Through the Eyes of a Child 02/15/2012
 by Lilla Hassan
Lilla is a Loretto Volunteer working as a Site Coordinator at For Love of Children, which provides tutoring and educational services to students in D.C. When you are young, everyone asks you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was younger, my answer was a doctor. The person who I look up to as one of the most virtuous beings in my life is my father, and he is a doctor. I was born in a place that for centuries has been the center of religion and politics: Rome, Italy. My family is originally from Somalia, but my parents moved to Italy in their 20’s to attend medical school. When I was six, my family made the decision to move to the States in search of a better education for me and my two brothers. Even as a young child, I operated under the assumption that if I worked hard, any goal was well within my reach. However, my perception shifted dramatically after a single day working at For Love of Children. Add Comment Reflection on Simplicity 01/11/2012
 by Kathleen Stephan
Kathleen Stephan is a Loretto Volunteer serving as a legal and social services case manager at Bread for the City. As Loretto Volunteers we are called to live a life of simplicity. I began thinking about this concept after I graduated from college in the spring of 2010. I had committed to a year in El Paso, Texas with the Border Servant Corps- a community based program with a similar mission to Loretto. Throughout my year in El Paso, I was amazed to realize that simplicity brings forth generosity. My trust in community grew and slowly I began to let go of my fears of not having enough. Our kitchen was never empty and the table was always full. I left the desert with an understanding that our society reveres convenience. We, as people, have immediate access to anything. It is a hard truth but my commitment to simplicity has required me to rescind my entitlement to convenience. The Quiet Moments 11/29/2011
 Molly is a Loretto Volunteer serving as Program Assistant/Activities Coordinator at Bethany Women's Center at N Street Village. Hello, my name is Molly Chamberlain and I am a Loretto Volunteer living in Junia House in Washington, DC. For those of you who identify with the Enneagram, I am a 3. You may have already guessed that this brief reflection took weeks to compose because, as a three, I was preoccupied with the message it would send about me and the house (especially after Anne's brilliant piece). This reflection comes to you several months into my volunteer year and I couldn't be a in a better place. A Recipe For Fun 10/25/2011
 by Anne Lacher, Loretto Volunteer
Anne is currently serving as a Loretto Volunteer at WATER, the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual. A 1, a 3, a 7, an 8, and a 9 walked into a house. No, this is not a joke. The house is Junia, and we, the Loretto Volunteers, are as different as night and day and everything in between. After an exhausting week spent baring our souls and sharing our pasts, we set off across the knobby hills of Kentucky and through the Appalachian Mountains, bound for our new home in Mount Rainier, Maryland. The Motherhouse had armed us with our Enneagram numbers, nailing down our personality types, communication styles, and behavioral patterns. No two women were the same; five volunteers, five personality types, one house. A recipe for disaster? A Safe and Welcoming Place 03/15/2011
 by Ellen Nieman, Loretto Volunteer Ellen is currently serving as a Loretto Volunteer at Bethany Women’s Center in N Street Village, a day shelter for women experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC. We are N Street Village. We are a community of respect, recovery and hope. We create a safe and welcoming place with our words and our actions. We expect kindness and we value honesty and diversity. -N Street Village Statement of Culture and Community We say this statement every morning at N Street, squeezed in between a blessing offered by someone in the community and the Serenity Prayer. It is just a brief moment of calm after the chaos which the lock removed from the door brings and before the rush of breakfast, but it is a powerful moment of unity. These words, led by the most powerful voices and filled in by the rest with a musical lilt, ring through the small space of Bethany Women's Center and I wonder what they mean to the women sitting, waiting, and repeating these words for yet another day. by Abbey Schumacher, Loretto Volunteer
As I reflect upon my fourth experience at the gates of Ft. Benning this past November, I am reminded of a sticker I saw on the back of a man’s jacket during my second visit to Georgia. It read: “I can’t believe I’m still protesting this crap.” I am also reminded of Amy Goodman’s interview with Frida Berrigan on the 64th anniversary of the nuclear bomings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 2009. Speaking about a speech her father, lifelong peace activist Philip Berrigan, gave in 2002, Frida said, “At the end of that speech…my dad says, ‘Don’t get tired. Don’t get tired.’ And I think that’s really an important message at this moment… And so, activism, being out in the streets, being with other people, is part of not getting tired. And it is what enlivens and enriches and motivates us to continue going, even when things are bleak.” Climate Justice in Mexico 11/30/2010
Our UN volunteer Andrea has just headed to Mexico for the latest UN climate talks. Her goal: to make sure the people who are most affected by climate change get their voices heard at the negotiations. Here's a highlight from her first blog post on her trip: "Yesterday I took part in the first forum for communities affected by climate change, hosted by GCAP and Feminist Task Force. Indigenous women from Oaxaca talked about how the changing environment is affecting their villages. The women have been dealing with a rapidly rising river, some thing no one has experienced in over a hundred years. As result of the river rising there has been severe landslides, ruined crops and disruptions to basic community life and family structures." Read the whole thing here. Andrea, you're doing us proud! Working for Church Justice 11/29/2010
Loretto Volunteers Emily Cohen and Kelly Stewart reflect on their experiences at the Call to Action Conference in Milwaukee, WI earlier this month.  Kelly and Emily at the Lincoln Memorial Kelly Stewart, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, graduated from Middlebury College in May with a B.A. in Psychology and a double minor in Religion and Russian Literature & Culture. Kelly believes she became a feminist on the day her counselors at John Carroll Summer Day Camp told her and the rest of the eight-year-old girl campers that, while the boys would spend the afternoon playing sports outside, the girls would remain indoors to braid hair, at which point Kelly burst forth with, “That’s ridiculous!” and had to spend the afternoon silently in the cafeteria with the other delinquents. These early signs of deviancy foreshadowed her later interest in women’s issues, which developed into a broader interest in justice issues related to gender and sexuality. New Ways Ministry, where she has worked since the end of August, has been a great place to explore these issues from a faith perspective.
Open Ears, Open Heart 11/02/2010
 Lauren Talley - Assistant Producer, Interfaith Voices
I can trace my interests in journalism to early high school, maybe even a little earlier. I vaguely considered being a TV news anchor in seventh grade when I visited the CNN building in Atlanta. In high school I worked on the school newspaper, and in college I started out doing the same—at least until sophomore year. It was then that a professor first introduced me to National Public Radio or at least, it was the first time I liked it. Before that, NPR had always been the boring talk radio I asked my parents to change so I could hear pop music instead. That summer I interned at Michigan Radio—the state’s NPR affiliate located in my hometown, Ann Arbor. The next summer it was Chicago Public Radio and then to the local radio station in East Lansing, home of Michigan State University, my alma mater. New Eyes at the United Nations 10/15/2010
 Andrea Solazzo - Intern at Loretto at the UN
I am very excited and grateful to begin my volunteer position at the United Nations. Thus far it has been a month filled withexcitement, transition and new information. I have only started to learn about the many tasks and opportunities available for exploration during my time with Loretto. My first day at the UN was filled with committee meetings and learning about the role I could play over the next 8 months! The first meeting we attended was hosted by the Unitarian Universalists. We learned about the relationship between faith-based organizations and, and how the LGBT rights are included in the rhetoric of the United Nations. It was inspiring to hear people from all different religious backgrounds discuss the importance of LGBT rights on an International level and their referencing of actual international law documents to justify their positions. |
