Stories

As a bright-eyed freshman, I was searching for a community that could expand my love for social justice and give me long-lasting friendships. I was excited and anxious to explore the SCU community and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I adapted to my new surroundings. Not only did I find this community and create lasting friendships, but I also discovered a new personal perspective on Jesuit values through my work at the Ignatian Center. It is really helpful for me to share my experience in light of the five key values of the Ignatian Center.

Cura Personalis
The original translation of “cura personalis” is to care for a person, which implies the commitment to nurture the dignity of a person’s mind, body, and spirit. My new perspective was only realized through the deep reflections of the Ignatian Center and my hands-on experience of putting “cura personalis” into practice. I remember receiving an email from the Ignatian Center encouraging me to apply for the Ignatian Fellowship. As I researched the program and read the various reflections from past fellows, I found myself smiling and I knew right away that this was the community I wanted to join. I was quick to apply and was accepted into the program and welcomed with open arms. I received so much support from the director of the Fellowship Program, Valerie Sarma, my small group leader, Darcy Phillips, and all my peers in the fellowship. During each meeting, Ms. Sarma and Ms. Phillips grounded us in reflection and the values of the Ignatian Center. The reflections asked each member to reflect on their work with their non-profit organization but also to reflect on the values and core beliefs of who we are. 

Service Rooted in Justice
During my experience, I was able to recognize that my fellowship placements provided a service rooted in justice, one of the key values of the Ignatian Fellowship. My first program placement was at a local law firm where I worked in the Criminal, Domestic Violence, Family, and Landlord Tenant fields of law. The law firm I worked for served populations that are often overlooked, where justice is impacted and income is low. During my placement, I worked with attorneys and other legal professionals to contact and interview clients, complete court paperwork, create exhibit files, prepare for court hearings, and participate in their legal clinics. Towards the end of my experience, I was also able to help facilitate their end-of-the-year gala! 

(Vocational) Discernment & Reflection
There were many impactful experiences that I cherish deeply and will never forget, including being trained for my first declaration. Our staff had a training session on how to conduct interviews with the clients and how to create a formal declaration statement. During this meeting, I took notes and listened with great interest as I knew that I would be using this in my future career. Unbeknownst to me, I would be preparing for my first declaration that following week! I was surprised initially to receive this task and a bit daunted, but I was also confident that I could perform the task well and began preparations. Once the interview was complete and the draft sent over, I was relieved to hear the feedback of the attorneys and to continue working on this case with them. More importantly, the client’s gratitude and heartfelt joy in knowing that our staff was working diligently to prepare her case and to ensure the best possible outcome for her family is something that I will always remember. I truly can’t express the level of gratitude I felt to be a part of a legal office and to be able to aid my community in this way. I truly felt at home when working in the hustle and bustle of the legal profession. I felt at ease in knowing that it was through this experience and the reflections done during the Fellowship meetings, that my vocational discernment for law was right. In knowing my desired vocation, I decided to use my second Fellowship experience to explore another area of social justice that I am passionate about; education. 

Solidarity & Kinship
My second placement was being a mentor and tutor for Grail Family Services: Yes, We Can Read Program. I worked at the San Antonio Elementary School location tutoring students from preschool through first grade. I tutored and mentored a total of seven kids each in different grades. For each student, I created a tutoring program that focused on areas of improvement and mastery for literacy and math. I loved to see the joy on the students’ faces when I arrived and called their names for their tutoring sessions. They would run up to me with excitement and questions about what activities we were going to do and if their friends could also join the tutoring program. The students loved reading books, playing board games, and completing worksheets with pictures to color afterward. After each session, I saw their confidence and love of learning grow as they shared with me what they understood from the lesson and proudly showed off their reward stickers. The staff and mentors worked tirelessly to ensure their students had the best possible education and opportunity afforded to them. 

Finding Love in All Things
Every day, I saw the dedication and love being shown by the staff and the students paying it forward in kind. I saw how the students found love in all things whether it was a rainbow after the rain, a flower growing in the garden, or the picture they drew using the new shapes they learned. One of my students would ask to race with me before each lesson and would always have the biggest smile on their face as they ran past me to the classroom. Another one of my students loved to paint and play with chalk, so I decided to create a lesson plan that would use both of them to teach her addition and subtraction. When I showed her the lesson plan and took her outside for the paint and chalk, she jumped with joy and said it was the best day ever for her. It was in these moments that I began to fully appreciate all the little joys and experiences within my own life and to continue to use the things I had learned from each placement moving forward. 

Throughout my work at local nonprofits and the Ignatian Fellowship meetings, I saw the care and concern for the employers I served in my fellowship, for the other student fellows, and myself. Together, we all were striving to better understand the local community by providing unique services and aid to those in need. We were dedicated to caring for the mind, body, and spirit of those around us, whether it was for those we directly served, our employers, other Fellows, or classmates. 

Two years have passed since my initial work with the Ignatian Center as an Ignatian Fellow, but I continue to see “cura personalis” and many of the other Jesuit values present within my life and in the lives of others. This phrase has long been a Jesuit value, but it now holds a deeper personal connection for me that I take with me every day.