For the past year and a half as a CBL student and now an intern, I have had the opportunity to work with community partners at the St. Mary Center and the Worcester Transition Program.\u00a0 At both sites, I have met so many amazing people and have learned so much from their experiences.\u00a0 I truly am blessed to be a part of this community-based learning community.<\/p>\n
At the St. Mary Center, I visited with a retired Navy Commander who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; a true American hero to say the least.\u00a0 He ushered me into my own military career through stories of his time in the Surface Fleet.\u00a0 Over the summer, however, he passed away in his early 90\u2019s; an age I can only hope to reach one day.\u00a0 At approximately 7:00 pm on New Year\u2019s Eve two weeks ago, I was riding home from an early dinner with my family to celebrate another year when I received a phone call from an unknown number with a Massachusetts area code.\u00a0 It was my resident\u2019s wife who I had not spoken to in several months as she had a stay in the hospital and did not have any visitors.\u00a0 In this phone call, she let me know that she was feeling better and was ready to have visitors again.\u00a0 She wants me to be one of those visitors.\u00a0 As I miss my resident, I am thrilled to finally meet his wife who he spoke so fondly of and tell her how much of an impact her husband of almost seventy years has had on my life.<\/p>\n
With this phone call, I see an opportunity to realize how blessed I am to have found a mentor through Professor Ryan\u2019s class, the CBL Office, Sandy Geller of St. Mary\u2019s, and many others.\u00a0 This experience has allowed me to begin to see the purpose of Jesuit higher education and the strong emphasis on community engagement.\u00a0 From these experiences, I see what it means to care for those on the margins of society.\u00a0 I am excited to continue to form these new relationships and help other Holy Cross students find and reflect on their own experiences in the Worcester Community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the past year and a half as a CBL student and now an intern, I have had the opportunity to work with community partners at the St. Mary Center and the Worcester Transition Program.\u00a0 At both sites, I have met so many amazing people and have learned so much from their experiences.\u00a0 I truly … <\/p>\n