Stories

Assistant Professor Erick Berrelleza was honored to deliver a talk for the Search For What Matters series organized by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education. Since 2004, one faculty, one staff, and one Jesuit are invited to respond to the question: “What matters to me and why?” Dr. Berrelleza spoke about his vocation as a priest-scholar and about his journey to discovering that the degrees and honors we earn are meant to be given away. They are never ours alone to begin with. For Berrelleza, the community that gives purpose to his research and pastoral life is that of undocumented immigrants. Since his time working with the undocumented in Phoenix, Arizona, journeying with  this community has focused his research as a matter of justice and of service. “Our lives can’t be separated from the world we live in - from the world we are called to serve,” he said. For that reason, Dr. Berrelleza sees Santa Clara not as a place our students have come to, but a place they will go from. He hopes they too will understand that their degrees are meant to be given away as they go from this place to their diverse communities.