Giving back after graduation

By Christopher Foster

As many seniors next year will be busy with new jobs, beginning their scramble up the corporate ladder or attending graduate school, senior Chris Wall will be in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, waking up early each day to meditate and teach his students English and world religions in his Jesuit Volunteers International placement.

Wall is one of a group of seniors who will be entering the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, an organization which offers college graduates the opportunity to live in communities of five to eight people and work at affiliated volunteer organizations for one to two years depending on the placement. Transportation, food and housing are all paid for, in addition to an $80 stipend per month for personal spending.

For senior Barbara Ruggiero, who will be heading to Mobile, Ala., next year, entering the JVC isn't about resume building or a fall-back plan for not finding a job, but a spiritual endeavor to find out what matters.

"We are very lucky, fortunate people," she said, "I feel like we have an obligation to give back."

AS President Annie Selak, who will be serving as a teen coordinator at Alternatives for Girls in Detroit next year, also looks forward to serving in a community where life for most people is drastically different from what she has experienced.

"Overall, I am hoping to experience a different type of life than I have lived for 21 years," she said.

"The main goal of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps is to give experiences and expose volunteers to social justice, having them serve society," said Katie Knott, area director for JVC in the Midwest.

"The Jesuit Volunteer Corps is really an opportunity to dedicate a year to the other side of the life, the type of life people really aren't exposed to," she said.

According to the program's unofficial motto, graduates of the JVC are "ruined for life" because they will never be able to see the world the same way.

"My experience with the JVC has been fantastic," said Dave Gretick, youth program manager at the Domestic Violence Center in Cleveland. "They have really filled a vital part of this organization. I don't know what I would do without them, every single one of them has been hardworking and really cared about our goals and mission, and they certainly aren't doing it for the money."

"Working here has really changed who I am, I have been exposed to so much. I don't feel like I will ever be able to ignore problems anymore," said Liz McElwee, a Jesuit volunteer who graduated from Xavier last year and now works for Gretick.

Resident Minister and JVC alumna Kristin Love said that her time as a legal case worker at Catholic Charities in Houston "was great."

"It was a wonderful experience. I went to Santa Clara for undergrad and did it right afterwards. It was a great transition from being in the Santa Clara community to the real world, but having support ... it was really challenging for me but I grew a lot," she said.

Love also believed that post-college graduation was an ideal time to do service oriented work.

"This is a great time in your life because for most of us when you graduate, you don't have any strings attached," she said.

Wall is entering into the Jesuit Volunteers International, a two year long program that allows college graduates the opportunity to work in other countries. Wall hopes that he will be able to study a new culture and discover an entirely new perspective on life, politically and socially, in addition to learning more about himself.

"I think for me it goes back to personal knowledge and exploration," he said.

According to Knott, what differentiates the JVC from other volunteer organizations in its focus on living simply and its emphasis on community, both of which could be challenging for volunteers.

"It's scary to think about living with a community of people you don't know," said Selak

Volunteers also only receive an eighty dollar stipend each month to spend on personal needs. While both Selak and Ruggiero acknowledged that this would be a challenge, they believed that they were up for it.

"So many people live on $80 a month. Why can't I?" Selak said.

The communities are also supported by Jesuit ministers and former Jesuit Volunteers who offer assistance and spiritual counseling.

* Contact Christopher Foster at (408) 554-4546 or at cmfoster@scu.edu.