My Journey To The Tenderloin

Wednesday marked my 3 year anniversary of moving to the west coast. Exactly three years ago, I hugged my family goodbye at the Philadelphia airport and hopped on a plane, bound for San Jose. Other than a short stint Down Under while studying abroad, I had never spent more than a few weeks away from my hometown. Now I was on my way to California for my orientation to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps before moving to Phoenix, Arizona where I was to spend my year in service to the poor. As is the case with most life-altering experiences, I had no idea how the course of my life would be changed through my one short year as a volunteer.

You see, just months earlier I had graduated from a little known university, Saint Joseph’s, with an even lesser known degree, Food Marketing. I had been a business student. A business student who enjoyed learning about marketing strategies and consumer behavior in the classroom, but really savored the opportunities to participate in Appalachian service projects and justice awareness campaigns on campus. While I enjoyed volunteering and partaking in service-oriented projects, I had always considered them to be extra-curricular, separate from my professional goals. Even as I applied and was accepted into the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, I assumed that I was just taking a small detour from the ever-important five year plan, and assured myself (and my parents) that I would soon return to my intended future in the corporate world.

In JVC, I was assigned to work at a children’s program on-site at an emergency shelter for homeless families. There I did everything from teaching pre-school lessons to washing laundry; changing diapers to sending programmatic funding reports…. not exactly a glamorous or even a clear-cut job. Each day was filled with new tasks, new questions, and new crises. It took me over an hour to get to the shelter each day, the work was never-ending once I did get there and I did it all for free. The work was difficult, both mentally and spiritually, and it was humbling. Despite this, or perhaps precisely because of this, that year turned out to be one of the most defining years of my young life. I looked past my own challenges and frustrations and saw into the hearts of the children, their parents and the families with whom I worked. I shifted my energy into understanding their challenges, and appreciating their frustrations. The turning point was the moment that I realized that working for justice and serving the poor didn’t have to be a side job; that my profession and my passion could be one in the same. JVC’s well-known adage is “ruined for life” and I was certainly that. My views of the world, my perceptions and the pre-conceived notions I had carried with me were beaten down and broken down, never to be the same again.

Soon after this epiphany, I felt a strong calling and fierce urgency to continue my journey in San Francisco and be among the poor, to fight both with and for them in seeking justice. I wanted to serve them while also standing beside them in solidarity. Remembering the seeds that had been planted in me during my formative teenage and college years, I also wanted to find a way to work with students and inspire them to use their talents and interests in ways that better the community. I applied for what felt like a thousand jobs before finding a job description for an organization called St. Anthony Foundation. I read that St. Anthony’s was a non-profit social services organization that serves both the newly poor as well as the chronically homeless. An organization that serves thousands by providing free clothing, and free medical services, assists clients in job-searching and offers recovery programs for those suffering from the disease of addiction and does it all without a dime from the government. It fights immediate hunger daily in the Dining Room while also fighting against the root causes of hunger and societal factors that perpetuate poverty. The available position was one that connected these and other service programs at St. Anthony’s with volunteers, interns and service-learners. It made reflection and education a priority in addition to direct service. Call it happenstance (although I prefer to call it fate) that 2 interviews and another 3000 mile flight later, I had became St. Anthony Foundation’s newest Education Outreach Coordinator. I am no marketing executive or regional store manager as my degree might have suggested some years ago, and for that I have to say, I am grateful. I am grateful for my experiences at Saint Joseph’s that led me to joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I am grateful for my work in JVC that led me to the Tenderloin and I am grateful to St. Anthony’s who allows me the opportunity to combine my passion for social justice, service and education into one ideal profession.

Wednesday marked the anniversary of a 3-year journey of soul-searching and service that has led me to where I stand today. On Saturday I will drive back to San Jose where it all began, to greet this year’s new Jesuit Volunteers. I can only wonder how this next year might “ruin them for life.”