Memories from the 2015-16 Dominican Volunteers

This past week , the 2015-16 Dominican Volunteers completed their ministry. As they prepare for closing retreat in California this week, some volunteers and staff members share their favorite memories of the year and their upcoming plans in the months ahead.

"One of the best memories I have from this year as a Dominican Volunteer was preaching at the commissioning mass for Dominican Colleges Preaching in Action Conference at Siena Heights University in Adrian, MI. It was a beautiful celebration and I was very lucky to be a part of it. I couldn't have written my preaching without the experiences and relationships I've had in my ministry and community. Every person I've gotten to know during my year in Chicago provided me with inspiration to preach to new members of the Dominican Family.
Over the summer, I will be home on Long Island, NY and working with Sr. Gina Fleming and the Dominican Youth Movement USA. Come September, I will be living at the Dominican Volunteers Alumni house in Chicago with two other alumni, Luke Sullivan and Becky Paruszkiewicz. I am still looking for a full time job, but I plan to restart the Dominican Young Adults chapter in Chicago consisting of DVUSA alumni, current Dominican Volunteers in Chicago, Dominican University alumni in the area, and current students at Dominican University. I would like to create a space where we can all share our Dominican faith with members of our Dominican family."
Francesca Pisano

"One great memory: One time, I was visiting one of my elders. She has advanced Alzheimer's and lives on the locked floor of a nursing home. As we were talking, she realized that she had never invited me over to her house, so she led me around the floor and showed me the different rooms of her house. They were actually just the rooms of some (rather confused) other residents, but to her, they were her kitchen, garden, living room, bedroom... everything that made up her home. When we had finished our tour, she approached one of the nurses and announced, "This is my friend!" In the next six months, I will move to Boston and begin my first year in the Economics Ph.D. program at Harvard University.  
Liz Engle 

"Favorite memory: planning and overseeing various retreats and school Masses, and seeing them come to fruition. I am getting married at the end of July and beginning work at Immaculate Conception Academy as a full-time teacher in Academic Literacy & Freshman Religion."

Hannah Abalos




 

"I have many great memories with my community this year but the one that stands out is our community trip to Americus and Plaines, Georgia.  It was a weekend long trip that included a tour of Habitat for Humanity's "global village", a chat with the founder of a fair trade coffee company, and Sunday school with former president Jimmy Carter.  We also stayed at Koinanea farm which is an intentional community that played a role in the civil rights movement.  On top of all this we shared the eye-opening experience of visiting with detainees at an immigration detention center.  As you can see we stayed quite busy during our trip and it was a wonderful weekend of bonding and learning.  For me it has been so fulfilling to spend a year in a community with similar interests as mine and who I have been able to share numerous new experiences with.  As I have been packing my things these past few days I am sad to leave them but am happy to be taking these memories with me.  I am also looking forward to making new memories as I will be doing a second year as a Dominican volunteer with a community in Adrian, Michigan." 
Holly Sammons

"A favorite memory is when I walked into my job as an English tutor for the Interfaith Committee for detained immigrants and someone yelled, 'the professor is here'. I loved my time as an English as a second language teacher and the relationships I have built with my students. I have grown from listening to the perspectives of people from many countries with lives so different from mine. I hope to continue doing nonprofit work in the Chicagoland area."
David Gayes

"My favorite memory from this year is from opening retreat when we played the game rock, paper, scissors evolution, and how into it everyone got. Seeing all of the volunteers posturing like dinosaurs was hilarious."
Margaret Gorman, Executive Director

"There isn't an easy way to break down the good memories in employment in refugee resettlement. I think the overall feeling of being able to help client out to obtain their dreams and their life goals was the most important to me and how special those moment were. I'll always remember them.
As for the next 6 months, I actually got a job at JVC Baltimore as a Program Coordinator and I'll be moving there right after retreat, so I'm really excited about that."
Chris Bargeron

"My favorite memory would be when I discovered the Lasallian Volunteers and really gotten to know them. In the fall, I will be attending Dominican University for their Master Program in Social Work." Brian Manjarraz

 "My favorite memory is sitting along the Hudson pier and watching the sunset with fellow DV Julie!

 I am going back to Ohio to find a job and begin applications to law school! " 
Alandra Scott

"One great memory I had from this volunteer year was celebrating my birthday at Saint James School with my students. They each had made me cards and written about how much they appreciate me. It was such a joy to receive their love. That same day, I went on a field trip with the Kindergartners to the local fire station, which was totally adorable.

Next year, I will be teaching middle school religion at St. Matthew's Catholic School in San Mateo, CA. I'm excited to be staying in the Bay Area, and I am so thankful that Dominican Volunteers has led my life in this direction." 
Grace Urankar

"My fondest memory from this past year was getting to see the Dominican Volunteer community come together for the annual event. I loved hearing our current DVs sing and preach, meeting many of the Dominican Sisters and former Dominican Volunteers, and then dancing with joy all together. It was a great night!"  
Alison Beyer, Program Manager

"As for me, I think a fun memory has to be anything that I did with Alandra.... I think it was a rainy day in February, I always love New York when it rains. Anyways, I just heard back that I was accepted into grad school at BC and I really wanted to take a day to relax and celebrate. So Alandra and I went to yoga in the morning, then to Chelsea Market in the afternoon. We wondered through a book store, and ate gelato and cake! It was such a simple day, but I think that made it all the more magical. It was just another day where I could celebrate how amazing my life has been since I decided to give it all to God, and how grateful I have been for Alandra in my journey as a second year of DVUSA.” 

Julie Iuilano

Bundt Cake and Bananas

Dominican Volunteer Hannah Abalos shares community with the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose at Immaculate Conception Priory.

I get a lot of strange looks when people learn I live in a convent. And almost every time without fail, they have the same question for me: “Do you have a curfew?” To which I smile and tell them about my first week in the convent, when one of the sisters gave me a big wink and told me to go out that night, have a good time, “and don’t come back till 1 AM!” If that doesn’t assuage their skepticism, the fact that I get free room and board certainly does. In San Francisco, that’s solid gold.

Of all the DV communities, mine is the largest. I live with seventeen other women—fifteen religious sisters and two other Dominican Volunteers. Our community is multicultural: we have Mexican sisters, Irish sisters, a Korean sister, a Polish sister, and of course, American sisters. Many of the sisters are San Francisco natives who have seen the city transform before their very eyes. Our community is also intergenerational: being in our early twenties, we DVs bring the average age of the convent way down; the sisters, on the other hand, range in age from 32 to 89.

In general, community life has been good. I've matured immensely as a result of an intergenerational community. The sisters bring so much wisdom from their experiences in life and ministry. They have so many stories to share, from seeing John F. Kennedy the night before he was assassinated, to the much humbler story of Fluffy the (spoiled, beloved) cat. Years from now, I know I’ll think fondly to the times we gathered around the dinner table, simply enjoying each others’ presences. (I’ll also miss the five-second commute to my ministry at Immaculate Conception Academy, but that’s another story.)

Because our community is so big, there is almost always conflict. Personalities grate, for one thing. And things aren’t helped that nearly everyone has a packed schedule between ministry and social life. We recently had our April Community Chapter, where we convened to continue our discussion on Becoming Community. In our meeting, it was brought to our attention that in the hustle and bustle of spring, one sister felt that we seemed to have forgotten what it meant to be part of a community. To participate in common life—especially with regards to housekeeping.

“For example, this morning in the kitchen,” recounted the irate sister, “we had a mango bundt cake out for breakfast. And you know what? There were crumbs left all over the counter. Just left there, for someone else to clean up! And I know that many slices of the bundt cake were eaten, which meant multiple people took a slice and didn’t bother to clean it up! So thoughtless!”

“And here’s another good example,” agreed another sister. “The bananas. We know we’re a community of monkeys based on how quickly the bananas go. But sometimes, someone will take the last banana and they won’t replenish the supply—even though as we all know, there are bananas just waiting in the kitchen closet!”

Galvanized, various sisters started sharing other foibles they had noticed: the community room door left open and unattended—dangerous, in the city; or a sharp knife left in the dishpan, almost causing one sister to cut herself. Sometimes, the culprits even admitted their guilt: “That was me,” said one sister unabashedly when the butter dish was brought up. “All me.”

Some of these points might seem overly fastidious. Fussy, even. But in an intentional community, it’s these little annoyances, born from complacency, that build up and cause friction. They are a manifestation of a shift from a “We” mindset to an “I” mindset. It is perhaps an inevitable shift—but thankfully, not an irreversible one.

From my seat in the community circle, I couldn’t help but notice that the conversation taking place before me was almost exactly the same conversation that had taken place back in September, at my very first community chapter. One might be tempted to look at the two community meetings as evidence of a failed community, thanks to human nature and the impossibility of change. But perhaps there’s a way to look at the situation positively.

If there’s anything that living in community has taught me, it’s that we as humans fail. Constantly. No matter what goals we aspire to as a community (and believe me, we set pretty lofty goals this year), we will always fall short, leaving our community to deal with bundt cake crumbs and hair in the shower drain. It may be age, or forgetfulness, or even selfishness. But whatever the reason behind absent bananas or overflowing garbage bags, what gives me hope is that there is always an opportunity for an act of charity. For redemption. That act of charity might be cleaning up the crumbs myself—or it might be gently confronting my housemate to let her know what she has forgotten. Either way, if I take this opportunity to act with hope, mercy, and patience—and not just turn a complacent or disgusted eye the other way—our community wins. And together, we grow only stronger. In a way, this struggle is holy, for it is not unlike our own dynamic relationships with God.

In the three months I have left here, then, I’ll continue to do my best to be a member of my community. Together, we DVs and the sisters will continue to become community. And, while I’m at it, I’ll make sure I replenish those bananas when I snag the last one for “breakfast-on-the-go”

Hannah and some of her community

Embrace the Unknown

Brian Manjarrez is a current volunteer with the Hope Center in Racine Wisconsin

“At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end.”

This quote has been very inspiring to me ever since I discovered it on my Kairos experience during my senior year of college. For those of you unfamiliar with Kairos, Kairos is a weekend retreat with the aim of providing participants the chance to "contemplate God's role in their lives.” The above quote pushed me to finish my senior year strong and has helped me many times during my volunteer year.

My ministry site is the HOPES Center. The HOPES Center helps those who are homeless and/or have a mental illness by providing counseling and other resources around Racine. It has been a truly eye opening experience to hear clients’ stories. I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to help clients when I can. My coworkers are amazing and have given me wise life advice. I am the only Dominican Volunteer this year in Racine, Wisconsin, which has been difficult at times. There are days that I wish I had another volunteer with me to share my experiences in Racine. I have the Kairos quote on the wall above my bed; this helps remind me every day that I can be sad and cry over the fact that I am the only volunteer – or I can change my approach. I have that power and I will change my story! After my midyear retreat I had to relearn that. It took a while but this is my story, these are my memories, and this is my journey. Sometimes you have to go through things alone to see the big picture. I have no regrets over my decision of coming to Racine. I knew the risks of being the only volunteer; I took the risk and I would probably do it again. I love my ministry site and would never change that.  

Brian and 2 of the sisters with whom he lives in community

Brian and Sr. Christin Tomy singing at a Hope Center event

Through this experience I have figured out my plans for next year. I have been accepted into Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social Work. My hope is to become a high school social worker or counselor. I hope to use what I have learned and experienced during my volunteer year in my future endeavors.

For those of you who are thinking about becoming a Dominican Volunteer, I say to you: Take the risk. Embrace the unknown. Have the power to choose how your story ends. This is a life changing experience. Lastly, have fun.