Encountering Christ through hands-on service and encountering others’ humanity form the two main goals of Jesuit’s Community Service and Social Justice program, CSSJ, and the program always seeks improve these two aspects of service. As CSSJ entered the 2013-2014 school year, Mr. Richard Perry and Mr. Anthony Mattacchione, Assistant Directors of CSSJ, began this extensive process of improving the overall quality of Jesuit’s community service.
Jesuit commences this improvement process every three to four years by re-evaluating both the agencies that Jesuit works with and the social justice curriculum for Seniors. “It’s an extensive process that involves visiting on site with agencies. It means assessing the quality of the experience that our students are having”, says Mr. Perry. A key factor in assessing this is how much time the students spend encountering Christ through others in their service. These agencies must be re-evaluated since Mr. Perry explains that Jesuit is “always trying to build a program in which the majority, maybe even 75%, of our time is spent in that person-to-person service and justice setting.” A great example of one such event, the Notre Dame Christmas Dance, closed the first semester on a strong note of Christian hospitality.
Fifty Jesuit students volunteered on Friday, December 13, 2013 to put on the sixth annual Notre Dame Christmas Dance for 150 alumni and older students in the Notre Dame School’s special education program. This dance “really showcases the pinnacle of what service is all about” because it allows Jesuit students to understand that “although every person is different, we all want to the same in life. We all want to be included. We all want to make friends. We all want to feel welcomed.” Although volunteers were tasked with different duties, they all had one mission in common, to be ambassadors for Christ and for Jesuit.
Seniors Cory Hazelbaker and Jeff Melsheimer share their views on preparations and how they carry out CSSJ’s mission through serving in the dance. Melsheimer, whose service site is the Notre Dame School, says, “I am pretty much required to be there, but to be honest, because of the bonds I develop with these kids, I would have volunteered anyways.”
Since Jesuit students already knew how to act when serving other, training didn’e take a large amount of time. Cory, a member of the Ignatian Service Corps homeroom, expresses his passion for serving others through leading school-wide community service events and says, “I know the kids’ attitudes and their joy really are the highlight of the event.” This dance represents a highly successful end to the year as CSSJ closes one door and enters a completely different one with whole new set of challenges.
After 2013 ends on a positive note, the re-evaluation process will shift slightly during the second semester. Starting in February, Mr. Mattacchione and Mr. Perry will start looking at the summer service initiatives, at the Special Games Field Day, which is held at the end of the school year, and at leadership clubs for the Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior levels.
This transition period includes looking at Senior service positions for current Jesuit Juniors so that Jesuit can end the year with a completely revamped Community Service and Social Justice Program. But serving Christ never ends with the our last school day in May as it extends into the summer through the service work done by students, who represent Christ through their commitment.
