Alumni Service Corps
Go Beyond Your Four Years at Jesuit
The Alumni Service Corps (ASC) is a volunteer opportunity available to Jesuit Dallas graduates to devote a year of their lives in service and thanksgiving for their Jesuit education. It is a unique opportunity for participants to give back to their alma mater during a year between college and a career or graduate school.
Participants in the program will tutor, engage in retreats and liturgies, help with campus ministry, community service and assist with extracurricular activities. Additionally, ASC members will meet with various members of the faculty and Jesuit community to examine their spiritual development.
Join ASC
If you are interested in applying, please contact Colin Hanley at chanley@jesuitcp.org.
Hear It From ASC XVI
Community
After graduating from Jesuit, I attended Texas Tech with about 30 of my classmates. When I first arrived in Lubbock, there was so much overlap between me and the other Jesuit graduates as time passed. We found our new groups and people but always remained close throughout my time at school. This was unique to many others' experiences, as I was fortunate enough to have such a solid community built around me from my time at Jesuit.
As a member of the Alumni Service Corps, I have had the opportunity to re-engage with the entire Jesuit community. The faculty and staff, both familiar and new, have become my friends, and it has been a fantastic experience to work alongside the teachers who taught me. Whether it was at the start of the year with orientation or all of us working alongside each other at football games and school dances, I appreciate the relationships with the faculty and staff. In the students, I see a reflection of the brotherhood I share with my own classmates. Helping shape the Jesuit community's future generation is one of the most important ways I can give back. I do this by assisting students struggling academically by developing better habits for success during my time in the Learning Resource Center and being the coach of the JV Blue Basketball team. Being a coach, teacher, and role model has taken some time to adapt to, but it becomes gratifying when students share their success in the classroom or the field.
In addition to re-engaging with the Jesuit community, I’ve also formed a tight-knit bond with the Alumni Service Corps and its current members. While I was fortunate to know all these three classmates, I did not have relationships like this with them at school. Cooking meals, visiting the Jesuit residence, and leading service projects with one another has created an unbreakable bond that I will always cherish. Sharing similar experiences fosters a deep connection and understanding, especially in our communities, where bonds are built through shared history and ongoing, meaningful interactions.
My role as a member of the Alumni Service Corps has allowed me to participate in the Jesuit community much deeper and more meaningfully. Through assisting with the building of community at Jesuit, I have become a better friend, leader, and man for the future.
Simplicity
Community, Spirituality, and Service all reminded me of my time at Jesuit. The one tenet I have reflected on the most this school year has been simplicity. I always thought that I lived a simple life, but after participating in the ASC program, I understand the tenant of living simply more completely and focusing on the important things in life.
Before ASC, I lived in a tiny college “pod” (just a bed against 3 walls and a few feet of extra space for whatever else I wanted). Because of this, I was worried that I would fail to live up to the simplicity tenant. As I started my service to Jesuit, I realized what true simplicity meant. Simplicity is not necessarily the place I live in, but a mindset that I can have. I may live in a larger space than before with more utilities, but I live a much simpler life. I go to Jesuit for the majority of my day then come back with time to rest and relax, without the homework I’ve had to do in the past. My day consists of subbing classes, teaching SJPP, helping in the LRC, and provide all-around aid where needed.
This allows me to focus on the important things in my life: from spending time with others and strengthening my relationships, to taking care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually , and even leading service projects at Jesuit. With nothing to bog my thoughts down, this gives me time to focus on the other three tenets of the ASC program. I have time to spend with my Jesuit community, time to spend in prayer, and even time to spend in service to others. Thanks to the ASC, I have learned what it is truly like to live simply. Simplicity to me allows me to take my service to Jesuit onestep at a time and appreciate the opportunity I have been given.
Spirituality
College was truly a time of exploration and discovering who I am, who I want to be, what I believe in, and so much more. With this newfound freedom, other aspects of my life, like faith, fell to the side. During this time, I lost my connection to the Catholic Church and stopped attending Mass, becoming busy with academics, my future career, friends, my social life, extracurricular activities, on-campus jobs, etc. ASC has allowed me to reestablish my connection to God and redefine my faith in terms of adulthood rather than how I viewed it in high school.
One of the most crucial ways that ASC has helped me find my way back to my faith has been through interacting with the students. Mentoring them through subbing classes, helping in the LRC, assistant coaching, and aiding in service events and retreats allows me to see them grow into young men. Part of the Jesuits' beliefs is seeing God in all things, and the ASC program has helped me to see God in these students. We can guide them through challenges in lifo and classes, develop a mentor relationship with them, and witness them grow, mature, and leam academically and emotionally. Because we're so close in age to them, wer can be the first ones to help them back up and keep going. We have been in their same shoes, and we can help them through their journey.
Coming back to Jesuit includes participating in the communitys many faith-based activities. Being able to add Mass, prayer services, the Examen, and retreats back into my daily life, especially as a part of my work, has helped lead me back to God and establish a strong connection with my falth. Alongside thoso familiar practices has been biweekly dinners with the Jesuits at their home. Celebrating Mass and sharing a home cooked meal with them has helped bring joy and community into my faith, allowing for peaceful, and often very entertaining, conversations with the Jesuits. I look forward to these dinners and love talking with and seeing the Jesults around the school as friendly, welcoming faces.
ASC also offers ways to grow in faith alongside faculty members with monthly Formation Night dinners. Making the dinners together brings us ASC members closer, and the spiritual and personal talks with faculty after the meal are so spocial. We havo the opportunity to learn more about each other in a sacred space, allowing faculty and ASC members to "break bread" together.
Although staff members may be at different places in their lives from us, we can connect with them through shared feelings and experiences, bringing us closer with one another and with God.
In a way, the faculty are still teaching me; from reflecting on their faith journeys, I learn more about what I can apply to my own relationship with God. That is a key part of ASC: leaming and growing in all kinds of ways, especially in faith, just like we do for the rest of our lives.
Service
On the third Wednesday when seniors attended their service sites, I was walking from one of my sites to the other when someone stopped and asked for money to get food and a bus ride to fill a prescription. I was able to tell him to follow me and took him to Aunt Bette's food pantry, where he was able to get two bags of groceries, and then to St. Phillip's Community Care Center, where they could help him with his checkup. This moment was special to me because it felt so much like the old adage on teaching people to fish rather than just meeting their base need once. Now the man I met by chance was introduced to two places where he can regularly go for help.
Being a member of the Alumni Service Corps has made me more equipped to help people with more than just my wallet.
Whether it is the on the ground resources like Aunt Bette's or St. Philips or a greater understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and the issues it seeks to resolve, the ASC program is an eye opener to so many small differences a single person can make that lead to big changes.
With ASC, I have served Jesuit in a myriad of ways. One day, I am helping the Political Society decide what topic they will discuss at their next meeting, to moving cases of water across the school for College Night. Being at Jesuit as an ASC allows me to flex everything from the little bit I remember from geometry with students in the LC, only to finish the day doing something I have never done before like assisting with the organization of a retreat. The opportunity to serve also extends to the various trips coordinated with the Community Service and Social Justice department, chaperoning anywhere from Waco, TX to Guadalajara, Mexico.
Through the completion of all my responsibilities, including both the profound and the simple, I have given back to the community that was important to my development as a man for others. The shift from being a student at Jesuit to being an ASC member reminds me of going from driving on my leamers permit with my parents to driving solo: sometimes it is a lot of fun, other days it can be rather daunting, but there is nothing eise I would rather be doing during this year of formation and service.