During my first year at Loyola, I realized my passion for service. I attended Saturday of Service, a welcome week event in which first year students support the Rogers Park community by outreach and service. My friends and I formed a group and were assigned the task of picking up trash in the neighborhood. I not only built community with my friends, but I also felt more connected to the Rogers Park community as people said hi or offered us water on the warm day. I also became involved in Campus Ministry through the Alternative Break Immersion program. I had the opportunity to go to Bethlehem Farm in West Virginia. Bethlehem Farm is an intentional living community rooted in four pillars: community, service, faith and simplicity. While we built community and deepened our faiths with other college students, we provided affordable home repair to people in Appalachia. We worked on siding, roofs and ramps, so people could have a better standard of living.

In addition to service, I continued my commitment to growing in my faith. I became involved with the Catholic Students' Organization, a student group that met to live out our Catholic identity. I found a great community in CSO and it propelled me to be a leader. After a year as a member of the organization, I took a leadership position and really began my vocation as a servant leader rooted in my faith.