Service: a part of life.

Katie Strusiak
Event Analysis #2

As I swim in the pool teaching the children of St. Ambrose Outreach Program, I realize that the service I put forward with these kids is more then just community service, but a way to pass on the Jesuit tradition.
As Kolvenbach states in his “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education”, service plays a major role of the Jesuit life. By putting others before yourself and working for the great good, the Jesuit lifestyle should follow you everywhere. So when I return home for the summer, my Jesuit ways are there with me, guiding me to become a better person.
Kolvenbach states: “Jesuit education has sought to educate ‘the whole person’ intellectually and professionally, morally and spiritually.” I find this point is highly represented at Loyola, from the start to my freshmen year, till now, I’ve learned to become more active in community service. I thank my teachers and fellow students for passing on the inspiration. I feel that this inspiration is a key aspect of the Jesuit tradition. Without their inspiration, Loyola’s campus would be like any other private college in the United States.
When I was teaching the first and second graders of the St. Ambrose Community, I found that the children were very eager to learn. They all told me stories of their brothers, sisters and friends who have taken swim lessons, and how they always wanted to be like them. I also taught the swim lessons last year to those brothers, sisters, and friends. So knowing that the children are passing on the skills they learned, reflects the Jesuit tradition by spreading the way of service, weather or not they believe in the Jesuit believes doesn’t matter, just that they pass on the justice and humility that people share towards them.
The Jesuit lifestyle is like a line of domino’s, and when the first domino falls and knocks the rest down, is like when one person does service and then the person they helped out goes out and does service. This chain of humility allows the Jesuit system to keep increasing in numbers. Not only at Jesuit institutions, but everywhere.