Alumni move on to meaningful careers in service

On Tuesday, November 11, from 11-2 in McGuire Hall, almost 40 service programs and non-profit organizations will come to Loyola for the annual Community Service Career Fair. The fair promises to offer opportunities open for students with different qualifications, majors, and life experiences.

"A year of service is absolutely invaluable," said Katie League, '05, who now works as a case manager at Beans and Bread Center in Fells Point, which provides 350-400 meals, five days a week to people living on the streets of Baltimore. The organization also offers more services such as casework services and guidance on how to navigate the shelter system in the city, which is available in their resource center. Clients have the opportunity to use the center's bathrooms, phone, and rummage through clothing donations throughout the day.

League knew she wanted to dedicate her life to serving those living below the poverty lines. She participated heavily during her years at Loyola with different social justice organizations on campus. She worked as a campus ministry intern her sophomore year, and as a student coordinator in the Center for Community Service and Justice her junior and senior years.

League sought advice and guidance from the social workers she met at agencies in Baltimore. She knew she wanted to follow a similar path, and went to Fordham University to earn a masters degree.

"I always knew I wanted to come back to Baltimore," said League, who jumped at the opportunity when a job opened at Beans and Bread. She now works with people suffering from chronic homelessness, dealing with issues such as substance abuse, with the ultimate goal of providing housing in mind.

"A year of service makes people mature, and gives them the opportunity to grow almost as much as four years in college does," said League, who now has the opportunity to supervise a recent graduate working in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps through Beans and Bread.

Maggie Hughes, '06, experienced a two-year dose of service immersion when the Teach for America program accepted her to work in the Baltimore public school system with high school students. The option seemed logical for Hughes, who did not know exactly what path she wanted to follow after graduating. She knew she liked working with people after serving as the student coordinator for two years at The Caroline Center and one year at the Learning Bank. Both of these non-profit organizations tutor residents of Baltimore, mostly living below the poverty line, who are striving to get their GED.

"No one can really explain what it's like being in an urban classroom if you have never been," said Hughes, "It's not an easy field and I think you underestimate how difficult it's going to be."

Even with the challenges, Hughes never regretted her decision to work with the organization. She now works at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in downtown Baltimore, which educates students living in low-income environments and strives to reach a graduation rate of 100 percent.

"It's really hard to want to challenge kids, but know that they may not be reading on grade level," said Hughes, who mentioned her twelfth graders at Patterson High School had never written a five paragraph essay before, but she insists that the challenges she faces every day reap countless rewards.

"You are filling a need that is really there…Being someone involved in the movement is really cool," she said. "Service doesn't have to be a once a week thing, service can become something so much bigger than service. It's about living a life that's about what you believe in."

Steve Pomplon, '06, faced a similar challenge as the graduation date drew near, without a specific plan about the outlook of his life once he left Loyola. As a student of Jesuit schools in both high school and college, he continued to find himself drawn to the fundamental ideals of St. Ignatius Loyola.

"We're being educated to serve others," said Pomplon. "I was really drawn to that idea." Pomplon applied for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in the Northwest, which placed him in Anchorage, Alaska, working in a community with mentally disabled adults.

"I had never been involved with this particular population before. I had a lot of hesitations on how much I could really provide, working in that environment."

However, those hesitations did not outweigh the eagerness Pomplon had to serve. Fresh out of a senior year of working as a Spring Break Outreach leader in Cumberland, Maryland, and founding a radio show known as "Centering On" via WLOY, Pomplon knew he had a lot to offer.

"I tried to be the rational person and not have too much of a romantic vision of what I would do with my service, but a large part of me can't shake that," he said. "My expectation was to make great change. That intention is still a good one, but it was a very humbling experience as well… There was still so much I had to learn and so much of an awareness that I needed to gain."

Pomplon spent the year immersed in his new community, bonding with fellow volunteers and getting a "healthy taste" of the struggle people in Alaska had to face everyday. With a tight budget for utilities and food, the house he lived in had to restrict its costs. During the winter, they set the thermostat on 55 degrees, and often dipped into their food budget to counter the high costs.

Pomplon remembers his year as one of great value, which directed him back to Baltimore, where he works as the Director of Social Service at Notre Dame Preparatory High school.

"JVC in the Northwest help me solidify who I was, who I am, and who I'm becoming," he said, "It's such a true gift, and something I really wish a lot more people knew about because it's such a transformative experience."

The Jesuit Volunteers accepted Jackie Truncellito, '05, into their program, and sent her to teach at a high school in Chuuk, one of the states of Micronesia.