By Elissa Mazkour has left her mark at Carroll, as a peer minister, a Legendary Lodge volunteer counselor and a Talking Saint.
But Elissa’s lasting legacy at Carroll will be her big heart.
“She’s honestly one of the nicest, most genuine people here at Carroll,” said Kara Donahue, a senior philosophy and Catholic studies major from Kalispell.
Raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Elissa’s journey to Carroll began her sophomore year of high school. That year, she applied for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program. During the interview process she took a basic English exam, then a more advanced test, navigated an individual interview, and finally she faced a group interview.
Elissa was selected as one of 30 students accepted out of 750 applicants for an all-expenses paid year studying in the U.S.
“You’re put with four other kids who are applying as well and the people from the organization give you a prompt,” Mazkour said. “For us it was, if you were to create a game or toy for little kids that is educational and fun at the same time, what would you do? It was based on teamwork in terms of finding a really good, fun, educational toy.”
Mazkour was placed at Parker School, a small private school in Hawaii. She joined the debate team after being encouraged to do so by her host family and administrators at the school.
“The first two months were difficult, so bad,” she said. “But then I got the hang of it and it was good. And that year the debate team was doing really well. We were traveling across the U.S. and winning in Utah.”
Roy and Frances Simperman have generously supported both Carroll College and Parker School. The Simpermans were impressed by Elissa, as was President Cech when he visited Parker.
“I met him [Dr. Cech] and his wife and the Simpermans just out of the blue,” Mazkour recalls. “The Simpermans had no idea who I was then, but they started asking me questions… They knew that I’m from Lebanon, I speak three languages, a 4.0 GPA, after-school extracurriculars, and debate. We had a great conversation and they asked me what language I dream in. The next day, I get told that if I come back senior year of high school, and I graduate from Hawaii, that I’d be instantly admitted to Carroll College with a four-year scholarship.”
She said the high school, in turn, offered her a scholarship to come back her senior year.
“The trajectory of Elissa’s amazing life is full of blessings, she so dearly deserves,” said Brent Northup, coach of the speech and debate team at Carroll. “Elissa started as an exchange student to Hawaii, with the intention of going back to Beirut. But because of who she was, angels appeared and doors opened. She’s a special person, and when people realize that, they want to support her and her dreams. A person that nice, who works that hard… you want to help a person like that.”
She came to Carroll, joined the Talking Saints, and competed for three years.
Her freshman and sophomore year were challenging. She balanced a heavy course load with speech and debate. Then came more pressure from the pandemic, the death of a family member, and the 2020 explosion in the Port of Beirut.
“I didn’t do a lot outside of school for the first year and a half, being at Carroll. It was mostly debate, school, debate, school. I didn’t really explore much, didn’t have time to,” she said.
She quickly found out why Carroll students are welcomed by med schools; every STEM course was demanding, intense.
“They do focus a lot on every single class,” said Mazkour. “There’s so much detail, it feels like that class is the only class that you have, but you know it’s not.”
Eventually she started going to Mass more often, getting to know more people, and as she described it, “becoming part of campus.”
“I remember being like, ‘Wow, the Lord is really starting to spark something in her heart,’” said Diedre Casey, assistant director of Campus Ministry.
Her junior year, she got more involved with Campus Ministry, attended more retreats, and made it a priority to spend more time around people.
Amy Tekverk, a senior biochemistry and Catholic studies major minoring in biology from Ogden Utah, recounted her cooking a Lebanese meal at Bishop Austin Vetter’s house that year.
“They decided to make a whole event out of it, and mass produce a bunch of Lebanese food,” said Tekverk. “It was delicious. I know that everyone really enjoyed it. It made Elissa really happy, being able to cook those things. She had called her mom, and her mom had helped her set up all of these recipes.”
That spring she applied to work at Legendary Lodge, a Catholic summer camp in the Seeley Swan Valley of Montana. Though it would mean she wouldn’t be able to go home over the summer, she was still excited about the opportunity.
“I wanted to be myself around people and show them the joy of life,” Mazkour said, “I wanted to bring people closer to Christ and show people the love that comes with faith. A lot of people tend to connect faith with a rule-based thing: if you follow them, God is happy with you and if you don’t follow them, (people think) he’s angry with you and you’re not loved and you’re judged.
“But God knows we are human and make mistakes. People in the faith recognize that in others. Faith is love, trust, companionship, being there for others and walking with each other through hardship. Being a light in people’s lives.”
She was offered the camp counselor position on the spot. However, being an international student presented some legal complications, so she was unable to work the summer as a camp employee. Undeterred, she offered to volunteer for the entire summer, without getting paid.
This plan, too, presented challenges.
Eventually, she reached an arrangement, where she’d volunteer every other week and stay with Katie and Kevin Donahue in Kalispell during the off weeks.
The Donahues became like family.
“When I got my wisdom teeth out, yeah, (Elissa) took care of me, which was so sweet,” Kara Donahue said, “She’s truly such an incredibly selfless person. While I was incapacitated for a couple days, she was always making sure I had ice, making me smoothies, and helping eat said smoothies. She was just such a trooper, and would run errands for my family. She helped my mom with our rosary business.”
After the first week of training at Seeley, Mazkour started going back and forth between Legendary Lodge and Kalispell.
Mazkour admitted that the continual coming and going was hard; she struggled to find a sense of belonging.
“But I loved it,” she said. “The kids, absolutely amazing. It’s just so chaotic. Not much sleep. It was great. I built a lot of really good relationships with the counselors.”
During her senior year at Carroll, she served as a peer minister on the 3rd floor of St. Charles Hall.
“I think her ministry has been kind of a quiet one up in Charlies’, but at the same time she just has such an authenticity and a sweet, inviting spirit,” Casey said. “There’s sort of a wisdom that’s there, just from being who she is, having said ‘yes’ to so much and sacrificed so much – the comforts of home, the comfort of familiarity.”
In order to make time for peer ministry, she elected not to do speech and debate.
“There’s no way she’d have been able to be on the speech and debate team and do peer ministry at the same time. They both just take up so much time. I think her heart was at peace
when she chose to leave,” said Tekverk.
“You let me rewrite the script, I’ll keep her,” said Northup. “She’s a lovely person and we all miss her, but she made a difference while she was on the team – she brought warmth and love to us all. And she won her share, too.”
She had hoped to go home to Beirut over Christmas break, but was eventually forced to remain in the U.S. due to escalating conflict in the region.
“That was tough, because she’s really close to her family, always has been, calls them all the time,” said Tekverk, “When she found out that she wouldn’t be able to go back over winter break that was a really tough blow.”
“She’s been in the States for a long time… I know she keeps in very close contact with her family, but even so, that distance is killer,” said Donahue.
After college, she plans to serve as a missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).
“I’m really excited for her,” said Allie Friesen, FOCUS team director for Carroll. “I think she’s going to be a great missionary. I think above all, what she is going to bring to her team and her students though is someone who deeply desires to just be there, and to care (about) even the smallest things.”
Tekverk said that Elissa would always talk about wishing that there was something she could do to repay all the good FOCUS has done for her; that it would be such a cool job.
“It’s something that’s been on her heart for a long time,” said Tekverk.
After FOCUS, she hopes to attend grad school and go into genetic counseling.
“Sometimes people don’t know what is happening to them, and they try scanning, MRIs, ultrasound, and they can’t find results at the hospital… and a genetic counselor is able to do genetic testing on them and find out what is wrong,” said Mazkour.
It’s clear that she will be missed as she moves on.
“I think ultimately, she gave Carroll more than Carroll gave her,” Northup said. “We’re blessed that the angels who look out for her, brought her here.”
“Elissa just wants to serve everyone, all the time,” said Tekverk. “Even she gets no sleep, because she has to do homework in the middle of the night because her day has been spent helping people, and listening to them, and showing them love.”
Tekverk says her “beautiful heart” just “pours itself out for other people.”
Mazkour treasures her time here. She will be sad as she says goodbye.
“I’ve loved Carroll, I think I’ve grown so much in these four years,” she says. “In these four years I’ve learned about succeeding, I’ve learned about failing, and about getting back from failure and being stronger and growing more with that. But I’ve also learned so much about friendship and how fascinating our world is.”
