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Gonzaga University No. 1 in Producing Alumni who Serve in Jesuit Volunteer Corps
Fall 2008

A total of 19 Gonzaga University alumni have committed to serve in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, the most volunteers produced by any other college or university in the nation, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps reports.

"Your alumni have dedicated themselves to a year or more of simple living and working for social justice in a spiritually supportive community as they walk with people living in poverty or on the margins of society," noted Maggie Conley, national project manager for the JVC.

This year 237 Jesuit Volunteers will minister by teaching students of all ages, providing legal services, working with refugees and immigrants, serving with social services and at community centers, organizing in low-income communities and caring for people with HIV/AIDS. This total marks a 10-percent increase in the number of volunteers for the JVC throughout the nation.

Jesuit Volunteer communities are located in large urban settings such as Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles and in smaller cities such as El Paso, Texas; Portland, Maine; and Raleigh, N.C. The East region of the JVC is the largest this year, commissioning 80 volunteers; 78 volunteers were commissioned by the Southwest; 49 by the South and 30 by the Midwest.

Worldwide, 43 Jesuit Volunteers are fulfilling their two-year commitment to Jesuit Volunteers International (JVI) in locations such as Belize, Nicaragua, Peru, Nepal, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Tanzania. The JVI volunteers will aid the poor in these developing countries while they work in schools, with youth and in parishes.

Since 1956, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps has offered men and women an opportunity to work full-time for justice and peace, both locally and abroad. They are called to the mission of serving the poor directly, working for structural change in the United States and accompanying people in developing countries. The challenge to Jesuit Volunteers is to integrate Christian faith by working and living among the poor and marginalized, by living simply and in community with other Jesuit Volunteers and by examining the causes of social injustice. To date, there are more than 12,00 former Jesuit Volunteers.

More information about the Jesuit Volunteer Corps can be found at its Web site at www.jesuitvolunteers.org or by contacting Todd Dunfield at Gonzaga at (509) 313-6396 or via e-mail at dunfield@gonzaga.edu. For more information about the JVC, images or interviews, contact Maggie Conley at (410) 244-7133 or via e-mail at mconley@jesuitvolunteers.org.

Following are the 19 GU alumni volunteering for JVC this year and their assignments:

1. Anthony Agosti, JVC South

2. Gianna Amsberry, JVC South

3. Kathryn Bates, JVC South

4. Julie Berry, JVC East

5. Anthony DeLorenzo, JVC East

6. Christine Fagnant, JVC East

7. Elizabeth Garnatz, JVC East

8. Sarah Gillespie, JVC South

9. Mary Haupt, JVC Southwest

10. Jacqueline Koch, JVC East

11. Melissa LaFayette, JVC East

12. Luke Lavin, JVI in Micronesia

13. Kyle Leavierliaert, JVC East

14. Matthew Miller, JVI in Micronesia

15. Danielle Rankin, JVC East

16. Emily Roche, JVI in Micronesia

17. Conor Senecal, JVC East

18. John Thompson, JVC East

19. Alexandra Wagner, JVC Midwest