University of Mary Online

Blake Brouilette has a heart for healing, but his gifts and his master’s degree are in business.

He pursued pre-med and competed in pole vault as an undergrad, but his summers took an entrepreneurial turn: He and his brother resurrected their grandfather’s concrete statuary company, casting and selling statues of the Blessed Virgin and Saint John Paul II.

A chance mission trip led him to Christ in the City — and this ministry of encounter on the streets of Denver changed Brouilette’s thinking about the homeless and healing.

“They didn’t need anything from me materially, but the rupture of relationships at the root of their poverty led me to see the loneliness in myself and in the culture at large,” he says.

Brouilette returned to college on fire. He took the medical school entrance exam, but knew he was being called back to Christ in the City. Gradually, he assumed more responsibility: for recruiting, then for a national series of three-week mission programs, and finally as program director — a role that demanded more than business books and YouTube.

Our faithful, flexible online programs made Mary the ideal choice: Not only did Brouilette acquire the knowledge and skills to guide Christ In the City, but the confidence of a God-given call to encounter and leadership.

“I always knew I wanted to help people who were hurting,” he says. “This isn’t the way I  planned to do it, but the end result is exactly as I dreamed!”