FrancisCorps Orientation

Greetings from Syracuse!

For the past week and a half, I have been at FrancisCorps Orientation with the 10 other volunteers for this year. 5 of us will be flying to Costa Rica on Sunday 9/4 to begin our ministries there, while 6 are staying here in Syracuse to serve.  Our orientation began with dinner with our families and a commissioning mass last weekend.

FrancisCorps 13 at commissioning mass

On Monday, we started our week-retreat at Alverna Heights retreat center, just outside Syracuse. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and weather, as well as a relaxing introduction to Franciscan Spirituality, goals and objectives for our year, and many good meals. One of my favorite things about Franciscans so far is their “pre-prandials” ritual. Basically, this is a fancy word for cocktail hour. Before dinner, they sit with their community, a few beers (or glasses of wine...) and socialize. Meals together have been long, slow, relaxed, and very enjoyable - not to mention delicious! 

I played with the settings on my new camera to take pictures of the beautiful property!

We took a hike to the "green lakes"...gorgeous! 

Later in the week, we piled in the vans and drove south to Seaside Heights, NJ (home of The Jersey Shore!)  We stayed at a Franciscan parish there (and a few of us in a nearby motel - complete with a pool and cable!) and enjoyed the weather before the wrath of Hurricane forced us out on Friday.

Our group on the boardwalk!

Excitement about Costa Rica is setting in!

Since then, we’ve had a good bit of down-time. We have done a little bit more orientation (taking personality tests, talking about community building, and enjoying more yummy meals), but have mostly spent time bonding and hanging out in the Syracuse volunteer house. The Syracuse community started work on Monday, so the “Costa Rica Chicas,” as they call us, have had a really relaxing week so far!

So far, orientation has been wonderful. The staff is so dedicated to our group, and our group is meshing really well! I'm looking forward to the relationship between the Syracuse and Costa Rica groups. More soon, I promise!

Home!

For the past two weeks, I have been home in Cherry Hill, recovering from the whirlwind end of JVC and preparing for Costa Rica. I was able to celebrate my birthday with my family, spend time in Boston with many BC friends, celebrate Andrew and Daniela's wedding with my family in New York City, and hang out with some friends from home. All in all it's been a really nice but busy two weeks.  I'm off to Syracuse in the morning where I will be at FrancisCorps Orientation until we fly down to Costa Rica on Setpember 3rd. I imagine I'll have phone access until I leave, but after that, e-mail and skype are the best ways to contact me! Thanks for reading along...please keep me and my new community in your prayers in the next few weeks!

Celebrating with Mego & Jenny

Congrats!!

The Foran Cousins!

Allison & Ryan! Friends since age 5!

Full Circle

On Sunday, my year as a Jesuit Volunteer came to an end. I left Casa Dorothy Kazel early in the morning and flew home from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. It was my 23^rd Birthday, exactly one year after I flew across the country in the opposite direction to begin Orientation in San Jose. It was kind of poetic celebrating the beginning and the end of my JV year on my birthday, don’t you think? It also means that it was emotional. Last summer, I was excited about JVC but was also anxious, alone, and missing BC.  This year, I am excited about my next step, but terribly sad about leaving the friends I’ve made this year.  There’s no anxiety but there’s a lot of love that’s been grown this year.

My last week in LA was full of celebrations. The JVs in LA spent as much time as we could together; almost every night we did something as a group!

We celebrated Emily after she preached for the last time at her church in Hollywood on Sunday.

 We celebrated all the time we've spent together.

We celebrated all the fun things we've done this year.

We celebrated our last papusas. 

We celebrated our last dinner as a house at a Japanese BBQ Restaurant.

We celebrated the things we will miss about LA, like In-N-Out & Yougurtland.

We celebrated all our coworkers over lunch with a gang from Verb.

We celebrated the transitions at Urban Compass.

We celebrated our landlord, Al.

We celebrated my birthday.

We celebrated being FJVs.

One of the exciting things, and also challenges, thaa comes with leaving the LA JV community is that we will now be all over the country doing all sorts of things. My friends will be in LA, Berkley, Lincoln, NYC, D.C., Philly, Detroit, El Paso, Dallas, Nashville, Boston, Minneapolis, and Springfield.  This means there are lots of fun visits in the future, especially while friends are going to be in one place for a while for grad school and new jobs. 

Thank you to everyone who has been part of my JV experience. This year has been filled with so many blessings!

Kat and Emily's birthday party pre DisO

Denial is not healthy.  Lately, it’s been getting harder to meet the enthusiasm of friends who ask me if I am getting excited for Costa Rica. Deep down, I am thrilled; I know this is the right next step for me and I am so looking forward to the experience. But for now, I am trying hard to focus on the present (and I think I’m doing pretty well!) I have one week left in Los Angeles as a Jesuit Volunteer. You probably wouldn’t hear me say that out loud; I’ve been trying to avoid facing the “end” of my year here. Yet after this weekend’s DisOrientation retreat, our last JVC retreat, I am realizing that to make a healthy transition from LA to home to FrancisCorps, I need to honor the end of this incredible experience.

We have been busy as a house, trying to wrap up and start the goodbye process. Last week we went out to dinner with our support person Krista and her boyfriend, Erik. We reminisced about the year and talked about future plans over $3 margaritas.  She and Maria have been a wonderful resource for us as a house this year, and it was sad to say goodbye. I was also able to go see Julie’s brother perform with the Philadelphia Boys Choir at a church in Orange County last week; I remember seeing their Christmas concerts when I was little and it was fun to meet another member of Julie’s family. Her dad and uncle were out earlier this month and we had a blast hanging out with them.

The boys singing our anthem, "Colder Weather"

Our final JVC retreat was last weekend in Orange County. I was not looking forward to it at all, mostly because of the ridiculous level of denial that I am experiencing. It turned out to be fun, though. The Los Angeles JVs took over two cabins at the campground and hung out pretty exclusively (oops!) for most of the weekend. The site had a pool and an amazing outdoor chapel, and Emily from JD gave an amazing talk to kick of the retreat. Overall it was a good time, especially because the LA crew spent the last day on the beach since we didn’t have to travel much!

Casa DK pride at DisO

About two weeks ago, I was reminded of what a blessing our small LA Jesuit Volunteer Community is. Earlier this month, Hannah from Casa Jean Donovan lost her father. She was able to be home since she lives in Orange County, and I was moved when I saw a full row of JVs in the church at both the Rosary Vigil and Funeral. Please keep Hannah and her family in your prayers.

Urban Compass Summer Camp ended yesterday and was a blast. We took the kids on field trips every day after doing some academics in the morning. We went bowling, miniature golfing, to a concert, to parks, museums, surfing, swimming, and to movies. It was hectic keeping them under control and in the right place, but we have a great staff and a lot of volunteers who have been helping us out every day.  On one of my favorite days we tye-dyed shirts, decorated kites and made cookies! We also had a drum set donated to us, which has been a LOT of fun, especially for the older boys.

Today, we helped Casa Jean Donovan move into the upstairs of our house. Their house is closing next year an their community is merging with ours; my house will now hold 8 people (JVC has rented the apartment upstairs in addition to our floor). It's really sad for them to be moving out of their house, and has also been a lot of work. They are champs!

I don't know what I'll do without Emily!

Yesterday I said a final goodbye to all my students, all the volunteers that helped us this summer, as well as 3 of the LA JVs who are leaving this weekend. I also said goodbye to my friend Matt from BC who I’ve been able to see a bunch of times out here. All the goodbyes are surreal; I don’t “feel” them on the inside yet because there is so much else going on, but I’m really sad about leaving all these people that I’ve grown to know and love this year. With one week left, I will be trying my hardest to be present, be attentive, and be loving. It’s been a good ride! I’ll have more updates once I’m home and have time (though, there’s not much of it!).

Baby, You're a Firework

Hours after my last day of school, the Zippilli family rolled into town for a week in Los Angeles. We spent a few nights in Santa Monica and I got to play tour-guide and show them around.  I really enjoyed showing them everything that has been "home" to me this year. Later in the week we spent a few days poolside on Coronado Island, enjoying beautiful weather and much-needed time to relax for all four of us.  We did a little sightseeting in San Diego as well and enjoyed the week together. A highlight of the week was having dinner with my family and my housemates at a restaurant near USC. I was glad they all got to know each other a little bit, and we had a lot of fun!

Next up was 4th of July weekend! At Casa DK, we seized the opportunity and threw our first themed party of the year: JVC Prom. Everyone was encouraged to dress up in their thrift-store finest. The prom's theme was Never Never Land (inspired by the boys' favorite movie, Hook) so some people dressed for that! We gave out superlatives to all the LA JVs and some other friends.  My good friend from BC, Erin, was also in town which was amazing; she got to meet all my JV friends and come to Prom! The next day, many of the JVs came back for an impromptu BBQ and to watch fireworks from our roof. We got to see shows all over the city; it was really cool!

DK ready for prom!

Me and Erin!

This week was the first week of Summer Camp. We have the kids from 9am until 3 or 4 in the afternoon four days a week. For the first hour, we do academic work and then take the kids on field trips to places all around LA. We started camp on Wednesday with a half day, and then went to the California Science Center/IMAX and Griffith Park & LA Zoo. The kids had a wonderful time and are just so excited about the trips. For the most part, they were incident-free, though chasing after my group of 12 6-7 year-olds is exhausting no matter what.

That's all for now, more to come soon!

My Kids Rock.

Happy LDOC, 112th St.! Today was the Last Day Of Classes (LDOC is a phrase we coined at BC) for the LA Unified School District. This is a quick, frantic, emotional post to say how proud I am of my students!

The Original Song they played

This week was CRAZY busy getting ready for summer camp before my week off with my family (woo!). In the midst of my busiest season yet, I went to both the Kindergarten and 5th grade culminations to see my kids. The ceremonies were in Verb's gym, about 20 feet from my office. The kids and their families were all dressed up. The best part of it all was that almost ALL my students were involved in the ceremony, honored, or awarded something. I still feel so proud and get teary-eyed thinking about it!

During the kindergarten celebration, our star student commanded the attention of the room and kicked off the culmination by leading the Pledge of Allegience. She was adorable, and oddly professional.  In the 5th grade ceremony, two of my students gave speeches, one had perfect attendance this year, one had perfect attendance for grades K-5 (can you imagine that?! he got the biggest trophy!), another got an exceptional citizenship award and was the "valedictorian" of the class for his perfect standardized test scores for the past two years. I'm not really sorry for bragging a little...these kids amazed me.

It gets better. Today, after a busy morining with Megan and Annie, our summer interns/board member & future program director (they're awesome and are the future of Urban Compass!), we went out to lunch with Theresa. Then, after a chill afternoon of playtime and crafts, they surprised me with handmade cards from each of them since it was my last day of the after school program. Of course Theresa had been orchestrating this all week, and got me flowers and a little certificate too.  Three of the third graders also wrote a song about me. (I can send you the link if you want to see the cutest thing ever!)

Today made me realize just how close I've become to these students, and how blessed I am to have been let into their lives. They are crazy kids, but they deal with a lot at home and at the end of the day, they're just kids like we all were. I love them and will miss them a lot. They had great questions about my next job, and some were really excited that I would be working in a school "where they only speak Spanish." I had to laugh at that.

The thing that really got me was a card from my favorite fourth grader. You might remember her from my post about Christmas...she was the one who told me that she knew Santa wasn't real because she didn't get any presents. Well, this particular girl is moving to a better neighborhood with her uncle for fifth grade, and will be in Mexico for the summer so she won't be at camp.  In her card, she wrote a lot of thank you's and "I love you like an auntie," but the line that got me was "I never told anyone else about my family's problems"...how does that not make you cry? I am going to miss her so much. Goodbye's are so hard, especially to these kids who have so much life before them and so much growing up to do.

Thank you, kiddos, for an amazing year. Here's to a great summer too!

June Happenings

Since my last round of updates, we have reached the “beginning of the end” of our JVC year. I can already tell that the next weeks will fly by and be filled with many exciting events and emotions.  Grad night in Disneyland was followed by Verbum Dei’s Baccalaureate Mass and Graduation, held at LMU’s chapel and the Cathedral respectively.  Urban Compass honored two seniors for their dedication to volunteering with us this year at the mass and gave then (small) scholarships.  Both services were beautiful and I felt proud to be part of the Verb community and flattered by how inclusive they have been to me this year.

Flowers from Verb at the Bacc Mass

More books were donated to us than we could give away! Amazing!

At work, we are picking up speed as the school year is winding down. My days have been quite busy with compiling an end of the year parent survey, managing donations of books from a school in Pasadena, and preparing for summer camp. The kiddos have been crazy now that the end of the year is in sight. We took them on a field trip last Saturday to the Santa Monica Pier, and their rides, games, lunch, and snacks were provided by the Water Buffalo Club. They had a blast at the amusement park and aquarium. My group of 10 seven year olds was out of control, but what can you expect, I guess? Sugar + Rides + Crowds = Chaotic small children.

An exciting decision was made at our board meeting a few weeks back. The board approved the creation of an Executive Director position and offered it to Theresa, so she will be transitioning to the new role starting in August. This means she will be hiring a Program Director to be in charge of the daily program, and Theresa will be responsible for fundraising, planning, marketing, etc for Urban Compass.

My group at the Santa Monica Pier...pre-chaos.

On the home front, we have been celebrating lots of birthdays lately! We had a beach volleyball party for one JV last weekend and went out for Happy Hour and Karaoke for Cara’s birthday this week. This weekend our dear 4Runner Barney broke down, so we are waiting to see what will happen to him. No matter what, Barney has served us well so far this year! And I’m glad we decided not to drive to Tucson on Friday night…breaking down in the middle of the desert wouldn’t have been nearly as convenient as breaking down in Chinatown, only 5 miles from home!

Happy Father’s Day! More updates soon!