move.

Gorski became interested in health care, and began researching different positions within the field. While she liked education, she wanted something more pliable, portable and results oriented. Gorski also considered nursing, but that would take many years of education to complete. She finally decided on massage therapy, and visited the best schools around the country before settling on the Muscular Therapy Institute in Cambridge, Mass., for an intensive massage therapy program. She also moved to Nashua, New Hampshire in 2000.

Even though Gorski changed career paths from managing staff at a law firm to eventually opening her own private practice in massage therapy, she says the skills and lessons she learned within the business management program at the University prepared her well for her career and life after college.

"Saint Peter's provided an excellent foundation for my management career throughout my education and even into my new career managing a private clinical massage practice, mentoring other therapists and building relationships with clients and other health care professionals," she says.

Because of her exceptional educational experience at Saint Peter's and her strong belief in the University's mission, Gorski has decided to provide for Saint Peter's in her estate plan. Her bequest will establish a scholarship to benefit those in health care-related studies with financial need.

"My family is not wealthy, but we are comfortable," she says. "My nieces and nephews will get an education, and so I thought to leave a portion of my estate, when the time comes many, many years from now, to help someone get through college and give them the opportunity I had through a generous family, a generous employer and lots of hard work."

Gorski adds, "It is the responsibility of every person, community and institution to lift up our fellow Americans (and prospective Americans), not with perpetual handouts, but with the opportunity to learn and grow and challenge themselves to be what God planned for them. We need to show others the path and give them the tools and education to follow that path."

In addition to providing for Saint Peter's in her estate plans, Gorski also contributes to charities such as the Vision International Missions in Manchester, N.H., and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. It is her way of creating a legacy of generosity, care and compassion.

Gorski encourages other alumni to leave their own legacy at alma mater "to pass on a love of education, glorification of God and ensure that everyone that has the potential has the opportunity" to attend the University.

"Let your legacy be what others can do with what you leave behind, whether it is lessons you have taught, an example you have given or funds you direct for the benefit of others," she says. "You can't take it with you, so invest in the future."

Gorski is married to Theodore since 2001. She has a stepchild Katelynn who lives in Spokane, Wash. She and her husband share their home with brother-in-law Raymond and collie Tobey.

Learn How You Can Help
If you would like to give back to Saint Peter's University with a planned gift, contact Ana Cravo at 201-761-6104 or acravo@saintpeters.edu. We would be happy to help you find the gift that's right for you, at no obligation.

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