Jesuits’ Alum Service Corps Opens to Jesuit University Grads

The Jesuits of the Missouri Province have decided to open their innovative Alum Service Corps (ASC) to include graduates of Jesuit universities. For the past 21 years the ASC has placed more than 200 graduates of Jesuit high schools in post-college service opportunities as faculty members in Jesuit middle and high schools throughout Denver, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Now this unique opportunity for a year of Ignatian service will be available to graduates of Jesuit universities as well. In the last decade the ASC has expanded its program to serve Loyola Academy Middle School in St. Louis, Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver, and the Girls Division of Regis Jesuit High School, also in Denver.

Expanding eligibility for the Alum Service Corps to include graduates of Jesuit universities forges stronger bonds between all levels of Jesuit education. Drawing ASC Volunteers from a spectrum of Jesuit schools emphasizes the common Jesuit mission that inspires every Jesuit institution and motivates all Ignatian service. The decision to include graduates of Jesuit universities follows the address to Jesuit universities given by Father Adolfo Nicholas, SJ the Jesuit Superior General, who called for greater networking of Jesuit schools, particularly Jesuit universities:

Can we not go beyond the loose family relationships we now have as institutions, and re-imagine and re-organize ourselves so that, in this globalized world, we can more effectively realize the uni­versality which has always been part of Ignatius’ vision of the Society [of Jesus]?

This year 14 women and men serve in the ASC at seven unique Jesuit educational settings. ASC Volunteers teach across the full spectrum of academic departments and are involved in an even wider array of athletics, pastoral, and other co-curricular activities. Once a week they gather with their school’s Jesuit community for Mass and dinner. ASC Volunteers are acclimated to their year of service through a two week orientation that introduces the core ASC values of Simplicity, Community, and Ignatian Spirituality, and they are given opportunities to reflect on their service experience through Ignatian retreats throughout the year. Essentially, ASC Volunteers model for students at Jesuit schools what it means to be “men and women for others.”

For more information contact the ASC office at asc@jesuits-mis.org, or 314-758-7156.