Juan Diego CHS seniors impact community with week of volunteer service at 30 local agencies

Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

DRAPER — One school, 234 seniors each offering 40 hours of volunteer work: If each hour were paid at minimum wage, that would translate to more than $67,000 donated in one week to 30 different agencies throughout Utah by Juan Diego Catholic High School seniors as part of a metamorphosis of the service program of the school.

Dave Brunetti, JDCHS’ director of Campus Life, led this effort Jan. 4-8 with the goal to fully engage the students in the participation of a meaningful service. 

The school requires graduating seniors to have 100 volunteer hours in the community; “some traveled the world in humanitarian missions, others did the bare minimum,” Brunetti said, and “we were concerned that most of our students never came in contact with those most vulnerable members of our society. It’s one thing to prepare students for college and career, quite another to teach them to care.”

Molly Dumas, the schools’ advancement director, agreed with Brunetti.

“The only way that the students can get a real experience is through service,” she said, adding that the students have gained sensitivity from being able to immerse themselves in helping those in need for a full week. 

This was the first time that Juan Diego seniors have spent a full week with local charities that serve the most marginalized members of the society. 

Before heading to their chosen agency, they were provided a handbook with details of each of the 30 organizations, describing the mission and specific projects for seniors to select.

“We have to be counter-cultural. More than teaching kids empathy, we need to empower them to put compassion into action and challenge the powerful to care for all,’ said Brunetti.

Among the agencies at which the students served were Catholic Community Services, the Utah AIDS Foundation, and  Jordan Valley School; they served disabled veterans, the elderly, and refugee children, and used their technology skills to revamp websites and create social media outreach.

“It’s been really helpful to have the students,” said Jen Nguyen, the volunteer coordinator at the YWCA.

Having the students for an entire week was useful because sometimes just the process of figuring a project takes at least an hour, she said, “so it’s been so wonderful to have them. We have tackled a lot of work.” 

Nguyen added that the fact that the students were young men and women was a reflection of empowering and creating well-rounded people.

At the YWCA, “Most of the people that come here for help, they come in the middle of the night; they may only have their pajamas on,” Dumas said. “Trying to limit the trauma that those women and their children are in is critical, and this is making a difference. They [the seniors] have made a profound impact in this experience.”

Maddie Colosimo and Tristen Hamell were among the seniors serving at the YWCA.

For Colosimo, volunteering “is part of who we are as a school. It’s one of the main reasons of why we are having this service project in first place, and it goes with our school motto, which is ‘The Spirit of Giving.”

She thinks that is great that they have the opportunity to develop giving skills, “so when we are older in life you know how to really serve and be there for the ones in need,” she said. “My vision of the world is now different; I see things in another light – more positive than before, and it has been part of this experience.”

“Domestic violence is such a big problem and people don’t talk about it enough, and I think what they are doing here is so great for all these women, they are making the situation better,” Hamell said. “And helping here has made me feel better. You never know the stories; maybe someone that you know might end here at some point, so it’s important that we help as much or as little as we can.”

Dumas said that the week-long volunteer experience has helped to teach the students about the real meaning of service.

“We are very good at the school teaching and preparing our students for college, but we needed them to be stronger in their sense of compassion and in their faith, and this is a huge part of the faith. ... There are students that have said, ‘I really get it now; I can see Jesus in them.’ To hear a teenager say  that. ... They are hearing the words from their theology teacher, they are hearing the words from the pope, but now it is all coming together. It has been really a good, rounded experience,” said Dumas.

Another reason for the volunteering is that “Pope Francis urges all of us, not just Catholics, to be merciful and be bold in our compassion for others,” added Brunetti.